Unable to Restore to Factory Settings - Inspiron 17R 5721

Question

My customer has an Inspiron 17R 5721.  She got tangled up in iYogi and nothing works right.  So I am attempting to restore to factory but have been unsuccessful.  I can't get Dell Backup and Recovery to work since it's been upgraded to Windows 8.1 from factory Win8.  I tried to install the latest Backup software but it fails with 'factorysetup error 5'.  I can't get F8 to work to try to find it in that menu so I updated the BIOS to the latest A12.  Now I still can't get F8 to work but the option to use F2 or F12 no longer show in the bottom right of the boot screen.  Therefore, I can't get it to even boot to the external drive.  I've tried in place upgrades using the Dell Windows key but it won't work since it isn't a retail key.  I am totally at a loss.   I've seen issues where there is something that goes wrong during the 8 to 8.1 upgrade.  The hard drive has multiple recovery partitions so looks like the problem occurred on this unit as well. Can anyone help?

Philip_Yip · Accepted Answer

Clean install Windows 8.1 with Update 1 following the instructions here to download and prepare installation media as a FAT32 formatted bootable USB for a UEFI BIOS with SecureBoot in the GPT partition scheme:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/download-windows-8-1-retail-and-oem-iso/

Procuring media from Dell may give you only Windows 8 which will give you all the hassle from updating from the store.

Use DISKPART CLEAN ALL to wipe the drive:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/cleaning-up-a-drive-format-vs-secure-wipe-ssd-and-hdd/

Install Windows 8.1 without a Microsoft Account (using a local account without a password):

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/a-clean-install-of-windows-8-1/windows-8-1-installation/

Then install the Dell system drivers in the correct order:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/downloading-drivers-checking-hardware-ids-and-downloading-and-installing-dell-system-drivers-in-the-correct-order/driver-installation/

Installation of Dell Backup and Recovery will then create a new recovery partition from this clean installation and you may make recovery media with Dell Backup and Recovery from this clean installation. You may then switch to a Microsoft Account if desired.

ejn63 · Answer

Your best bet is to contact Dell for a set of recovery media and then do a factory restore.  If the system is in warranty, they'll send it at no charge -- there's a nominal charge if the system is out of warranty.

Stickman64 · Answer

Natakuc4,

A thousand thanks for your solution! It worked like a charm. I thought I was in trouble during the installation since I had changed hard drive to MBR. But during install, I deleted that partition, hit next and it's all golden.

System is running great!

Thanks again!

Shawn

Philip_Yip · Answer

Thanks for posting back to let us know you had a successful install. :)

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