Laptop no good ?

miggiwoo

Have had a few problems with my 5 year old advent laptop over the past week , so decided to do a system recovery ( had to do it once before) and had everything backed up so wasnt too disapointed.
After the recovery , kept getting a message saying something like
"NTDI-Compressed" , so I pressed ALT - CONTROL - DELETE like it requested but kept getting the same messsage without it booting up .
Tryed inserting my 3 back-up discs but kept getting the same compressed message.
Am I missing something or should I look for a new laptop

Thanks for any advice :money:

alanwjones

If you have everything backed up why not go for a format ?

m5rcc

Do a fresh format of the hard drive and then insert the recovery disc...

miggiwoo

m5rcc wrote: »

Do a fresh format of the hard drive and then insert the recovery disc...

Not the most computer literate , but would it be when I get the choice of 3 options when I try a recovery ?
Can remember one of the options as a quick format so would I be right in assuming the one of the other choices would be a full format ?

thanks for youre help:money:

m5rcc

Depends on the recovery disc you are using? I assume that the disc has everything preloaded. Almost like a mirror image of what you had when you bough the Advent?

If you need to a proper format, use this.

miggiwoo

Did a back up disc when got the laptop , as it advised.

m5rcc

I would suggest the following...

Do a proper format of the hard drive using the link I have given you.

Then insert that "backup disc" and run it to reinstall windows.

If you get the same errors as before, could be that the disk is corrupted somehow.

Aiadi

Why are the more recent batches of PCs not shipping with the OS disc anymore and ask you to do a recovery disc instead? Not every one is techie enough to understand this and things can go pear-shaped as a result. My father for example only knows how to power on and start browsing and would have no idea how to create a recovery disc. Is this a cost-cutting exercise or are there other reasons?

m5rcc

Cost-cutting no doubt....plus if Dell could charge you for one, they would choose that every time...

miggiwoo

m5rcc wrote: »

I would suggest the following...

Do a proper format of the hard drive using the link I have given you.

Then insert that "backup disc" and run it to reinstall windows.

If you get the same errors as before, could be that the disk is corrupted somehow.

Have tried to format the hard drive , when I then switch on the laptop I get a PC angel screen with the message "starting recovery partition" which after about 30 seconds asks me to insert back up disc number 1.
I do this and it gets to 6% competed and then gives me the message "Cannot be recovered FILE C:/1386/DRIVER.CAB andasks me to re-try or abort.
After re-trying , I get the same messages.
Not sure what , if anything , I can do next .
Is it worth taking it to a repair shop or get a new one ( as my laptop is 5 years old , which somebody said is very old) ?
Thanks.

alanwjones

Could you ask around see if you can borrow a disk from someone before giving up completely?