Need help with clean installation of OS

sindersoot

I apologise, must have picked something up wrong along the way I thought I had to press ctrl+F11 to get screen. Didn't realise I could only use F12, then boot with CD in.

Done it that way as I thought I was still doing the same thing to enable to give you the txt either written or saved to USB for the report. Sorry, must have got that wrong.

sindersoot

closed wrote: »

Does the serial number, and type of XP (ie media center) match the sticker, if so, call microsoft, you have a valid license.

If not, AFTER backing up all your data, try this to set it to the state it was when it left the factory

Troubleshooting: Dell Inspiron 9400/E1705 Owner's ManualTo use PC Restore:

1. Turn on the computer.

During the boot process, a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen.

1. Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.

If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.
NOTICE: If you do not want to proceed with PC Restore, click Reboot in the following step.

1. On the next screen that appears, click Restore.
2. On the next screen, click Confirm.

The restore process takes approximately 6–10 minutes to complete.

1. When prompted, click Finish to reboot the computer.

Just to give you an idea, this is what I thought I was doing but with the addition of F12. That was why I gave a brief description of the report.

I think it might be best, if you don't mind continuing to help, that I just ignore all previous posts and start again from when you first came on this morning. I do apologise and I can understand this being a pain in the butt and frustrating for you, I'd be the same if I was you.

Donnie

That isn't even what you wrote.... If you had written Ctrl + F11....it would have made more sense.

Anyway, it seems you've got it now, so we'll just continue. Just F12 and choose CD/DVD. It's really taking too long. Stick with it and get it done.

If you have already run the DSRFIX, then you can go back to Ctrl + F11.

As I said don't worry. We'll get it done.

sindersoot

Donnie wrote: »

That isn't even what you wrote.... If you had written Ctrl + F11....it would have made more sense.

Anyway, it seems you've got it now, so we'll just continue. Just F12 and choose CD/DVD. It's really taking too long. Stick with it and get it done.

If you have already run the DSRFIX, then you can go back to Ctrl + F11.

As I said don't worry. We'll get it done.

As you are seeing I really don't know much about pcs AT ALL!! I don't even know what the keys mean hence reason I didn't type them 100% will make sure I do in future but anyway I'll have another go.

Okay, thanks so what shall I do next.

Do I still keep the DSRFIX disc in the Dell machine from now on?

Donnie

If you haven't already run DSRFIX and produced the report....

Place the disc in the drive, restart the computer and start hitting F12 immediately as it restarts. When the Boot menu comes up choose to make the CD drive first to boot.

When you see the flashing cursor, enter DSRFIX and hit 'Enter'.

You can either make a note of what is written in the report and relay it here or create a text file containing the information if you have a spare USB drive, thus.

sindersoot

Donnie wrote: »

If you haven't already run DSRFIX and produced the report....

Place the disc in the drive, restart the computer and start hitting F12 immediately as it restarts. When the Boot menu comes up choose to make the CD drive first to boot.

When you see the flashing cursor, enter DSRFIX and hit 'Enter'.

You can either make a note of what is written in the report and relay it here or create a text file containing the information if you have a spare USB drive, thus.

Boot menu came up clicked for CD/DVD drive to boot, small cursor came up flashing at left hand side of screen but when I typed DSRFIX there was no visible sign of DSRFIX on the screen. Should there be, do I have to do something to get words to show?

closed

Boot into windows, using windows explorer, check (and post) the contents of the CD. If there is an iso file there, you have burn't the CD incorrectly.

To clarify why you are being asked to press these keys:

F12 is the key to press to get a choose where to boot from menu, eg CD, USB (if supported), if you have a bootable CD, this is a way of getting it to boot, otherwise it will just launch windows as normal.

CTRL+F11 at the same time, is the menu to launch the system recovery to factory defaults, it will only work if the partition is still there and intact, and if the the boot record is still there, dsrfix is software to fix the boot record if it has been overwritten or corrupted.

Both have to be done immediately after bootup.

sindersoot

closed wrote: »

Boot into windows, using windows explorer, check (and post) the contents of the CD.

Sorry closed, could you please provide some more instructions so as I know what to do?

How do I boot into windows using windows explorer?

How do I check contents of CD?

closed

Windows explorer is part of windows 7, it's the thing that you use to see where your files are, just boot normally into windows, and find the cd driver letter eg d or e, and look what's there.

sindersoot

closed wrote: »

Windows explorer is part of windows 7, it's the thing that you use to see where your files are, just boot normally into windows, and find the cd driver letter eg d or e, and look what's there.

Just had a look it's (D) and it shows DVD RW drive (D) cd drive. There are no figures for used space like the drives above.