DEll inspiron mini 10 recovery/factory reset problem

SteveJH200

If you're going to sell it on and want as least hassle and expense as possible then load it with Linux Mint or Ubuntu. If you want to keep to XP then £19 for a factory restore XP disc is not unreasonable but it will still need to be updated and this may take more time than clearing the files and wiping the free space as already suggested.

spannerzone

SteveJH200 wrote: »

If the operating system is still okay, you can copy any files you want to keep and then delete them. Download Ccleaner and run the 'Wipe free space' facility and this should ensure that none of your personal info can be read.

Does the Mini 10 have a conventional hard disc? I have a Mini 9 with a solid state drive that failed so once replaced I reloaded XP using an external optical drive.

This is good advice!

Reinstalling XP after doing a format won't erase all the old stuff and so a potential risk...recovery software could allow someone to find documents you thought had been deleted/lost duding the format and reinstall - doing the above will at least ensure a clean machine pretty much.

waddler_8

Lifeforms wrote: »

Yep, The issue is:

a blue bar with www.dell.com appears at the top of the screen. Immediately upon seeing the blue bar

This does not appear at all, so you can't do Control and F11, it just loads into OS immediately.

That looks like Dell's custom MBR has been overwritten at some point - Possibilities being either by running the FIXMBR command to solve a boot problem (a lot of times the advice to run that command is given incorrectly), an infection overwriting it (EG: Mebroot, TDSS/Alureon etc), or some software you may have installed overwriting it (EG: Acronis, Roxio etc).

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixmbr.shtml

I was under the impression that anyone who sells computers with pre-installed OS on it should provide a way to restore the OS. That would include a recovery software program to do it, which they've clearly failed to do so with these, as well as a few other, netbooks

Dell most likely did, but people lose it because of the reasons stated above.