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Dell Reload Disk... 3

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macten88

Technical User
May 11, 2004
212
US
I just got a call from a friend who has a Dell computer that is about a year old. The pc won't boot something about a missing system file. I asked her to look at her software to see if she has the operating system disk or a reload disk. She has the application disks and what sounded like a driver disk but no operating system disk. As far as I could tell listening to her read off whats on the disks that she has.

Questions: Does Dell package a reload or operating system disk when you buy one of there pc's or do you have to buy it separately?
 
Most newer dells have the system restore on the hidden part of the HD. I belive the when the PC boots right after the bios you hit CTRL+Shift+F1.

Look up the system on dell.com and you should find the right key combo for the system.

When frustrated remember, in the computer world there is almost always a backdoor.
 
for dell it should be ctrl+f11. this must be done before the little blue bar at the top of the screen comes up right after the BIOS screen. if you dont do it before then it will just boot right into windows.

Wm. Reynolds
RRWDS | TxPSS


- - - - - - - - - - - - -
Network Error:
Hit any user to continue
 
so this ctrl+f11 will get me to.....an area where I can do a system restore?
 
System Restore as in reload the PC to as it was when it came out of the factory - losing all user data. Yes

System Restore as in Windows System Restore. NO

If you can get into SafeMode then you can use Windows System Restore from their.

Alternativly if there is important data on the machine let us know what the exact error is and we should be able to help you further.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.
 
I just got back from my friends house. That ctrl+f11 worked out very well. It basically reimaged the drive. Then all I had to do was reinstall AVG, SpySweeper and install the printer. That was the easiest reload I've ever done.

We sent an email to Dell, asking how much the OS disk was.

The error on the screen was:

missing or corrupt windows\system32\config\system

Without the OS disk, I don't how else I would have fixed it.

Thanks again....
 
There was another way to fix it which is worth knowing for the future.

This error basically states that there was a problem with the bootup sequence of Windows reading a certain part of the registry.

There are several fixes for this which could have been tried.

The first would be to boot into the recovery console as per and then running the chkdsk /r command. As your friend did not have an O/S disk then you would have needed to either use someone elses or downloaded the boot floppies.

If that didn't work then you could have used the advice at this page to solve the problem
Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.
 
The first would be to boot into the recovery console as per and then running the chkdsk /r command. As your friend did not have an O/S disk then you would have needed to either use someone elses or downloaded the boot floppies."

Two questions: Would the recovery disk from my Gateway laptop handle a problem like this on a Dell Dimension pc? Could the problem been handled with a usb floppy drive?
 
It might have worked with you recovery disk, some recovery disks will allow you to get to the recovery console and other will not.

Yes it could have been handled with a USB floppy drive so long as the PC recognises the drive before windows boots. You could then have gone to and created the boot floppies. Got into the recovery console and ran the chkdsk /r command.

Greg Palmer
Freeware Utilities for Windows Administrators.
 
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