Recover laptop to factory installed Windows XP from Vista installed without DVD

Discussion in 'Software' started by KrisMtine, Sep 2, 2007.

  1. KrisMtine

    KrisMtine Private E-2

    Hi there. My son did a foolish thing...he let his friend at university install Windows Vista Ultimate on his laptop, Inspiron 6000 that was factory installed with Windows XP. The Vista now needs a product code entered, so it no longer runs.

    I have been trying for 3 days to do a complete re-format and recovery of his laptop back to Dell factory settings with the Windows XP. I cannot get anything to work. Any directions that I have found it says you need the Vista DVD so you can recover the "windows.old" files.

    Any suggestions on what I can do to reformat and recover this computer? Thanks.
     
  2. tunered

    tunered MajorGeek

    In your start menu, click computer, double click c drive, look for a folder that says backup or restore to xp. A friend of mine did the same thing and this option was there, not sure if it will be on yours but look and see. ed
     
  3. sosaman

    sosaman Sergeant Major

    do you actually have disc(s)? or, is the h/d partitioned (and the restoration stuff is there)? if you actually have the disc, then you shouldn't need that stuff. you should just be able to format the h/d from the disc. if your not able to, can you "format c:", and go from there? can you give us a little more info? thx, sos

    fyi, there are some good format links/threads here, i just can't find them right now, i'm pretty sure i had them bookmarked (maybe on another comp.).

    oh, and i think what tunered is trying to say: click on my computer, and you might look to see if your h/d is partitioned, and the restoration is there.
     
  4. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    As you do not have a Vista cd, obviously it will not boot completely to get anywhere - a couple of things might work.
    I have read that it is sometimes possible to still boot to safe mode in Vista, when unactivated, try doing this- if you get into Vista then try "turnered's", suggestion to roll back to XP.
    Another possibility is to try using an external - usb cd rom, as Vista had problems finding the cd rom you are using with 975x chipsets, during instal, and using an external usb cd rom enabled it to find the cd it had previously been reading. - could have the same problem when trying to instal XP , or format from it.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2007
  5. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    You can also try ctrl+f11, at startup to see if you can activate the DRS partitition, if you are lucky, and have the Dell backup partition. If you try it, and it does work, you will be back to factory restore.
    If not, what cd have you ? original Dell recovery cd ?
     
  6. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

  7. sosaman

    sosaman Sergeant Major

  8. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    Vista does make a mess of the boot ini, and mbr.
    If nothing already offered has worked and ,If your hard drive is sata, have a look in the bios
    Press del/f2 , or, whichever button takes you in to BIOS Setup Utility.-- in System Configuration tab, see if native sata support is shewn,- if so, disable it.
    Also set drives in bios to autodetect ATA.
    .Press F10 to "Save and Exit", you may also have to confirm by pressing Y, or, Ok/Yes to confirm the changes
    Then try XP setup
    This should detect the hard drive and Windows XP CD should run to get to the format option.
     
  9. KrisMtine

    KrisMtine Private E-2

    Hi. I am presently in the process of trying the is suggestion. www.goodells.net/dellrestore/files/dsrfix.zip.

    I do not have any disks for the computer. I had previously recovered the computer ( Pre Vista installation) by entering recovery through F11 key.....that no longer works as Vista seems to have replaced any recovery to factory XP. I was able to boot into Safe Mode by cannot find any files containing any restore to XP or backup. The only restore point I was able to find was post Vista installation so that did not work either.

    I will let you know if the instuctions from www.goodells.net fixes the problem. Thanks.
     
  10. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    YOU NEED TO ENABLE HIDDEN AND SYSTEM FILES OPTION, TO SEE ALL FILES.

    Microsoft show how, if you have, or,( can borrow) a Vista cd/dvd
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2007
  11. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    It does appear that drsfix will fix the laptop after Vista instal, to enable the dell factory settings -
    Some really good replies / writeups , on it working at that venue
     
  12. KrisMtine

    KrisMtine Private E-2

    Hi. I would like to thank everyone for your help. Unfortunately, it seems that the partition drive with the XP recovery files was erased so nothing I did try would help. Dell is sending me the recovery disks and tech support says this will help. Thanks again.
     
  13. sosaman

    sosaman Sergeant Major

    if you don't mind me asking, how much are you paying for the disc(s) thru dell? i've had to order discs from hp/compaq a couple of times (because the owners didn't make "restoration disc(s)", and their h/d's died). i think it was like less than $20 with s&h. anyway, g/l.
     
  14. KrisMtine

    KrisMtine Private E-2

    They are not charging me anything for the disks. When I spoke with Tech Support from Dell he told me how to restore computer by using Ctrl + F11. Once I told him that no longer was accessible he said no problem he would mail them out right away and should be here in 2 days. A friend told me this is a newer service from Dell since there were so many complaints from consumers that they did not get recovery disks with computer....I must say this is the third Dell we have had and I have always been happy with the product and level of service. Shipping is always free and very fast.
     
  15. baklogic

    baklogic The Tinkerer

    In years gone by, I found Dell very good, too. Its good to see the service standards returning, again.
    If Vista plays you up, when reinstalling, come back to us.
     
  16. sosaman

    sosaman Sergeant Major

    that's good your not being charged. i don't know about the dell comps. but typically, on the hp/compaq's if the recovery stuff is on a partititon on the h/d, you have a 1 time opportunity to make a set of recovery discs, in case of h/d failure, or corruption. in my situations, they (owners) never made a copy of the recovery partition, and that's why i had to order them. anyway, g/l
     

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