I need help to re-install windows properly on my M1730.

Ive basically just bought an M1730 so its a machine i`m not familiar with, i noticed that no details were appearing in the small LCD window in the top right so i referred to the manual, it said you go to Logitech in the start menu to change the settings. Now this is where the fun started, i had no Logitech option on my start menu, it simply wasn`t their.

I bought my laptop from a Dell Outlet reseller, seeing as i had the back up disc for windows vista and the Dell drivers disc i thought i would do a full install of windows as something was obviously missing, normally re-installing windows is straight forward.

Now i don`t know how i managed this, after re-installing windows my laptop starts in the normal way with the Dell logo appearing but i then get a black boot up screen which gives me 2 boot options and they are both labelled Microsoft windows vista, so basically i have 2 choices of the same thing to boot up.

I think i have somehow installed windows vista onto 2 hard drives, my laptop has 2 x 200GB drives.

With laptops ive had in the past re-installing the operating system has been easy, its basically put the disc in and it walks you through it, this wasn`t straight forward.

The instructions in the M1730 owners manual said to exit all programmes, insert the operating disc and click exit if the install message appears.

Then you restart the laptop and press F12 when the Dell logo appears, you select the optical drive to boot from and then basically follow the on screen instructions.

The bit it doesn`t tell you anything about is when 4 options appear for where to install windows is where you install it, this is the part i have obviously gone wrong on.

What i need to know now is how do i wipe both hard drives clean and re-install windows correctly ?

Sorry it was a bit long but i needed to explain what steps i had done etc.

Any help would be appreciated, ive looked on the start programmes list on vista and i didn`t see any options for wiping the drives clean, if i eventually manage to wipe the discs which option do i pick from on that list of 4 options it gives to where you install Vista ? I`m posting on my other laptop at the min.

Thanks

 

I dont think you have installed windows twice. It sounds like the bootloader still remembers your old windows install. -- To fix it:

Goto your control panel - system - on the left look for advanced system settings - in the box that comes up goto the advanced tab - select the settings in the startup and recovery bit - untick the (time to display operating system box) then click ok

Now restart and see if it comes up again.

The logitech drivers for the panel are here:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/434/180&cl=gb,en&hub=1?selectedcrid=434&selectedcid=180

Good luck.

 

To wipe your hardrives the easiest way will be to goto control panel - administrative tools - computer management - storage - disk management.

This will list both your hardrives as disk 0 and disk 1, Disk 0 will be the one you have booted from. So dont wipe that one!! If your sure you have nothing that you need to backup on disk 1 then format it and select your partitions if needed.

Also be careful that you dont format one that says (boot or system) anywhere on it.

This will only format the non OS drive. To fully format both drives you can do it on the Vista setup screen where you select where to install vista

 

I feel a bit of a fool to be honest lol, i was just expecting a re-install of windows to be as straight forward as its been on previous laptops ive had where it basically walks you through each step. I guess to learn about computers then you need to make mistakes along the way.

What i forgot to ask was is how do i configure Raid to be Raid 0, at what point do i need to configure Raid, is it before i use the windows disk or after ? I have 2 x 200GB hard drives.

Where should windows go, it gave me 4 options on the windows re-install. I`ll try and get some screen shots.

 

I did the above, it works to some extent. After doing the above the Dell logo comes up but it flashes to that boot screen for about a second then goes on to load windows, previously it didn`t flash to that screen, the Dell logo would come up then it went smoothly to loading windows without a flash of the boot screen.

Here are some pics of my disc management and drives at present.

 

Ive been searching high and low since the above on how you restore a Dell computer to its original factory state, this is apparently how you do it.

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=316068

I have a problem, where it says press F8 on start up until you get to the advanced options where their should be an option to select REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER which should be directly above Safe Mode...... I don`t have the repair Your Computer option, its missing. My first option is safe mode ....

This is driving me nuts to be honest, surely restoring a laptop should be more straight forward to this, on every other laptop ive had or used that has Vista their is a direct path to the recovery centre in the start menu which allows you to wipe the drives and do full installs and recoveries etc, on a Dell you have to go into the start up menus and even then the option i need is missing.

I think i need to wipe both hard drives and start from fresh, is anyone round that can help at all, it will be appreciated as this has been driving me nuts lol

 

Raid config is in the bios (f2 on boot) my m1730 is not with me at the moment so i cannot guide you through it.

If you can get raid enabled then this will make things a little easier when installing vista as you will only have one drive to install it to instead of 2 as you have now. let me know how you get on

 

Hi Mick, ive managed to sort it.... Thanks for the input.

This is how i managed sorted it

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=408385