The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Partial Reinstall Effect Recovery Image??

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by RiFT029, Oct 5, 2006.

  1. RiFT029

    RiFT029 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    So being the idiot that I was today, I popped in my XP cd while running XP and actually started to reinstall windows, I really have no idea what I was thinking, because I know that it will try to do so from the HDD etc etc, now when I boot my system I get the process attempting to complete the instalation and then the chose which OS to boot option, I tried to system restore through the dell recovery method of hitting ctrl+f11 during boot up but nothing... Does this mean Ive managed to mess up the backup image already? and if so is there a way to fix this, or simple stop my computer from trying to reinstall windows and making me pick a OS to start with?


    What exactly happens when you try to reinstall XP while in XP? Does it begin to reformat or add files to my HDD?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated..thanks!
     
    RiFT029, Oct 5, 2006
    #1
  2. RiFT029

    RiFT029 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    puzzled. I spoke with a dell tech support guy and he said that the semi installation did in fact remove the backup image and instead of telling me how to undo the semi installation, he said he was sending me all of the software on my computer on disks to me free of charged...um...alright?
     
    RiFT029, Oct 5, 2006
    #2
  3. dg1261

    dg1261 Notebook Geek

    Reputations:
    95
    Messages:
    88
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    16
    It doesn't seem likely that would wipe out the hidden DSR partition. If you want a second opinion, get a report from Dsrfix.


    Dan Goodell
     
    dg1261, Oct 5, 2006
    #3
  4. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    145
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    If your partitions are still intact, you can use the Media Direct Repair utility to fix up the Dell MBR, and the ctrl+F11 should then work.
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Oct 5, 2006
    #4
  5. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    1,659
    Messages:
    5,066
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    It most likely didn't delete the dell restore partition. If you edit or reformat XP in any way, the restore partition becomes inactive. Supposedly it will not work again when you do this, but you can try extra-ordinary's suggestion and repair XP.
     
    Amber, Oct 5, 2006
    #5
  6. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    145
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    31
    As I understand it, Media Direct Repair utility will repair the dell MBR that was damaged by the fresh XP install. You won't be repairing your XP install and you don't need to have a working XP install. All you are doing is repairing the dell MBR so that ctrl+F11 and ghost restore will work again and you can get your system back to it's 'first use' state.
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Oct 6, 2006
    #6
  7. danimal1968

    danimal1968 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    40
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    danimal1968, Oct 6, 2006
    #7
  8. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    7,857
    Messages:
    16,212
    Likes Received:
    58
    Trophy Points:
    466
    i'd still take all the software cds though...you never know when you might need them. plus, having those will allow you to install xp without all the dell bloatware.
     
    Greg, Oct 6, 2006
    #8
  9. RiFT029

    RiFT029 Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    The Dell guy...was well... A Dell guy, so I glady accepted all of the software and proceeded to run system restore and from there use the Dell Restore Utility everything is up and running back to normal and I am having no problems, just installed my tuner and so far am loving my new e1705..
     
    RiFT029, Oct 6, 2006
    #9