I have a Dell Insprion e1505 with windows xp home, 2Gb Ram, 80GB HD, and have run into quite a dilemma while reformatting my PC. I first tried to boot from the disk but ended up getting an error early in the installation involving error code 7: halal cpi or something to my effect and the setup aborts everytime at that point. I then tried to just do it from the hard drive and managed to get to the point of deleting the partitions, but I couldn't delete the main partition because it contains setup files necessary for installation. I went ahead and did it over the current partition and other than skipping three errors managed to reinstall over my current version, which is good but the main reason I wanted to reformat was to get rid of all the junk which as you probably know is still there on the hard drive but just not in the menus and such.
Problem reformatting
- Thread starter ericferry
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Ian
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Hi Eric, most recent dells have a restore partition which can be used to restore the PC back to the way it was when you first bought it - I think you need to press CTRL+F11 when you see the Dell logo on boot. There's a document explaining the whole process on the Dell support site:
http://support.dell.com/support/top...&s=dhs&docid=3E48AE3870775D64E040A68F5B2877D4
That is probably the easiest way to achieve a complete wipe if the restore partition is there
http://support.dell.com/support/top...&s=dhs&docid=3E48AE3870775D64E040A68F5B2877D4
That is probably the easiest way to achieve a complete wipe if the restore partition is there
okay, well lets say being an amateur I might have deleted that partition when trying to delete all of the partitions when doing the reformat process already....any suggestions then? haha I knew I would end up doing something stupid when trying this.
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I know with Sony's you can order the restore disc, so I'm sure Dell has that option. However, if you've got the money to do it, I'd pick up a clean copy of Windows to do a fresh install...but that's just me! I can't stand all the extra garbage companies like Dell add to Windows...just a pet peeve of mine! But if you just go to Dell, I'm sure they'll have a restore disc you can buy...the one I got from Sony was for my bosses laptop at work...it was a few years old and he had lost his restore disc but wanted me to clean it off. So I found the disc online for about $20. Give that a shot.
If you do decide to just go clean, you can pick up WinXP or Vista on newegg.com for around $99
If you do decide to just go clean, you can pick up WinXP or Vista on newegg.com for around $99
Abarbarian
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You can use any XP disc and use the code of the sticker on your laptop. No need to buy a XP cd.
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Abarbarian said:You can use any XP disc and use the code of the sticker on your laptop. No need to buy a XP cd.
That's not entirely true...if your key is for XP Home Edition, you wouldn't be able to use an XP Professional disc...you at least need the correct version. Even then, the only downside to not having the original system disc is that you'd likely need to go to Dell's website to get drivers...possibly even to use your network card...that's been my experience at work. I have reinstalled a system with another XP disc but then needed to get ALL drivers to 'piece' the system back together. Even had one where the video resolution was so low it looked like a childs water color painting or something!...untill I installed the correct video driver. But this way would give you a clean install...you know, to get rid of all the other software/trials companies like Dell have to load on a system! One of the many reasons I will always build my own system!