[carmela]

I got a call this morning from our wireless provider telling me that my computer (Dell Inspiron 1501) was infected with a virus and was in danger of spreading the virus to other computers. I wanted to save a few files from the system and then reformat the whole thing as I have been getting error messages for weeks informing me that my computer was infected, however every time I tried to remove these viruses the computer would freeze and crash. When I went into the system this morning, and disabled with internet, it crashed. When I tried to turn the computer back on, it started as usual, and went to the welcome menu, however when I tried to log in, no icons would appear on the screen, and there was no start menu, so I was unable to save anything. I tried this several times, tried from safe mode, and then finally gave up. I tried to refrmat without saving by pressing Alt + F11 several times while the computer was booting up, but even this would not work. I don't know what to do at this point as my computer will not let me do anything! Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do. I don't even mind losing my files if it means having a working computer again, but I don't even know how to reformat now if Alt +F11 will not work!
Carmela

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So are you sure you want to reformat?


if you are, do you have a windows cd?

[tyler kick you fase]

So are you sure you want to reformat?


if you are, do you have a windows cd?

[rshaffer61]

Not just a windows cd but the Dell Laptop Recovery cd is needed as it has all your drivers for the laptop on it. If not is there a recovery partition on the drive?

[edge2022]

There should be a recovery partition on the computer. You can access it by pressing CTRL + F11 when you see the Dell splash screen, when you boot up your computer.

I don't even mind losing my files

We can get back your files easily. Before you run Dell's recovery program, to reformat and reinstall, do this step. Click on "Backup Files Without Windows" and follow the steps to get your files back, and store them on an external media.

[tyler kick you fase]

There should be a recovery partition on the computer. You can access it by pressing CTRL + F11 when you see the Dell splash screen, when you boot up your computer.

I don't even mind losing my files

We can get back your files easily. Before you run Dell's recovery program, to reformat and reinstall, do this step. Click on "Backup Files Without Windows" and follow the steps to get your files back, and store them on an external media.

did you hear him, he said he cant do that.

[edge2022]

I tried to refrmat without saving by pressing Alt + F11 several times while the computer was booting up, but even this would not work

The hotkey should be CTRL instead of ALT.

[carmela]

How do I get to this "Backup files without Windows" step though? I would be great not to lose my files but I can't seem to find a way to get to them with the way my computer is working now. The only things I can do are in DOS mode.
Yes, I think I have all the correct software to reinstall after reformetting, so that should not be a problem, although I would like to find a way to do this without reformatting, I can't seem to get anywhere.

I was able to get into safe mode, apparently I had been pressing F8 at the wrong time and from there I had the option of going into Admin, or under my name. I tried both, and both would say Logging in, and then before it even signed in it would say logging out, saving files, so I cannot gain access to my computer in safe mode.
This is all very frusterating

[edge2022]

https://sites.google...without-windows
There is a direct link. "Backup Files Without Windows" is in my sig.

Once you have all the files you need on an external media, you can reformat and reinstall Windows.