[BlackOxide]

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Like will all her music be lost? that's the biggest thing she's worried about losing

Nope, we'll get that backed up, along with any Documents, Pictures etc before reinstalling

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I'm so sorry this has taken so long and has taken up so much of your time

No worries at all, it's not a problem, we'll hopefully get it all sorted soon



As the Service Pack has failed to install again, it's going to best if we try now to reinstall Windows. As you have a Dell Inspiron running Windows 7, you should be able to follow the instructions here to reinstall Windows 7. Before you do so, make sure you backup any files you want to keep, as all data and programs will be removed. Most people choose to backup their Documents, Pictures, Music, Desktop items, Emails (if using Windows Live Mail or Outlook) etc before doing a reinstall. If you use a web based email service like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc, the mail is usually stored at their end.

You can backup your files using the built in Windows Backup and Restore program. A useful video on it can be found here. Or you could just open up your folders such as Music, and then copy and paste the files onto your backup device like a USB Hard Drive or Memory stick for example.


What device do you have for making a backup, do you have an External Hard Drive, Memory Sticks or DVD's? I'm only asking because if there is a lot of Music or Videos, you may not have room for them on a USB Memory Stick or will need to use several DVD's.

Just take your time with the Backup and make sure you have what she would like to keep. Let me know if you have any questions or problems.

[love2teach956]

I've got her pics and docs on a disc that's 700MB. But she's got 3.8 GB of music stored. I can't get that burned to a disc. I have a 4GB usb stick and the very first time I put it in her laptop it registered, now it never does. Is there something I'm doing wrong? It shows on my laptop as the drive E. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong with the usb stick, I've used one before. If nothing else seems to work, I think it would take too much time to group her songs(shes got 400) into groups of 100 and burn onto discs, she's willing to let them go. I have no idea how mch time that would take me to do the separate groupings. Any suggestions?

[BlackOxide]

Hey,

You could either try Safe Mode again to see if it is displaying your USB Stick now. If it isn't, you could burn the Music to a DVD instead of a CD, as DVD's hold around 4.5GB of data. If you don't have any DVD's, the other way of doing it, is to use a bootable CD which contains it's own operating system, which will run temporarily in RAM and enable you to copy and paste the Music onto a USB Stick. A good bootable CD for transferring files is Puppy Linux. We have a guide on how to use it here. Hopefully one of these ways should enable you to copy over the music

[love2teach956]

I got the music stored finally, on a DVD last night I found... So I went to next step of Windows Reintall. I did first step it said when computer booting up to hit F8 until I get the option for Repair Your Computer. I clicked Enter and all I got was rebooting right to the regular Windows page to log in. I didn't get any of those other options to do, like language choose, image restore, Yes to reformat the hard drive, etc...

[BlackOxide]

Okey dokey, I'm looking into this, as to why this would happen.

Could you in the meantime, just try it again for me please, just in case it was a one off. I don't believe it will be, but it's worth another go. I'm sure you are doing this anyway, but just make sure the 'Repair Your Computer' option is definitely highlighted before pressing Enter on the keyboard.

Do you get any error messages appear when you try and go into the Repair Your Computer option, or does it simply just boot into Normal Mode as if you never selected an option?

[BlackOxide]

Following on from the post above. If you could do the two steps below please, as I need to check your boot configuration and partitions please.


1)
OTL Custom Scan

• Open OTL
  
• Copy and Paste the following into the Custom Scans/Fixes box at the bottom.
  
  

  bcdedit /c

  
  
• Click the None button at the top
  
• Click the Run Scan button. The scan wont take long.
  
  • When the scan completes, it will open a Notepad window.
    
  • Please copy and paste the contents of this into your next reply

2)
Please download GetPartitions from the link bellow. You must right click on the link and choose Save as.... Save it as GetPartitions.bat on your desktop

getpartitions.bat

Right click on it and select "Run as an Administrator"
It will produce C:\DiskReport.txt log please post results from that log here to me.

[love2teach956]

I didn't get any error message. it just booted right into normal mode, gave me no options to do anything. I tried it a second time in case I was doing something wrong.
Same results both times.

OTL log:

OTL logfile created on: 12/6/2011 9:36:08 PM - Run 14
OTL by OldTimer - Version 3.2.31.0 Folder = C:\Users\Ellery\Desktop
64bit- Home Premium Edition (Version = 6.1.7600) - Type = NTWorkstation
Internet Explorer (Version = 9.0.8112.16421)
Locale: 00000409 | Country: United States | Language: ENU | Date Format: M/d/yyyy

3.96 Gb Total Physical Memory | 3.02 Gb Available Physical Memory | 76.20% Memory free
7.92 Gb Paging File | 6.75 Gb Available in Paging File | 85.21% Paging File free
Paging file location(s): ?:\pagefile.sys [binary data]

%SystemDrive% = C: | %SystemRoot% = C:\Windows | %ProgramFiles% = C:\Program Files (x86)
Drive C: | 451.07 Gb Total Space | 401.89 Gb Free Space | 89.10% Space Free | Partition Type: NTFS

Computer Name: ELLERY-PC | User Name: Ellery | Logged in as Administrator.
Boot Mode: Normal | Scan Mode: Current user | Include 64bit Scans
Company Name Whitelist: Off | Skip Microsoft Files: Off | No Company Name Whitelist: Off | File Age = 30 Days

========== Custom Scans ==========


< bcdedit /c >

< End of report >


The partitions log:


Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600
Copyright © 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: ELLERY-PC

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 RECOVERY NTFS Partition 14 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 C OS NTFS Partition 451 GB Healthy Boot

[love2teach956]

I didn't get any error message. it just booted right into normal mode, gave me no options to do anything. I tried it a second time in case I was doing something wrong.
Same results both times.

OTL log:

OTL logfile created on: 12/6/2011 9:36:08 PM - Run 14
OTL by OldTimer - Version 3.2.31.0 Folder = C:\Users\Ellery\Desktop
64bit- Home Premium Edition (Version = 6.1.7600) - Type = NTWorkstation
Internet Explorer (Version = 9.0.8112.16421)
Locale: 00000409 | Country: United States | Language: ENU | Date Format: M/d/yyyy

3.96 Gb Total Physical Memory | 3.02 Gb Available Physical Memory | 76.20% Memory free
7.92 Gb Paging File | 6.75 Gb Available in Paging File | 85.21% Paging File free
Paging file location(s): ?:\pagefile.sys [binary data]

%SystemDrive% = C: | %SystemRoot% = C:\Windows | %ProgramFiles% = C:\Program Files (x86)
Drive C: | 451.07 Gb Total Space | 401.89 Gb Free Space | 89.10% Space Free | Partition Type: NTFS

Computer Name: ELLERY-PC | User Name: Ellery | Logged in as Administrator.
Boot Mode: Normal | Scan Mode: Current user | Include 64bit Scans
Company Name Whitelist: Off | Skip Microsoft Files: Off | No Company Name Whitelist: Off | File Age = 30 Days

========== Custom Scans ==========


< bcdedit /c >

< End of report >


The partitions log:


Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600
Copyright © 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: ELLERY-PC

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 D DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 RECOVERY NTFS Partition 14 GB Healthy System
Volume 2 C OS NTFS Partition 451 GB Healthy Boot

[BlackOxide]

Ok time for Plan B


From the logs you posted above, it indicates that the Recovery Partition is still there. As the laptop is refusing to go into the Repair Your Computer mode, we will try and go into that mode from a disc instead.

Could you click here and follow those steps to create the Windows System Repair Disc. Once you have this created, you will need to boot from it. Make sure the disc is in the laptop, then switch the laptop on. Hit the F12 button as soon as you see the Dell logo screen (usually within 2-3 seconds of it it switching on). This will then bring up the boot menu. Make sure your DVD drive is highlighted, then press Enter on the keyboard. It should now boot from the disc you created.

When you see this window below, choose Command Prompt





Once you have the black Command Prompt window appear, follow from Step 6 here.

Hopefully this will get the Dell Restore to kick in and reinstall Windows for you. Let me know how it goes

[love2teach956]

I got to the dvd part and rebooted and got to step 6. I typed all that and got to d:
it looked like D:\>
so I typed in, 'cd tools' and hit Enter, I got message of
The system cannot find the path specified.

[BlackOxide]

Hmmm Ok. Could you get back to the point where you were at D:\> please. Then could you type just dir then hit Enter on the keyboard. It should list the folders contained on the D: drive. Could you let me know what folders it shows please.

I've done an example below on my machine to show you what you are looking for. Here I have created 3 folders and 3 text files and then ran the dir command. The 3 Folders are called Test Folder 1, Test Folder 2 and Test Folder 3. You can tell the difference between a file and a folder, because the folders will have <DIR> on the left of them. If you could let me know what folders you see when you run the dir command on drive D: that would be helpful.

[love2teach956]

the folders I found are as follows: dell, Drivers, fe3d63f94b115c321a8bfacbac52b5, Intel, MSOCache, PerfLogs, Program Files, Program Files <x86>, ProgramData, Qoobox, Users, Windows, _OTL

that's all

[BlackOxide]

Thanks for the list.

Could you do the following for me please:

• Boot from the disc as you were doing and go back into the Command Prompt option.
  
• Instead of doing d: then dir, could you type c: hit Enter, then type dir and hit Enter
  
• Basically you are just running the dir command on drive C: instead of D:
  
• When you have the list of folders on the C: drive, could you see if the folders imaging or dell are there for me please. I don't need a list of all the folders as you did previously, I just need to know if either or both of these folders exist there.

[love2teach956]

the only thing listed to the right of the <DIR> says Recovery.

There's nothing else listed when I did c: Enter, then typed: dir.

[BlackOxide]

Ok thanks for checking. Dell seem to tweak the way their recovery process works on different models and Operating System versions, so it makes it a little tricky.

Let's try the following in Command Prompt from the Disc again. Just press Enter on the keyboard after each line. Hopefully, if this works, it will start the Recovery process for you.


path c:\windows;c:\windows\system32
c:
cd tools
pcrestore



If the above doesn't work, try the following:

c:
cd \Windows\System32
\Tools\PCRestore



If neither work, can you tell me what errors appear please.