[mowpar]

Is the area to change, the,,,,,aptio setup utility,,,,,,change 1st boot to usb storage device?,,,,,,if so does it matter the other choices for ,,,2345 boot order

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Tapping F2 on start up should get you to the Set Up options, it may be called something else such as Advanced Options on your computer.

 

The first boot device should be the USB thumb drive and the second the hard drive.

[phillpower2]

Tapping F2 on start up should get you to the Set Up options, it may be called something else such as Advanced Options on your computer.

 

The first boot device should be the USB thumb drive and the second the hard drive.

[mowpar]

I have performed this action but no results. I have the flash drive with the OS. Windows 7, and the down load tool installed but the restart or reboot change to 1st boot has no effect.
My boot order is as follows

USB storage device,,,,,,,internal. HDD.,,,,,,,internal. ODD. ,,,,,,USB. Floppy device,,,,,,,,,,on board. Nic. Device

[phillpower2]

That is the correct boot order   

 

If you have UEFI instead of BIOS motherboard you will need to temporarily disable Secure Boot to use the USB to install Windows, after installation is complete you can enable Secure Boot again.

 

To help with the download tool see part 2 here

 

For installing Windows 7 from USB see here 

 

Going offline now as it is late here and I have an early start, will check back asap after work tomorrow, good luck.

[mowpar]

Do I need to uninstall the windows 7 that is currently on my pc, before I can install the new, but same OS

[phillpower2]

I don't mean to be so stupid but I do not see the instruction link to do a complete reinstall of the OS.

Be sure to full format the HDD before you do the fresh install of OS

What and how is this fomatting HDD done?

 

Sorry mowpar but I missed your edited post yesterday, formatting details below;

 

To install Windows 7 using the Custom option and formatting the hard disk

To format your hard disk during Windows 7 installation, you'll need to start, or boot, your computer using the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive.

1. Turn on your computer so that Windows starts normally, insert the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive, and then shut down your computer.

2. Restart your computer.

3. Press any key when prompted, and then follow the instructions that appear.

4. On the Install Windows page, enter your language and other preferences, and then click Next.

5. On the Please read the license terms page, if you accept the license terms, click I accept the license terms, and then click Next.

6. On the Which type of installation do you want? page, click Custom.

7. On the Where do you want to install Windows? page, click Drive options (advanced).

8. Click the partition that you want to change, click the formatting option you want to perform, and then follow the instructions.

9. When you've finished formatting, click Next.

10. Follow the instructions to finish installing Windows 7, which include naming your computer and setting up an initial user account.

[mowpar]

This pc is acting crazy. Now when I open computer, put in drive, it is just saying, shutting down, but not doing so, guess i'll
Just have to wait. Pc started and went to option, which user do I want to open up, I chose mine, went to desk top. Ignoring the process of booting to the USB.
I went back to the down load site you linked to windows 7, thought I would down load the process again to make sure I did not make a mistake, but the site would not let me load the OS,
I am troubleshooting the computer with dells tools to see maybe something wrong that is making all this not work. Grasping at straws, I tried to turn computer back to a restore point, computer went through all stages but came back with unspecified error 0xc0000043 . This what prompted me to run all the trouble shooting tools . First check shows network controller and USB does not have drivers, ran the fix drivers ,,,came back ,,not fixed. Hardware changes might not have been detected. I moving on to other troubleshooting to see if I can see a reason for this.
I installed utilities and driver disk but no change

Edited by mowpar, 04 December 2014 - 11:28 AM.

[phillpower2]

For one reason or another you are either not doing or not being allowed to do what is required.

 

The present Windows 7 OS and Dell data on the HDD does not come into this, we are trying to get rid of this rubbish by formatting the HDD and you should not even be seeing anything to do with Windows or Dell if you do this correctly, one clue that you are not doing this as you should is the following " Now when I open computer, put in drive" Please see below;

 

You are meant to have changed the boot sequence in the BIOS so that it boots from a USB device first and the HDD second, you must also ensure that you save these settings and exit.

You then insert the USB thumb drive that has your Windows 7 ISO and download tool into a USB port, then restart the computer;

The computer will then boot from the thumb drive where you must choose the Custom Install that will allow you to fully format the HDD and get rid of all of the present nonsense that is causing you all of this grief, I am sorry but I cannot explain this any better.

[mowpar]

Thanks, and I understand your directions, thoroughly, I am sure the what you describe here again, is exactly what I have done. To bad you can,t remote control my pc through this forum. Then you could see for yourself things are just not doing what they are suppose to.

I am going to run through the steps word for word and then tell you exactly what happened if something does at each and every step.

After this I am with you, I will just keep this OS on computer, use it until it crashes and then enjoy the [bleep] out of it when I burn it.

Great, now when I boot up the computer it says starting windows,,,starts to show the colorful window,,,then goes blank and shows Dell round insignia, then to windows is starting up, this goes on and on and on, I have never seen anything like this before.

Edited by mowpar, 04 December 2014 - 06:19 PM.

[mowpar]

Nothing is working like it should. I tried to to factory restore and start from there, but there was no image there to be found. I'm guessing this because of the hard drive replacement I don't know, and I don't now care. Thanks for all your time, to bad all the work did not solve things. This computer is possessed. Can you please mark this thread closed. I read somewhere to mark solved when done but I could not find the place to do that.

[phillpower2]

You have put so much time and effort into trying to resolve this it would be a shame to give up on it now, I am more than happy to continue if you are 

 

I suggest that you wipe the HDD using the autonuke feature of DBan, this will get rid of everything on the HDD and allow you to do a fresh install of Windows 7, tutorial and DBan ISO download from here let me know what you think.

[mowpar]

I am happy to continue, just feel at this point, you are not just helping me, but that I am taking advantage of your generosity . I know you said you are more than happy to but still.

Thanks for the link to get rid of the hard drive, I never thought of burning this computer from the inside.
Hope this stupid computer will let me burn a cd, it usually does not do what is asked of it. Will switch to XP if I have to, to get
the CD burned. I will edit and post here if you do not post between time, and after if you do.

I went to the boot setting and selected the cd to boot first, (burned CD)',,,,,,would happen, then looked at the options section and found the disable setting, selected that, and then selectued boot from. CD and it started the process, hard to believe this computer acted right long enough for me to get this done. I know people will think this stupid but I have to say, I would swear after all the heavy and continuous complaining I have done trying to get Dell to fix this computer, led them to destroy through their techs that loaded the hard drive, because I complained to Dell about the techs too. I told them long ago while the software too was under warranty that I wanted a replacement pc, that this one kept crashing. They kept telling and showing me what to do, online to fix, these sessions sometimes would last 2 hours or more. After the fix, something else would pop up, and then back on the phone for 2 hrs more. They just kept putting band aids on this pc, then when the warranty , ran out, the first thing they wanted was 139 dollars to extend the software on line help. Now the wanted 139 dollars to not help when before they were not helping for free.
I have had Dell computers almost exclusively, I think I had one HP, I have never had anything li,e this happen before with any of them. Now I think if I had, I would have been given the same run around I got from Dell over this pc. This will be the last Dell anything I will have in my house.

I just wish I could post experience with this company, somewhere, where it would be seen by many many others. I have sent this information to Dell every time they send an email asking for feed back, but they do not respond in any way. Thanks for letting me vent here, cheaper tan going to therapist.

If I had not been laid off from work this fix would have taken a lot longer, then again if I were working, I would have bought a new very expensive Apple PC.

THIS. COMPUTER WIPE IS TO TAKE AROUND 2 HRS, WILL GET BACK AS SOON AFTER THAT AS I CAN, FOR HOPEFULLY MORE INSTRUCTION. THANK YOU PHIL FOR DOING THIS FOR ME!

Drik's boot and nuke, specified it would take up to 2 hrs, to do the job. It a been 3 hrs. now, and says it will be 19 and a half more.
Went back to site, it stated several hours not two.

Edited by mowpar, 05 December 2014 - 02:09 PM.

[phillpower2]

No worries we are here and happy to help if we can   

 

I`m afraid that you will need to persevere with it however long it takes, also keep in mind that you cannot use the computer as it is/was + it will give you a break from trying to fix the mess left by the so called Dell techs.

 

I will be around throughout the weekend so post back when you are ready.

[mowpar]

After the Dban was through. I followed instructions, and was at the point where it wanted me to press any key. ,,I press any key,,,,the first prompt I saw to press any key, was duplicated, keep pressing keys I keep getting the duplicate prompt.

Have went back to bios to make sure everything still as they should be, and they are. I even put in a different usb altogether, just to see if it would be processed and got same result.

So it goes, when trying before the wipe of HDD, pc would not respond to 1st boot usb set up.
Ran a pre boot system assessment scan, first phase of scan was OK. Recommended I scan in the 2nd phase, that scan seems to never ends close I got was 96%. Then gave up. Not knowing if this was important to my situation or not.

Edited by mowpar, 06 December 2014 - 03:03 PM.

[phillpower2]

Can you first of all insert your USB device that has your ISO on it into another computer, open it and view the contents of what is on the flash drive and let us know.

 

 

So the first boot device is still a USB device and the second the HDD.

 

Please note that you should not insert any other USB device into the computer other than the one that you have created to reinstall Windows 7, data could be installed to the HDD which could prevent the installation of Windows if you are unlucky.

 

So it goes, when trying before the wipe of HDD, pc would not respond to 1st boot usb set up.

Ran a pre boot system assessment scan, first phase of scan was OK. Recommended I scan in the 2nd phase, that scan seems to never ends close I got was 96%. Then gave up. Not knowing if this was important to my situation or not. 

 

 

It is unfortunate that you did not mention this before wiping the HDD as it suggests that the HDD itself may have issues, this would have been something that you could have taken up with Dell as in being provided with a replacement HDD that is faulty.