Cant restore/re-install windows vista


Recommended Posts

This is a long shot but here goes..

I've been given a Dell Inspiron 5745 to fix, it had strange behaviour in Windows, black screens, crashing etc.. he had a couple of viruses i cleaned it up, gave it back, he brought it back saying it wasn't working properly..

I booted it up and it was taking forever, then explorer was crashing and lots of other weird things, straight away i thought the hdd was dying so i ran a disk check.. it passed.

i ran a DELL hardware diagnostics test, everything passed.

since then i can't boot into windows, it's a black screen with a blinking cursor, it gets past the dell BIOS screen and wont go any further.

i put removed the drive and installed it as a secondary disk in a PC, i backed up all data and put it back in the laptop.. still nothing.

i've googled 'dell Inspiron black screen blinking cursor' and loads of people have the issue, and only fix was reinstalling windows.

so i've popped in a windows vista disk, booted from it... when it gets to the screen to choose a drive i deleted the OS partition, created a new partition and click next, but get an error:

"Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installing"

What the hell does this mean?

The HDD is a Samsung Spin Point.

I'm really stuck, the HDD is fine, it has no errors, system passes all tests... it just seems it's decided it doesn't want to be compatible anymore?

Any suggestions at this point?

The Dell hardware diagnostics are only a step up from nothing as regards quality of diagnosing issues.

I would recommend grabbing the actual Samsung utility for checking the hard drive, and Memtest86 the RAM.

BTW the utility for Samsung drives is made by Seagate for some reason, and can be found here: http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

The Dell hardware diagnostics are only a step up from nothing as regards quality of diagnosing issues.

I would recommend grabbing the actual Samsung utility for checking the hard drive, and Memtest86 the RAM.

BTW the utility for Samsung drives is made by Seagate for some reason, and can be found here: http://www.seagate.c...loads/seatools/

I've just tried the samsung utility, it came back OK.

I'm fairly confident the disk is OK. i booted from vista disk, clicked repair your computer, the OS wasn't listed.. it says if your OS is not listed please load drivers, i click this and i can browse the entire disk, which has the dell recovery partition and the empty partition i created, both accessible no problem, just not in setup.

I've googled i can boot with WinPE and load the recovery partition and install it that way with something called ImageX?

booted into the command prompt and ran:

C:\Tools\imagex /apply C:\dell\Image\Factory.wim 1 D:\[/CODE]

Progress: 0%

Error restoring image.

The system cannot find the path specified.

If i try and go onto the D:

The volume does not contain a recognised file system.

Please make sure that all required system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

Stupid question, and I think I already know the answer...but have you tried F8 right after the BIOS screen to access the advanced options, and then went into the repair feature and told it to reload from the DataSafe local backup?

I can't get that far. pressing F8 does nothing, i'm left with a blinking cursor on a black screen.

I can however boot from cd, and press F8 which brings me to the advanced options, it offers no option to restore, just the standard safe mode, safe mode with networking etc..

So basically i should just take a hammer to it? ok. :rolleyes:

(seriously would if it was mine)

I've googled the issue and it's widespread with Dell laptops, ****es me off so much.

off topic

I've got 40 brand new HP PCs that crash when they fall asleep, HP support are useless and there's nothing available to fix it.

We bought 20 off them after the first 20, almost a year later.. same PC, same issue... and it was much further down the supply chain.

All of them decided to download a windows update yesterday that has thrown the computers into a restart loop.

hate windows.

Well Samsung drives are pretty crap to be honest. I don't know why Dell uses them.

Weird that all those machines would be stuck in a restart loop...if anything that actually points more to the machines in my opinion...something common (besides Windows) that is causing it.

What version of Windows and which HP machines are they?

That is because Hard Drives, RAM, Screen comes from Samsung ;)

I'm fine with the screens, but they are balls when it comes to making reliable hard drives.

RAM I'm on the fence...as I think I've had some Samsung in OEM systems...but never anything I'd buy myself for a PC.

I'm fine with the screens, but they are balls when it comes to making reliable hard drives.

RAM I'm on the fence...as I think I've had some Samsung in OEM systems...but never anything I'd buy myself for a PC.

For the year I had a 150 GB HDD from Samsung, 2 GB they worked nice. Never had problems.

But wanted more space and RAM so I replaced them both. On the other hand, the screen has kept up nicely for 4 years :p

depending on what os they are running (probably 7) several updates can cause restart loops check this out

http://www.<< spam >>/windows-updates-activation/219879-windows-update-kb2639308-causes-infinite-startup-loop.html

i searched google for 'restart loops caused by windows update'

What version of Windows and which HP machines are they?

HP Pro Slimline 3300 SFF Windows 7 x64. i3 machines with 4gb ram run beautifully, they are compact and silent.. which why we use them, but sometimes they'll fall asleep and never wake up :( i've never been able to find a solution.

Now today they are all just restarting, it says configuring updates, gets to 100%, restarts, then does the same again, haven't had chance to look at it yet.

I'm fine with the screens, but they are balls when it comes to making reliable hard drives.

RAM I'm on the fence...as I think I've had some Samsung in OEM systems...but never anything I'd buy myself for a PC.

Are they run my Seagate now or something? all searches for drivers sent me to Seagate.

Are they run my Seagate now or something? all searches for drivers sent me to Seagate.

I'm not entirely sure. I didn't dig too deep.

Personally I stick with Western Digital and don't run into this issue. I also generally call up if I'm having a system built by an OEM and request they use WD drives, even if it means charging extra.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Google reportedly limited Meta's Gemini access over limited AI compute by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly limiting Meta's use of its Gemini AI models after Meta tried buying more computing capacity than even Google could supply. According to the Financial Times, Google told Meta in March that it could not provide the full Gemini capacity that Meta had requested. This shortfall even disrupted and delayed some of Meta's internal projects. Due to this, Meta even told its employees internally to use AI tokens more efficiently. Meta wasn't the only one to get hit by this sudden refusal by Google; even other customers were affected. But Meta was hit harder because of its unusually high demand for Google's models. The move from Google makes it evident that companies all over are in limited supply of both infrastructure and compute. Alphabet said in April that Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-over-year to $20 billion in the first quarter, helped by enterprise AI infrastructure and AI solutions. In pursuit of more compute, Meta had earlier signed a multi-billion-dollar AWS agreement as well as a large AMD GPU deal for AI data centers. But the crunch would be short-lived as both Meta and Google have also ramped up infrastructure investments heavily. Meta said in November that it was committing more than $600 billion in the U.S. by 2028 for AI technology, infrastructure, and workforce expansion. In the first quarter of this year, Meta also raised its expected capital expenditure for 2026 to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, citing higher component pricing and additional data center costs for future capacity. However, this doesn't make the company immune to the current dependence on outside suppliers. Meta has also spent many years promoting Llama as an open-weight alternative to closed models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. But if the reported reliance on Google's Gemini models is severe enough for internal work to get impacted, then it looks like even frontier labs and Big Tech aren't fully self-sufficient. Source: Financial Times
    • I like to reminisce about the good old days, way back in autumn 2025 when building a gaming machine was fun and the drives were about $150 when you caught a deal. Yes duh, back in the day we had it gone. Then baby Skynet came along, hiding in AI datacenters demanding more processing power until it reached singularity. End of a not totally fictional story.
    • My experience in the past with older Windows 11 builds was not great on unsupported machines but I recently used Rufus to put the latest build on a older 5th Gen Core Thinkpad T that we upgraded with a SATA SSD and 8GB of RAM four years ago when hardware was reasonable and it seemed pretty fast and solid. Customer is very happy with the performance and will probably get four more years out of that venerable laptop that he loves so much. Another customer just retired his Dell Studio laptop from 2009 running Windows 10. It got an SSD over 10 years ago and did everything he needed it to for 17 years but he also retired last year and is happy doing everything on his iPad now.
    • Apple's newest AirTag 2 gets first big discount by Taras Buria In late January 2026, Apple introduced its second-generation AirTag trackers, bringing a refresh to the old model that has been on the market for half a decade. Now, you can get these new trackers at an all-time low price, thanks to the first big discount that brought the price down by 17% on Amazon. While the second-generation AirTag looks identical to its predecessor, it packs meaningful upgrades inside. The second-gen ultrawideband chip works 50% farther than the original AirTag, allowing you to detect lost items in a wider range. In addition, the second-generation AirTag features an upgraded Bluetooth chip for extended range and a significantly louder speaker (up to 50%) so that you can hear it better when locating a lost item. Note that the second-gen AirTag only works with iPhones and iPads that run iOS/iPadOS 26 and newer, so you need a compatible device to use the tracker. Like the original AirTag, the AirTag 2 is available in two packs: one and four pieces. Both are now available at a notable discount on Amazon, and you can purchase them using the links below. Apple AirTag 2 tracker - $24 | 17% off on Amazon Apple AirTag 2 tracker (four-pack) - $89 | 10% off on Amazon Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S.- specific and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • I've been on Deezer for over a decade, but glad that Tidal joined them in fighting AI slop. Can't stand such takes as Spotify's: "Spotify's CEO recently pushed back against listeners who call AI music "slop," urging people to stop using the term and instead embrace the creative potential of AI music."
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      536
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      267
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!