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Laptop Reformat


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Hey neowin, i have some questions about reformatting a laptop. I have done my fair share of reformatting desktops but i have never reformatted a laptop. There are some questions that i need help with

Dell Insipiron E1505 with XP media center edition

Reformat without manufacture cds

1. Is it okay for me to use my Dell inspiron 6400 xp sp2 cd to reinstall xp on the E1505?

2. What is the best way to install the necessary drivers of E1505?

3. Will i have a problem with the wifi?

My main concern is how would i install the drivers that the computer need? Download off website and place it on a flash drive to install after im done??

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You should check the documentation of your computer. There should be a key combination at startup that will take you to a factory condition restore. The files are on a hidden partition.. I don't remember the exact keys. I think F11 is one of them. This is why there's no disks that came with it..

LAubin

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The issue with factory restore is that laptop manufacturers preload a whole lot of junk that just isn't needed. It takes a format just to have windows the way it was meant to be.

You're going to get a lot of junk using another laptop's restore discs, and I think because it's OEM it wouldn't technically be legal. However, if you go ahead then in terms of drivers, each laptop manufacturer 'tweaks' drivers to work well with each specific model. So, let windows install its default drivers and then jump on the manufacturer's website to update them with the 'tweaked' drivers.

Once you're done there'll no doubt be legacy software and drivers on the system, but these days you can uninstall them through the control panel.

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I don't mean to troll, but I think the following links might have better luck helping you out.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=88032

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91494

I've got a 17-inch Dell (the E1705).

1. I think you should be okay (I think it just checks the manufacturer), but if you really want a manufacturer CD, call Dell and say that you want an OS cd, because you want to make sure you have a backup in case things go "kaboom!".

2. The above link should have that, though I didn't check too thoroughly.

3. You shouldn't, as long as you have the drivers installed.

That's probably your best bet. You could slipstream the drivers in with nLite, but I wouldn't go there. I tried, and a lot of the drivers Dell supplies don't have .inf files, so it's basically useless. Plus, you'd have to have a spare DVD. Last time I reformatted, I just copied all of the drivers (the SFX archives, with the little E icon) onto a flash drive. Make sure you rename them to helpful, or at least, informative names, instead of the crap R######.exe that Dell gives.

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Help!! I tried to restore the computer by using the factory restore setting.

I press CTRL F11 on startup to start the process. But after a while i get a blue screen of death.

Now everytime i startup the laptop it goes straight to system recovery instead of windows startup. But the system recovery fails and i get this blue screen of death

If problems continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe mode ot remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced startup Options, and then select Safe mode.

Technical information

*** STOPL 0x0000007A (0xE11F55F0, 0xc0000015, 0xBe1E0000, 0x1DB678c0)

Edited by HipHopaholic
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tried a hard reset?

worked with mine

pull all out of it (Power cable and Battery) and push the power button for 60 seconds

it worked for mine with the BSOD

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If the disk is the same version of Windows that was installed on the laptop then you can use it and it will work, just make sure to use the key on your laptop to keep everything legit.

As far as drivers go, you should be able to find everything you need online and just use a thumb drive to transfer them, assuming your wireless doesn't work after the install.

The only possible problem with wifi would be a driver issue, you may need to download drivers, dell.com should have them.

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Okay scratch everything. I ordered the original disc that came with the laptop

Dell Inspiron e1505

I tried to reformat but there were like 4 different partition. I chose the one with NTFS which is the biggest partition there. The problem is that when it finishes formatting, it does not proceed to the next step. It formats then extract the files, then i get an error saying that there was an error. It said that maybe something is wrong with the D drive which is the one that i reformatted on. What do i do now? I cant load up windows and i cant install windows.

The reason why i had reformat the computer becuase it had been very laggy when it comes to moving the mouse pointer. It did not move smoothly. No virus, no spyware. Could it be a hardrive problem?

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Do you have a standard XP CD? You'd be better off not using Dell's disks due to the amount of crap they include. As long as you have an XP CD, you can use the key on the certificate of authenticity underneath your laptop, then install the Dell drivers from a CD.

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Okay, let's start at the beginning:

1) No difference between formatting a laptop and a desktop. They are both just computers.

2) Do I understand correctly you want to format and install XP from scratch and not worry about the original setup as it was shipped (which, btw, is what I always do - new format from scratch the day the system arrives).? If so, is there anything on the other partitions you need to save? If not, just boot to the XP CD and FIRST, delete all partitions. ALL partitions. Okay, now go ahead and create whatever partitions you like & format them, make the c: drive "active", and install XP on that partition. That's it.

And by the way, this thread should not be in the Software forum (I only mention this because you might have gotten a better response in the correct forum).

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