Vista Installation, Doesn't work, cannot fix or remove

N

Nucleo

New Member
Hey all,
This is my first post here and I am hoping some of you wizards can give me a hand here. I have a Dell windows vista 32bit business ed laptop.
the other morning, when I switched it on I noticed it began booting then stopped, looking at the plug I noticed it wasn't in all the way so I slammed it back in with my foot and continued to re-boot the laptop.

It booted requesting to do a chkdsk scan, fair enough I thought, I let it continue and it crashed on repairing an index.

It rebooted a second time with an option to load a 'repair' option, loaded this and one of the options in the list were to 'repair the boot files'. jolly good.... 13 hours later, it was still proceeding, but the HD light was at a constant on-off slow flicker, which it had been for the past 12 hours.

Resorting to the last option, I entered the vista disk and decided to try a repair from there, same issue as before, so Now i decided to format the drive and start again. The vista boot disk just said it couldn't format the drive, so i decided to install windows over the top!. It said it couldn't do that either!

What options do I have now? The laptop is absolutely useless, does it sound like a FUBAR'd hard drive? if it does, I think a swift call to dell is in order, or can anyone think of any fixes?

Thanks all.
 

My Computer

System One

Hello Nucleo,

Have you already tried doing a factory restore from boot?

Dell - Technical Support

Hope this helps,
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Hi there thanks for the reply,
When it attempts to do this from the dell restore cd-rom is just fails when attempting to reformat the OS partition. Im guessing defunct drive? any other suggestions?
 

My Computer

System One

check the hard drive cable as well.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire X1700
    Motherboard
    ASUS
    Memory
    3 gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 1 gig GeForce 210
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Vizio 21" tv
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080 resolution
    Hard Drives
    1 terabyte sata in 1 partition
    Cooling
    fans that came with it
    Keyboard
    basic USB
    Mouse
    basic USB
    Internet Speed
    3 megabits on a cable modem, wired
Hello Nucleo,
So your CD/DVD drive doesnt work at all?

Once i know this I will be able to further assist you.

Let us know,
Ben
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 420 @1.60 GHz
    Motherboard
    Dell Inspion 530 Default
    Memory
    PNY 4GB 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway PnP Monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1024x768 @ 75 Hz
    Hard Drives
    Seagate 250G ATA SATA-II
    Case
    Dell Inspiron 530
    Cooling
    None
    Keyboard
    Logitech EX100 Combo
    Mouse
    Logitech EX100 Combo
    Internet Speed
    100 MB/s
Hi,
No, the CD-Rom is functioning correctly. When I insert the restore CD it boots normally and I can proceed through all of the options. The option to restore vista or use dells own restoration software tells me it can't install vista and it can't reformat the hard drive.

I will double check the HD cables when I have time, although I am sure that there wont be anything too wrong with them.
 

My Computer

System One

apparently your problem should be HDD.

1 - check if the HDD light blinks when you turn on the Laptop
If not, the HDD does not load all necessary files to run windows


would be better to change your HDD and then reinstall Windows
 

My Computer

System One

The HDD does blink, during the repair process which gets stuck after hours the Hd blinks very repeatedly and slow. Would this be a call to Dell about a laptop packing up within warranty? As I have no apparent way of wiping the current contents and repairing the current windows OS.
 

My Computer

System One

Nucleo said:
The HDD does blink, during the repair process which gets stuck after hours the Hd blinks very repeatedly and slow. Would this be a call to Dell about a laptop packing up within warranty? As I have no apparent way of wiping the current contents and repairing the current windows OS.
Click to expand...

Nucleo

Can you take the HD to another computer? you can wipe it there, or at see what the problem is

Ken
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron E 1405
    CPU
    [email protected]
    Memory
    4 gigs
    Graphics Card(s)
    integrated intel 945
    Sound Card
    integrated
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    300 gig internal
    Internet Speed
    10 down 1.5 up
Ok,
If you have no files you absolutly need on the HDD, you can erase the hard drive when you are doing a install. First, you have to get/burn a installation DVD. Then boot from it. Click on more options when it asks you what HDD you want to install on. There should be an option to erase the HDD.
When you do this, you should be able to reinstall the OS, which will also result in a faster computer (hopefully);)

Let us know,
Ben

Nucleo said:
Hi,
No, the CD-Rom is functioning correctly. When I insert the restore CD it boots normally and I can proceed through all of the options. The option to restore vista or use dells own restoration software tells me it can't install vista and it can't reformat the hard drive.

I will double check the HD cables when I have time, although I am sure that there wont be anything too wrong with them.
Click to expand...
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Dell
    CPU
    Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 420 @1.60 GHz
    Motherboard
    Dell Inspion 530 Default
    Memory
    PNY 4GB 240-Pin SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway PnP Monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1024x768 @ 75 Hz
    Hard Drives
    Seagate 250G ATA SATA-II
    Case
    Dell Inspiron 530
    Cooling
    None
    Keyboard
    Logitech EX100 Combo
    Mouse
    Logitech EX100 Combo
    Internet Speed
    100 MB/s
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top