Computer help needed.

[DaveTN]

36 minutes ago, Randall53 said:

 Very good info. I’ll keep trying for sure. I did a complete backup about a month before it crapped out on me onto an external HD. 

Thanks again. 

Do you have a bootable CD/DVD or USB drive of any kind, old windows CD, anything?

[Randall53]

8 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

Do you have a bootable CD/DVD or USB drive of any kind, old windows CD, anything?

Actually I do Dave it’s on a usb flash drive and I made it while doing a backup about a month before it stopped working. but when I tried to use it the other day I just got a message that there as nothing in drive and it went into auto trouble shooting mode. Let me it could not read the drive.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Randall53

[Garufa]

If you can get it to the DOS prompt again run chkdsk /r /f (if you haven’t already). That will actually fix the disk, if it still doesn’t boot then drive is toast of there is a slim chance the OS is corrupt.

[Randall53]

10 minutes ago, Garufa said:

If you can get it to the DOS prompt again run chkdsk /r /f (if you haven’t already). That will actually fix the disk, if it still doesn’t boot then drive is toast of there is a slim chance the OS is corrupt.

I’ll give that a try also when I can get to it. I’m going to keep at it maybe with everybody’s help on here it’ll work again. Thanks for the help!

[DaveTN]

52 minutes ago, Randall53 said:

Actually I do Dave it’s on a usb flash drive and I made it while doing a backup about a month before it stopped working. but when I tried to use it the other day I just got a message that there as nothing in drive and it went into auto trouble shooting mode. Let me it could not read the drive.

Did you go into the bios and change the settings to boot off the USB first? I’m thinking the trouble shooting mode you are seeing is the bios and not the restore software on the USB. But that just a guess.

[analog_kidd]

On the bottom of the laptop will be a service tag number. Go to Dell.com and click support, and enter that number. It will take you to a downloads page. You may find an option to download a recovery boot image. If it is there, you can download that, and install it to a thumb drive and boot from it to reinstall the OS. 

If there is no recovery image, you can probably go here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 from a different PC and download the actual Windows 10 installer, and create a boot thumb drive. Since you have already activated your license, Microsoft will read the signature of your PC and cross reference it to their database, see that it has already been activated, and will just automatically reactivate it again. No need to purchase a new license.

As someone mentioned, you may need to go set the boot order in the bios, but usually there is a prompt as the PC is booting that says something along the lines of "One time boot option". A lot of times it is the F12 button, but may be different on yours. You gott abe quick, adn pay attention,  the prompt happens quickly and goes away. I usually have to reboot a few times before I can catch it. Press that key when prompted and select the Boot from USB option. That should boot the thumbdrive and allow you to reinstall Windows. You may have to go back to that Dell Download site and download the drivers for the laptop.

Bear in mind these are all destructive and will wipe your drive before reinstalling. You will lose all your files. If it were me, I'd buy a new SSD drive and replace it. Reinstall to the new drive. Then if you want, look on Amazon for an external SSD drive enclosure (here is just the first one I found, shop around: Drive Enclosure). Your drive is probably a SATA, but make sure you buy the right kind (same goes for replacing the old hard drive). You can put the old drive in the enclosure, and plug it into another PC, or the freshly rebuilt laptop and see if you can see the files on it. If so, copy them over to the laptop. As a bonus, once you have the files copied off, format the old drive and use it to back up the files on the laptop periodically.

[Randall53]

22 hours ago, DaveTN said:

Did you go into the bios and change the settings to boot off the USB first? I’m thinking the trouble shooting mode you are seeing is the bios and not the restore software on the USB. But that just a guess.

I don’t know how to get to the bios settings page. I haven’t seen that option in the screen the machine always goes to after the Dell screen tries it’s troubleshooting, fails, and then brings up after that. It does have several options but I haven’t seen that one. I can’t boot up into safe mode either pressing the f7 key while starting. How do I get to the bios setting page? When I put the usb boot disk I made into the USB port, it lights up several times like the bios sees it, but then when I try to boot it up I get a “no media in drive” message.

[Randall53]

13 minutes ago, analog_kidd said:

On the bottom of the laptop will be a service tag number. Go to Dell.com and click support, and enter that number. It will take you to a downloads page. You may find an option to download a recovery boot image. If it is there, you can download that, and install it to a thumb drive and boot from it to reinstall the OS. 

If there is no recovery image, you can probably go here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 from a different PC and download the actual Windows 10 installer, and create a boot thumb drive. Since you have already activated your license, Microsoft will read the signature of your PC and cross reference it to their database, see that it has already been activated, and will just automatically reactivate it again. No need to purchase a new license.

As someone mentioned, you may need to go set the boot order in the bios, but usually there is a prompt as the PC is booting that says something along the lines of "One time boot option". A lot of times it is the F12 button, but may be different on yours. You gott abe quick, adn pay attention,  the prompt happens quickly and goes away. I usually have to reboot a few times before I can catch it. Press that key when prompted and select the Boot from USB option. That should boot the thumbdrive and allow you to reinstall Windows. You may have to go back to that Dell Download site and download the drivers for the laptop.

Bear in mind these are all destructive and will wipe your drive before reinstalling. You will lose all your files. If it were me, I'd buy a new SSD drive and replace it. Reinstall to the new drive. Then if you want, look on Amazon for an external SSD drive enclosure (here is just the first one I found, shop around: Drive Enclosure). Your drive is probably a SATA, but make sure you buy the right kind (same goes for replacing the old hard drive). You can put the old drive in the enclosure, and plug it into another PC, or the freshly rebuilt laptop and see if you can see the files on it. If so, copy them over to the laptop. As a bonus, once you have the files copied off, format the old drive and use it to back up the files on the laptop periodically.

I may be heading that direction and thanks for the info. The SSD drives on the Dell site are not expensive at all. I’ve got an old HP laptop that will probably let me get the downloads to a flash drive. I do have a complete backup on an external drive that I made before it completely quit on my. So files wouldn’t be an issue. I’d just like to get it going again. 

[jgradyc]

SSD drives fail. I'd just buy a SSD off eBay. I found a new  Dell 128Gb SSD for $22 with free shipping. I put a 256GB SSD in my older Dell laptop last year. It was easy. If I recall correctly, it was $45 or so. I *think* it recognized the old key and I didn't have to pay for Windows. I don't remember. Maybe I had the old keycode somewhere. I'm sure I didn't have to pay for Windows. Regardless, it turned my dinosaur into a fast, functional backup laptop. 

[DaveTN]

2 hours ago, Randall53 said:

I don’t know how to get to the bios settings page.

When you see the Dell logo during POST, press the F2 key to enter the setup screen. They are kinda touchy and it may take a few tries.

Look for the BOOT settings. Right now the hard drive is the first boot device. Make the first boot device whatever you are going to try to boot from, whether that be a Windows DVD, or a USB drive. Make the second device the hard drive.

If you install windows from a USB drive, it will reach a point where it reboots. You need to reenter the bios and change the boot order making the hard drive the first device; otherwise it will start the install process over. If it does that; don’t worry. Hold the power button down until the PC shuts off. Remove the USB drive and turn the power back on. The Windows install will continue and if it needs anymore info from the install USB; it will prompt you to plug it back in.

If you aren’t trying to save any files on that PC, you don’t need that backup restored. And I wouldn’t do that unless you have a reason. Windows can do a clean install and then you can start adding stuff.

That will tell you if the hard drive is bad. But even if it is, and you get a new hard drive; you still need to be able to boot from wherever you are installing Windows from.

Don’t worry about buying windows. Windows 10 will install without a key. It will probably recognize your hardware and activate. If it doesn’t; you will have a functioning operating system for awhile and you can either buy a key, or then use whatever software you used to make that back-up and you can reinstall it. There have been a lot of changes in Windows 10, and installing the latest version would certainly make things easier.

[Randall53]

I sure know a lot more than I did a few days ago. I appreciate all the help and the information. I’m getting a little better everyday from the knee surgery and I’m going to get in my back room and see what happens. I do have it running with the CHKDSK /r right now and it’s been running an hour or so. 

[Randall53]

19 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

When you see the Dell logo during POST, press the F2 key to enter the setup screen. They are kinda touchy and it may take a few tries.

Look for the BOOT settings. Right now the hard drive is the first boot device. Make the first boot device whatever you are going to try to boot from, whether that be a Windows DVD, or a USB drive. Make the second device the hard drive.

If you install windows from a USB drive, it will reach a point where it reboots. You need to reenter the bios and change the boot order making the hard drive the first device; otherwise it will start the install process over. If it does that; don’t worry. Hold the power button down until the PC shuts off. Remove the USB drive and turn the power back on. The Windows install will continue and if it needs anymore info from the install USB; it will prompt you to plug it back in.

If you aren’t trying to save any files on that PC, you don’t need that backup restored. And I wouldn’t do that unless you have a reason. Windows can do a clean install and then you can start adding stuff.

That will tell you if the hard drive is bad. But even if it is, and you get a new hard drive; you still need to be able to boot from wherever you are installing Windows from.

Don’t worry about buying windows. Windows 10 will install without a key. It will probably recognize your hardware and activate. If it doesn’t; you will have a functioning operating system for awhile and you can either buy a key, or then use whatever software you used to make that back-up and you can reinstall it. There have been a lot of changes in Windows 10, and installing the latest version would certainly make things easier.

I really don’t need to save any files. I’ve got backup copies of my personal files on my external HD. A clean install would be perfect for my needs. 

[DaveTN]

14 minutes ago, Randall53 said:

I really don’t need to save any files. I’ve got backup copies of my personal files on my external HD. A clean install would be perfect for my needs. 

If you can, or get someone, to download the latest Windows 10 and create a USB install drive, that the way to go. It gives you the option of trying to save your files (I wouldn’t recommend that on a questionable drive) or do a clean install.  It also asks for a key and has “I don’t have a key” as an option. It will still install. I think you then have 30 days to deal with that, but I just did several clean installs on old PC’s lately and mine all activated fine. But my PC’s are registered on my Microsoft account and that could be why.

I'm just saying this because there is a possibility you simply have corrupted Windows. 

If it won’t install, it will probably tell you if you have a bad drive. If that’s the case; you get a new drive and rerun the install. I would replace that 128GB drive with a bigger one; they don’t cost that much more. But that’s certainly your call. Windows 10, Norton, Office, and all the miscellaneous stuff takes up a lot.

[Randall53]

23 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

If you can, or get someone, to download the latest Windows 10 and create a USB install drive, that the way to go. It gives you the option of trying to save your files (I wouldn’t recommend that on a questionable drive) or do a clean install.  It also asks for a key and has “I don’t have a key” as an option. It will still install. I think you then have 30 days to deal with that, but I just did several clean installs on old PC’s lately and mine all activated fine. But my PC’s are registered on my Microsoft account and that could be why.

I'm just saying this because there is a possibility you simply have corrupted Windows. 

If it won’t install, it will probably tell you if you have a bad drive. If that’s the case; you get a new drive and rerun the install. I would replace that 128GB drive with a bigger one; they don’t cost that much more. But that’s certainly your call. Windows 10, Norton, Office, and all the miscellaneous stuff takes up a lot.

I’ll have to try the f2 instead of f8. I have a usb boot disk. I’ll see if I can change it to boot from usb.

[DaveTN]

1 hour ago, Randall53 said:

I’ll have to try the f2 instead of f8. I have a usb boot disk. I’ll see if I can change it to boot from usb.

F8 is what you are using to access your recovery system. F2 will access the BIOS so you can change the settings for the boot sequence. I don’t know if you are familiar with changing bios settings or not; but be careful that’s all you change.

[Randall53]

24 minutes ago, DaveTN said:

F8 is what you are using to access your recovery system. F2 will access the BIOS so you can change the settings for the boot sequence. I don’t know if you are familiar with changing bios settings or not; but be careful that’s all you change.

[E4 No More]

On 12/12/2020 at 4:45 AM, DaveTN said:

They don’t use cd’s anymore they have a backup that will restore it to factory settings.

Yes, USB's now. Old habits are hard to break.