Okay, I need some tech support ahh !

[PoliceSeeker]

So I went to restore my mother's Dell inspiron mini. It's old I believe its an XP still. So the mini doesn't have a CD Drive.. It's a real piece of crap. Anyways i went to restore it back to the factory settings so I did CTRL + F11. A Window is suppose to pop up and prompt me with a warning blah blah everything gets deleted Restore or Reboot. Instead i get a window that says

" The Dell system recovery tool has detected an unsupported change in your master boot record. The tool cannot run at this time.

Please Call Dell technical support for assistance.

CAUTION: Do not manually shut down your computer. Click the FINISH button to reboot."

I've manually shut it down, unplugged the battery out of the back clicked the finish button and it always brings me back to this screen. It won't bring me to the desktop or even load help!!!!?

[Jacob2899]

Does Windows load? Windows might have been corrupted or uninstalled.

[zigziggityzoo]

I'm an IT guy by trade - so if I'm not allowed to post in this sub forum, sue me.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2009...b-flash-drive/

This is likely your best solution.

[JasperST]

Dump windows unless you have a must have program on it and install Linux. I'd recommend Zorin OS6, which is basically Ubuntu 12.04 (long term support) although tweaked to run a bit better. You can run a demo without installing it to see if you like it.

[asullivan]

I'm an IT guy by trade - so if I'm not allowed to post in this sub forum, sue me.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2009...b-flash-drive/

This is likely your best solution.

We don'ts "sue" peep's 'round these here parts.....





Looks like ya' mistaked this here town fer' Mayberry RFD or dump'in....








We unscrew yaz' leg, rip ya' head off and then stuff your foot down your throat..

Ya' heard the Admiral, stranger!

Does Windows load? Windows might have been corrupted or uninstalled.

Son, Go fetch da' Major wid' a link thingy, ta' this threAdy...

Ya' tell da' Major dat' iz' a sumMons him fer one PoliceSeeka',,, da' Major can'z help dis' here stanger..

Get now'z son...

Gud'z, dank ya' J2899.....

[Monty Ealerman]

Hi PoliceSeeker:

@ Jacob 2899: I think it's the MBR rather than the OS that's hosed. That's what the recovery process error message is saying. That doesn't mean the OS isn't hosed too.

@ JasperST: The X distro I favor is Scientific Linux available at https://www.scientificlinux.org -- it was vetted by labs (Fermilab, CERN, Argonne) and some universities.

@ OP: The message you're getting is telling you that your MBR is corrupted so the machine can't start the recovery process that's in a special location on your HD. That could mean a HW failure on the HD. Or maybe not.

Because you don't have a CD drive I have to agree with ZZZ (despite his silly so-sue-me attitude) that you should try to boot a rescue OS from a flash drive. Here's a link to a pretty good way to get that going: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/usb-booting/ If your BIOS doesn't support that (check whether it does in setup) you could pull the HD and restore it using another machine.

If you still are having trouble please feel free to email me at cu29@copmail.com

Regards,

Monty

[asullivan]

Dank's Major Monty'z..









NEXT!

[XD4ME]

Or just toss it and get a cheap new one.

[Jiu-Jitsu Cop]

Hey Sully for the record I was going to sue him, until you said we do not do that around here.

[asullivan]

Hey Sully for the record I was going to sue him, until you said we do not do that around here.

Awwww Shuck'z a' ronnie'z..

Tell's ya' what Sire Officer JJ,

Iz' will stomp him'z flat, den' iron him outs real'z nice like, cut him a bit...

'Den ya' can use him as a surf board thingy in shark infested waters.

Its a plus-plus fer' everybody'z, includ'in da' shark. Ya' get ta' ride da' waves and da' shark gets a.....

meat sub samach

[HeadDoc]

I really don't know why anyone uses Windows anymore. There are at least 100 distributions of Linux that are more stable, more versatile, and free. There are a few programs that you might need for which there isn't a Linux version, but so far all the ones I really need can run on my Linux systems under the Wine compatibility layer. I use Ubuntu simply because it's the best-supported and most widely-used version (to the best of my knowledge, subject to correction) -- hence requires essentially no tweaking by me -- but there are many other good options. A Linux OS will breathe new life into an old computer because its memory and storage space demands are so much lower.

[HeadDoc]

I just browsed over and took a look at Zorin. It's pretty impressive. The average Windows user would never know the difference -- except for not having to pay for every new piece of software and never getting viruses, of course. Zorin touts itself as being designed for the Windows user who wants to transition to Linux and it looks ideal for the job. You can get the Zorin operating system free or you can pay 7 Euros and get a version tailored to your needs loaded with tons of specialized apps. Not a bad deal at all.

Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in Zorin or any other operating system. I do, however, think Windows sucks and I'd like to convert as many people as possible to Linux operating systems. The more people who use Linux, the better it will become.