Laptop recovery help

My daughter bought her two nephews a laptop last August, a Dell Inspiron 1545. She set it up for them, and burned a recovery disk at that time. She handed the recovery disk to her sister, our other daughter, for safe keeping.

Now, nine months later, the laptop will not boot. The exact details on that are a bit fuzzy--they live 3500 miles away. It seems that my younger daughter hid the recovery disk in such a safe place that it cannot be found. The two boys, ages ten and eleven, are no real help.

The laptop has two months remaining on the warranty, so there might be hope.

I have the Service Tag: 4Y4J5N1. Will a recovery disk from another system work on their laptop?

Where should I start in trying to rescue their laptop?

if the have access to an internet conection and a working computer, they should download ubcd for windows. that will probably boot the computer and they can do some diagnostic stuff to figure out the problem(s) on their computer.

I was sitting here at my other daughter's house, using her laptop to check answers, when I suddenly realized that it too is a Dell Inspiron, a 1420.

I just made a new repair disk for her. She had not made one when she upgraded from Vista to W7. The process was so easy as to be unbelievable.

Then it dawned on me---both computers are Dell Inspirons, both with W7 as an operating system. Could I make a repair disk on this laptop and send it to my other daughter to repair my grandsons' laptop? This is W7 64 bit on this laptop. I honestly don't know about the other laptop, whether it is 32 or 64 bit. I'm guessing that would make a difference, that they would have to match.

If I do send her a repair disk I'll also send a UBCD disk. It's easier to make and send than to talk her through the process of making one.

There should be a recovery partition right on the harddrive which you can access by tapping the F8 key when you see the Dell logo at startup. Keep tapping until the Advanced Boot Options menu appears. Then choose Repair your Computer. There will be a few different options, one of which is Restore to Factory Image. Take your pick.

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Originally Posted by Ol'Tunzafun

There should be a recovery partition right on the harddrive which you can access by tapping the F8 key when you see the Dell logo at startup...

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I'm not sure that it's getting that far. My understanding is that it is not. Keep in mind that I'm doing this all by phone, and mostly, by email. My daughter did get a screen capture, or maybe just an outright photo, of the error screen. I'll attach it, I think.

If it is an actual restore disc and not an OS disc plus drivers, then it would not work unless it is the exact same model.

Dell will send you a replacement cd for somewhere between free and the cost of shipping.

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Originally Posted by Midknyte

If it is an actual restore disc and not an OS disc plus drivers, then it would not work unless it is the exact same model.

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This brings up an interesting point. Do I want an actual restore/repair disk? The OS disk has a repair function, doesn't it? Would the OS repair function work on something like this?

My older daughter could lend her W7 upgrade disk to her sister for the repair function. Both computers, my older daughter's Dell Inspiron 1420, and my grandsons' Dell Inspiron 1545, are running W7, 64 bit. There would be no advantage to my younger daughter since both systems are already W7 64 bit. Would that work?

I spoke today with Dell tech support, with a gentleman with a pronounced Indian accent. He wanted to talk, almost as though he had a prepared script, but didn't really want to listen. It took a while for him to understand that I could not do as he was telling me on the computer, that the computer is 3500 miles away. He finally gave me a procedure which he claimed works 80% of the time.

1) Remove the battery, unplug the wall charger.
2) Press the power button 10-15 seconds.
3) Replace battery and wall charger.
4) Boot.

He swore that is a valid procedure, but it doesn't seem quite right to me. My daughter email that it did not work.

I still need either a repair disk, or to know that the upgrade disk will work as a repair disk. Am I missing any other options?

Any thoughts?

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The OS disk has a repair function, doesn't it? Would the OS repair function work on something like this?

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Repair and restore are two different things. OS discs can repair/replace files, but it's not a full system restore. Win7 also has a backup utility. That would be a restore, but you need to create the backup image BEFORE the drive dies.

I spoke with another gentleman from Dell tech support yesterday. He seemed to understand the problem much better than the previous tech support man. He seemed more knowledgeable and was certainly more willing to help solve the problem.

He is shipping me three disks, I think its three, which will include a repair disk, an installation disk, and a driver disk. I think those are what he listed. This morning I received an email giving me a tracking number, confirmation that they are on the way.

I'll report when they actually arrive.

Low and behold, the disks arrived today (Thursday), just one day after I spoke with tech support. I'm both amazed and impressed.

There are five disks:

1) OS--to use when it's already installed on your computer--ie reinstallation--W7 Home Premium 64 bit

2) Dell drivers and utilities

3) Dell Resourse Media--Webcam Central

4) Roxio Creator Premium SD 10.2

5) Cyberlink Power DVD DX 8.2

I really hope that these will solve the problem on my grandsons' laptop.