Dell Inspiron 6400

[Mjolinor]

The XP install is trashed, blue screen on boot. It has a recovery partition, looked at it in Linux and it is intact.

CTRL F11 is supposed to start the recovery process but it doesn't do squat. Any suggestions other than install from an XP CD?

Cheers

[Nutsandbolts]

The XP install is trashed, blue screen on boot. It has a recovery partition, looked at it in Linux and it is intact.

CTRL F11 is supposed to start the recovery process but it doesn't do squat. Any suggestions other than install from an XP CD?

Cheers

Hi. I have a DELL INSPIRON 6000 and have done a number of factory restores using CTRL/F11 with no problems. I take it you re pressing CTRL/F11 as soon as you hit power button. Have you also tried PF8 to go into SAFE MODE and trying option 'RESTORE TO LAST GOOD CONFIGURATION'. I would keep trying CTRL/PF11 until it works. Also double check that it is CTRL/F11 for you PC and not PF1 etc.

Good luck.

[Mjolinor]

Tried all combinations of ctrl, alt, shift and F1 to F12 and ESC

Nothing works.

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi. Its definetely CTRL/F11 you need. You need to press CTRL/F11 as soon as you see Dell Official Site - The Power To Do More | Dell message. Can you get into diagnostics by pressing PF12 at start up??

Regards

[Mjolinor]

I can get the diagnostics perfectly but not the restore functions.

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi. If you get diagnostics using PF12 then i would have thought that CTRL/PF11 should also work. Does the diagnostics give any error indications.?? Like i said i have never had a problem with factory restores. You need to press CTRL/PF11 at first display (where it says PF2 SETUP PF12 BOOT MENU).
Regards.

[Mjolinor]

No errors in the diagnostics and I have removed the disk and tested it to death with Linux. I have also live booted linux CDs (several) and tested everything, no errors anywhere.

[Nutsandbolts]

Hi. Very odd as it seems that the disk is ok and no errors on diagnostics. Have you tried the F8 key for SAFE MODE? Do you get any error messages on startup?? I have had the blue screen of death as they call it a few times and been able to do factory restores without problems. Do you get the DELL logo at the beginning??
Regards

[Mjolinor]

Tried it all. Fixed it without reinstall by booting an XP disk and selecting "R"

It was not the normal blue screen, it said "unable to mount boot volume" or something similar.

Still can't get CTRL F11 to work though and it could really do with a reinstall.

[cunny]

Tried it all. Fixed it without reinstall by booting an XP disk and selecting "R"

It was not the normal blue screen, it said "unable to mount boot volume" or something similar.

Still can't get CTRL F11 to work though and it could really do with a reinstall.

Following 'R' for recovery. Id login to the windows install and chkdsk /r let it scan. Sounds like HDD is ballsing up mj. Would prob take a few hours to complete so leave it going over night.

Try the recovery then, But to be honest i'd trash the recovery and make your own with accronis or something similar

[Mjolinor]

I ran chkdsk /r under the command prompt in the recovery console, that is what got it going again.

I think I may know why CTRL F11 doesn't work. The only CD I had was XP pro, the license on the bottom is XP home. If there were the original image on then I would have expected some crappy message from Micro$hite about it being the wrong disk so if someone has installed XP pro on it then it may have removed the CTRL F11 option, that is if it is in the MBR/boot and not in the BIOS of course.

[cunny]

I would expect the CTRL + F11 to be in the MBR as when i have flattened recovery partitions before it removes the MBR and the function.

I dont usually make recovery partitions just have a OS cd to hand, the recovery partitions are always loaded with bundled crap anyhow