Dell Inspiron 1764 windows 7 help please

[JayJ]

Hi all, my sister has given me a dell Inspiron 1764 but I'm having a bit of a problem. When I got it home I factory reset it through the F8 on start up route. All good all good I thought. Anyway I noticed the hardrive was partitioned into two parts C and D. What I did with my other laptop was delete D and then expand C through the disc manager or whatever, so thought I'd just do the same with this one. After deleting D drive the C partition wouldn't give me the option to expand it so that was a lot of hardrive space missing, the option was just greyed out. Ok I thought I'll just reset it again but it keeps throwing up the dreaded bootmgr is missing press ctrl + alt + delete. When I do this the bootmgr message comes up again.

I managed to get onto windows and created a repair disc but even after running this I still have a lot of hardrive space missing and still cant factory reset fully. Maybe I created a repair disc from the messed up system ? I've asked my sister for the original repair disc but at present she can't find it.

Could I pop a new copy of windows onto the laptop hopefully repairing the bootmgr then factory reset it so it's original again ? If that isn't an option has anybody got any ideas. I need to sleep I've been at it hours lol.

Jay

[izan]

Hi J,
Can you get into the recovery console?
Are you familiar with "fix boot" and/or "Fix MBR"

Have you played with any BCD managers?
HERE for a free version of EASYBCD.

You also might need a third party partitioning utility if windows can't dismount "C" to resize.

Have fun
I

[macmagoo]

You can use a windows 7 disk to reset the MBR. See link below.

www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20864-mbr-restore-windows-7-master-boot-record.html

Hope this helps.

[decoy]

as long as the s/n sticker for windows is readable its an easy fix
download the same ver of windows and the s/n will work and you should beable to go into advanced settings to fix the hd on start of reinstall

i use a prog to mount windows disk on a usb stick(needs to be 8 gig or more)and it makes it much faster to install think its called easydisk

[JayJ]

Thanks for the info chaps, it's very much appreciated. decoy do you know a reliable download source for widows 7 premium ? I've read a few stories of spyware been inserted into windows from third party sites.

Jay

[Ripshod]

www.pcworld.com/article/248995/how-to-install-windows-7-without-the-disc.html JayJ

Digital River are the official source of Windows 7 ISOs now (have been for a while)

[JayJ]

Thank you Ripshod I now have a working windows but ideally I would like the laptop as Dell produced it. I kind of liked the tools etc. I know they can be a bit bloated. If I could get an original disc provided with the laptop would this return it to factory now I have at least got a working system ?

Jay.

[Ripshod]

It probably would. But would be better to go to the Dell site and download the latest versions of those tools JayJ?


Link

[JayJ]

Ripshod You'd most probably be right but that is if I knew what I was doing Thats why I thought if I could now pop the original disc in and restore to factory now I have a working widows, I could then just bury me head.

Jay

[Ripshod]

JayJ If you know how to make a system restore point then yes, I'd recommend that. Even without the restore point it may still work, but if it goes wrong you may have to fart about fixing it all again.

[JayJ]

Thanks Ripshod the laptop is running but it all looks a bit pants, The screen resolution and everything just doesn't seem right. I've adjusted it to it's highest settings (it only seems to have two) and still no better. I also would like all the original features, I can't even run the webcam even though it sees it. If only I could source the recovery disc but alas I feel I'm searching in vain.

Jay

[Ripshod]

You'll need to find out who made the graphics etc etc and download the latest drivers m8. Or run windows update and use the (crappy) microsoft drivers.

Give me a min JayJ I'll get you a link for the graphics drivers

ETA: Go here and run the 'System Analysis'. It should come up with a list of what you need to download and the relevant links.

[decoy]

ah ha its because they dont support windows 7 anymore so its not auto updateing i think
go to the dell sight and download the drivers for the laptop then the software and it should be sorted i thought it was just windows you needed

if its running visit this link on it and download everything for it
www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukdhs1/?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&~ck=mn

[meeee]

Most dell's store many of the required drivers in either a called c:\Dell or c:\drivers, just goto the device manager and update the driver for the display adaptor, when prompted point to one of the 2 folders I have mentioned.

[JayJ]

Right I seem to have got things up and running but as you can see from the attatched piccy I have alot of unused disc space going unused. How can I make that part of my C drive which is obviously not big enough. I know I can right click computer through the start menu, select manage, and then disc management, from there what I thought was to delete the partition that was "free space" highlighted in green, then right click the C drive and extend volume. Thats what got me into this trouble in the first place though as the extend volume was greyed out and then no bootmgr, so I'm very reluctant. Ripshod decoy meeee , computimibob people your assistance thus far has been invaluable.

Jay

Edit: Image not adding

Edit: Tinypic image on next page