How-To Geek

Hey guys,

So I'm dealing with a Dell Inspiron M5010 laptop running Windows 7. When the computer was first purchased through BestBuy, Geek Squad supplied two recovery discs. So two years later the computer is acting funny and we decide its best to wipe and recover it because it is being gifted to a younger sibling.

When restarting the computer with the first disc it does not recognize it so I had to go into the boot menu and change the boot priority. All 6 of them were set to hard drive and after looking online, I read I had to change the first priority to boot from the CD drive. Well after doing that and rebooting the computer, it began to load the files and brought me to Dell Data Safe (which by the way is a huge pain in the a$$). Well after messing around with Dell Data Safe we were able to get it to begin the recovery process. It prompted us to put in disc 2 which we did and it continued to recover. The computer finished and loaded saying something like "preparing for first time use".

We did the whole setup with the language, country, etc. Well when the computer is restarted, it comes back up with a screen saying:
"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language setting, then click "next."
3. Click "repair your computer".

If you do not have this disc, contact blah blah blah.

Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible."

I don't know if that is from the boot order? We have recovered the computer multiple times and tried as many different ways as Dell Data Safe would allow us. I tried to go back into the Boot Menu to look at the priority boots again and we reset them to default.
The order is:
1st: Discette Drive
2: Hard drive
3: usb storage device
4: cd/dvd/cd-rw
5: eSata
6: Network.

Keep in mind when I accessed this menu before recovering, all 6 of them said "hard drive". I'm trying to adjust them back to all "harddrive" just to test it out but it only switches up the order of the names.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you guys.

Thank you for your warm welcome!

I do not believe we formatted the drive. When we went into BestBuy to talk to GeekSquad a few weeks ago they said all we had to do was load the discs and we were done.

Obviously I should have done more research before diving right into it.

How do I format the drive? Can it be done from the boot menu/setup or do I actually have to be in Windows. I can't even get the computer to get to the desktop screen at all. Unless I recover the computer again in which it will load Windows but when I restart is when I get the problem. I have no problem with doing the recovery process again.

Thank you GS for your response.

EDIT* We didn't actually wipe the drive so to speak. We went directly to doing the recovery discs. I used wiped incorrectly I guess.

Thank you GS for your timely responses.

When I boot from the recovery disc it goes back into the DellDataSafe like it did when we recovered it in the first place. So if I continue it will just recover it again, then when restarted, bring me back to this error screen.

And in terms of the Recovery Screen, is that different from using F2 for setup and F12 for BootMenu? Because those are the only options it displays when the Dell logo turns on for a split second.