Windows 8 reinstall problems

arcadian

New Member
Messages
2
Hi There,

My new laptop is a Dell Inspiron 17r SE, with windows 8 installed.

It came with a 1TB 5400rpm drive, but with second bay, and I installed a 256gb samsung 840 pro ssd then successfully cloned the OS onto that, which now runs fine (ish) as the main drive, with the old one as a storage drive.

When I say the new HD is fine-ish, sometimes random Dell programs will interrupt whatever I'm doing and occasionally if I'm using a program (say a game) it will "crash" to desktop - although I say "crash" the program doesn't fail, it just returns to the desktop with whatever program I was using being minimised, which is both weird and annoying.

Due to that I wanted to reinstall/refresh my win 8 install, but then my troubles start. I created a bootable recovery usb, which the win 8 recovery program doesn't seem to want to reinstall from... it'll restart, boot from the usb, I select the language/keyboard setting and it just goes back to the options screen rather than proceeding to reinstall windows 8.

Likewise, recovering from the recovery partition fails, as does the "reinstall windows" option in the pc settings bit of windows 8.

As Dell didn't include install discs (as the win 8 key is embedded into the bios etc), I have no way of reinstalling windows 8 now as none of the recovery features are working for me, so am stuck with a glitchy windows 8 instead.

I was really hoping someone on here might know a bit more about what I could do to solve this? Thanks in advance for your help :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
i'd appreciate some feedback on this too, it appears we're both stuck on the same place, though the issue is that i haven't even been able to use my laptop!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Welcome to EightForums.

I would return to the Dell store for replacement.

Or a clean install with Dell DVD's.
How to order Recovery Disks.
RouteTo
Dell - Support
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
I had tried Dell support last week, they weren't very helpful. Tried again on Thursday and they were a lot more helpful, sent out a windows 8 disc which arrived earlier today.

Unfortunately, reinstalling from that doesn't work either! It gets so far into the reinstall process, then hangs forever on a bit where it says it is due to restart. Tried a couple of times and left it over an hour last time to see if it ever would restart.

The Dell disc I have says "Dell operating system, already installed on your computer, windows 8 recovery media for windows 8 products, 64 bit". I'm guessing, but this doesn't seem to be the full version of windows 8, but rather another recovery disc (my own ones didn't work out).

If they sent an actual windows 8 os disc, rather than a recovery disc, would that fare any better?

NOt sure what my options are really - I was going to try the reinstall on the original 5400rpm HD, then try to clone it to the ssd again and see if that works. Or maybe see if I have a spare old copy of windows 7 somewhere! :/
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I would 1) return the machine to Dell or 2) get out from under Dell's thumb by buying a second (but full-install) license. Specifically, I would buy MS system builder full install software (under the personal-use license) and obliterate the Dell installation.

You presumably would be much better off with an upgrade install DVD provided by Dell. Will they send you one? The chances are as close to zero as I can imagine.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win7 Ult on DIY; Win8 Pro on MBP/Parallels; Win7 Ult on MBP/Boot Camp; Win7 Ult/Win8 Pro on HP
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    DIY Rig; MacBook Pro (MBP)/Parallels/Boot Camp; HP Pavilion dv6500t Laptop
    CPU
    Intel i7-2600K (sometimes OC'd to 4.8 GHz)
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8P67 Deluxe Rev B3
    Memory
    16 GB Corsair Vengeance
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA 570 SC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gateway
    Hard Drives
    Dual Boot:
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on OCZ Revo x2 and
    Win7 Ult RAID 0 on Caviar Black SATA 3's
    PSU
    Cooler Master Silent Pro 1000W
    Case
    Cooler Master 932 HAF
    Cooling
    Zalman CNPS9900MAX-B CPU Fan
    Keyboard
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Mouse
    Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 5500
    Internet Speed
    20 Mbps Download/2+ Mbps Upload
    Other Info
    Pioneer Blu-ray Burner/DVD Burner
Hello, I have a Dell XPS 8500 and after trying to refresh Windows 8 my computer would not reboot etc ... Long story short, I called Dell and they mailed me the Windows 8 Recovery Media Disk. I reinstalled Windows 8 without a problem.

Put your recovery disk in the dvd/cd drive and reboot, start tapping F12 you should see the boot options menu. Select the Bios option then boot options. Scroll down to Secure Boot and set it to disable, from there scroll down to boot mode and set it to UEFI. Hit F10 and then yes to save the changes. When your computer reboots tap F12 again, you should see 2 options to boot your dvd/cd drive one in legacy mode and the other in UEFI mode.

Select UEFI, when the windows disk loads select your language and install. Choose custom install, select a partition and chose drive options and delete all of the partitions so your entire disk is unallocated space. Then just click Next and windows will install.

After you install all your drivers, programs, windows updates ...go back into the bios and set Secure Boot to enabled.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8
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