Dell needs help!

[Sepherus]

my solution to this problem: don't buy a dell :p

my recommendation would be to start it up try and get the most important files off the disk and then use the restore drive/ghost to fix it. Don't forget to scan the external drive for viruses before you copy any of the files back to the computer.

when i think something is infected on an external drive i usually start up Linux or use my kamikaze pc (a really really old stripped down laptop with a cut down version of windows on it, if something goes afoul it only takes about 15 minutes to reinstall).

i do actually use a dell but as an ftp server, with so many firewalls that if a hacker got into it i would have to meet him and congratulate him. Even so, i don't use all the pre-installed dell crap, 90% of them are a waste of space and resources.

[Luke122]

As a sysadmin, I actually recommend Dells to most people.

I'm suprised at how much bad press Dell gets. They arent bad computers, they just come with too much bloatware. Wipe clean, success.

Anyways, its not his computer, he was just trying to help a friend. Lets keep this thread on track.

[Vitaliy]

I'm currently posting from the dell =]. Ok I deleted the bad account. My question, the things that i disabled and stuff, is it okay to leave it like that and let him use the computer with all those disabled? Thanks, please post quick while im on this lol!

[nevermind1534]

You can either leave them unchecked, or just delete them from the list all together.

[moon111]

Just for reference purposes, I believe at one time Dell use to send an OS CD and a Resource CD. The Resource CD had the drivers on. BOTH Cd's were bootable. In fact, there was a hardware test one could do outside of Windows by booting of the Resource Cd.
I believe in the interest of saving money, some OEM's offer the customer the chance to burn their own OS cd when they first boot it up the system. If they ignore this, they're left without one.