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macintex42

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6 Posts

4235

March 14th, 2018 08:00

Windows 7 recovery media won't boot

I have two identical Optiplex 990s One of them needs to be reloaded after an issue. These came from another branch of our company that was shut down so I don't have the factory install disks. (If they even came with them) I do have a set of recovery DVDs made from the good machine. When I attempted to boot up from the windows 7 recovery DVD, I received this boot message: Error 0xc000000f  "the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible"

So I went back to the good machine and created a fresh recovery media on a USB stick. This received the same error.

Is this problem with the recovery media that can be fixed or is it caused by attempting to recover to a different Service Tag number? The 990s have the embedded product key on the motherboard instead of the Microsoft sticker on the case.

Also, note that the bad machine will boot up from it's own hard drive. The drive is okay. There was a problem so I attempted a System Restore. This wiped out most user profiles and applications. I'm needing to start fresh because the normal admin password won't work on the only profile left from the restored version.

 

macintex42

1 Rookie

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6 Posts

March 20th, 2018 09:00

This machine came with the reinstall disks when it was new. Because of this, or its age, the OS recovery tool won't work for the service tag.

It seems the problem is with the recovery media. Comparing the DVD or Flash drive to a Recovery Media made from a different model of Optiplex, there are multiple files missing. That second machine must have problems with the boot file that are keeping it from being written to the recovery media.

I was able to find a reinstall disc from a different model of Dell that worked with the embedded MS product ID. This at least bypassed the problem and let me reinstall an OS on the machine.

Thanks for the help.

ieee488

4 Operator

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11.1K Posts

March 14th, 2018 10:00

@macintex42wrote:

I have two identical Optiplex 990s One of them needs to be reloaded after an issue. These came from another branch of our company that was shut down so I don't have the factory install disks. (If they even came with them) I do have a set of recovery DVDs made from the good machine. When I attempted to boot up from the windows 7 recovery DVD, I received this boot message: Error 0xc000000f  "the boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible"

So I went back to the good machine and created a fresh recovery media on a USB stick. This received the same error.

Is this problem with the recovery media that can be fixed or is it caused by attempting to recover to a different Service Tag number? The 990s have the embedded product key on the motherboard instead of the Microsoft sticker on the case.

Also, note that the bad machine will boot up from it's own hard drive. The drive is okay. There was a problem so I attempted a System Restore. This wiped out most user profiles and applications. I'm needing to start fresh because the normal admin password won't work on the only profile left from the restored version.

 

Check the BIOS and make sure that the setting is correct for the hard drive.

 

 

Philip_Yip

9 Legend

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16.1K Posts

March 15th, 2018 10:00

Use the Dell OS Recovery Tool to download the Windows 7 Pro Skylake Reinstallation .iso. Use this to clean install, see here for more details:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-oem-faqs-and-downloads/

Also ensure that they are both using a UEFI Boot with Legacy ROMs Enabled and Secure Boot Disabled.

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