Hello everybody,
Since this machine has become extremely slow I tried to either do a system recovery or reinstall windows 7 from the Dell dvd. Unfortunately neither option works.
Recovey: When I call up the menu (f8) the first option I get is Computer reparieren (repair computer). Going with that option the machine is loading files for a while, then I choose language and give the admin pwd. After that I get more options, however Dell Factory Image Restore is not one of those. I checked and there is a recovery partion on the hd and windows system tools indicate it's healthy.
Reinstallation: The Dell reinstalltion dvd just doesn't play in my dvd drive. The machine doesn't boot from it and if I try to open the dvd while the computer is running it fails again. Now the funny thing is the dvd opens just fine in other machines, while the dvd player in my inspiron plays other dvds just fine.
So what options do I have? I tried booting from an external dvd drive, but apparently bios doesn't allow for booting from external devices like usb stick or usb connected dvd drive.
I even tried to copy the reinstallation dvd image to a new disc but that doesn't work because the image is more than 6 GB large so doesn't fit in a normal dvd.
So I'm out of ideas right now. Any help would be very welcome!