Windows 10 will not boot.

[BEZ]

Bjørn,
My XPS is licensed for Windows 8.1 pro ....I don't have a spare Windows 7 license just recovery disks for my workstations.

Frank,
Because I hated 8.1 so much I'm pretty sure I deleted the recovery partition during the Windows 10 installation, to save space on the little hardrive.
Looking back I have been very thoughtless throughout the upgrade on my little XPS. Sod's law that my caution with the three workstations has not been necessary up to now.

I just don't have the time to look into it properly at the moment  ....my problem is still that it won't boot from the suitable ISO. And I can only access F2 set up and F12 boot order which does not help my situation. Obviously the system is corrupt and it is not recognising the bootable USB.

Cheers
Bez

[Bjørn Rørslett]

BEZ

you  might bite the bullet and reinstall 8.1, then do the upgrade to win10.

http://www.redmondpie.com/download-windows-8.1-pro-iso-file-legally-without-product-key-from-here/

[BEZ]

Thank you for the link Bjørn I will give it a go, but my fear is that because it won't recognise the Windows 10 ISO (USB) it is not going to see this either.

When I have the time I can try to put this on a new drive and it will hopefully pick up my 8.1 licence from the motherboard. Then be more careful upgrading to 10.
Whatever way it looks like it is going to be a lot of hassle unfortunately.

Cheers

[BEZ]

Hello,
I had some free time and finally managed to crack DELL's restricted bios to accept USB boot, after a lot of frustrated attempts. It is like cracking a code. Why they make it so hard is beyond me, unless it is to stop the user fixing things himself?

I had to load Windows 8.1 and then upgrade to 10 to find my installation code. So after many hours I am up and running, I just have to decide whether to do a clean install now I have my code?

I would like to thank Bruno Schröder for his generous offer of help, I am very grateful.

Cheers
Bez   

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Glad you finally managed to sort this problem. Now, clone the fresh OS disk and store it somewhere safe ....

[BEZ]

Glad you finally managed to sort this problem. Now, clone the fresh OS disk and store it somewhere safe ....

Thank you for the reminder Bjørn, and your help with my problem.

Cheers