Hi, first time poster here.
I have a BIG problem with my Dell laptop. I've had it a few years, and it's was still running WIndows 7. I have another laptop with Win 8, and I don't like it, so I left well alone on the Dell.
When Win 10 was announced as a free upgrade, I decided to install it on the Dell, Stupidly, I neglected to create a Win 7 boot disc first, just in case. Oh how naive...
Ran the WIn 10 install, but it stuck at 48%. All the advice on the web was that if this happens, power down, wait a few minutes and power back up - which will revert it to the previous setup.
Well, it tried. But failed.
"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause".
"Insert your WIndows installation disc and restart your computer".
"Status: 0xC000000f"
"Info: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible"
So I look for my old Win 7 disc. Can I find it? No. If I ever had one, it may well have been thrown away by now.
I tried contacting Microsoft and they were no help - they said it looks like my laptop was not suitable for Win 10 (not what they said when I got the original upgrade info).
So, how do I get a legit replacement Win 7 disc to boot up the machine? It's was a legal copy, so would Dell not have this on their records against the laptop serial number?
Hope somebody can help.
Mike