No User Setup Prompt After Reinstall

[Xantom]

I am trying to reinstall my friends 7 Home premium 64 bit OS on a Dell Inspiron 560. I created recovery disk with Dell Datasafe when they initially purchased the computer. Whether I use the disks or the image on recovery partition, I am not being prompted to setup a user. The recovery process completes and then after reboot I am prompted to enter a user name and password, but no user exists. The Administrator account is there but it is disabled, I couldn't find anyway to turn that on without getting to a CMD prompt window. No access through safe mode either.
The initial issue was after being prompted and ultimately installing an "update to hard drive" they were receiving this error.

"winload.exe missing windows cannot verify the digital signature"

Any ideas??

 

[Pinky]

What do you mean when you say "no access through safe mode either"? When you lcik the admin account on the safe mode login screen exactly what happens?

 

[Xantom]

What do you mean when you say "no access through safe mode either"? When you lcik the admin account on the safe mode login screen exactly what happens?

Sorry I should have clarified. I do not get an option to select the Administrator account in safe mode. In both cases, safe mode or standard startup, I am prompted with the logon screen asking for a user name and password. I have ran OPH crack and the only user accounts are administrator and guest, both are indicated to be disabled.

 

[Pinky]

Find/download one of the newer Hiren's boot cds and there's a few utilities on there that can enable windows accounts. Don't know which one will work off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure I've had to use them before. Be sure to set a password, even if it's just temporary until you get into the account.