[TonyR]

I'm attempting to perform a system recovery using the recovery partition. I can see this partition available in Windows. I do not have access to a USB CD/DVD drive. The steps from Dell are below. I have no trouble getting to the System Recovery Options screen, but I do not have the option for Dell Factory Image Restore, only the standard Vista options (Startup Repair,System Restore, Windows Complete PC Restore,Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, Command Prompt). I've seen on some other sites that many Dell's use Ctrl+F11 during bootup, but that doesn't seem to work. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Dell Factory Image Restore
Turn on the computer. When the Dell logo 1. appears, press <F8> several times to access the Vista Advanced Boot Options Window.
Select 2. Repair Your Computer.
The 3. System Recovery Options window appears.
Select a keyboard layout and click 4. Next.
To access the recovery options, log on as a 5. local user. To access the command prompt, type administrator in the User name field, then click OK.
Click 6. Dell Factory Image Restore. The Dell Factory Image Restore welcome screen appears.

[ravic]

If you reinstalled a os on the main partition (even with vista disk) then you will not see the dell recovery option any more.
If the Recovery partition is still there and intact, I am thinking there should be a way to recover from it.
May be using Bart PE or something like that.

I am also looking for a solution to this and will post what i find here.

[ravic]

Ok, here is what i found from this thread. I have not validated it yet.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=202164
Edit: Looks like this approach might not work for mini, but it is a step in the right direction


Guide to Making a Dell System Restore DVD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was going to make a guide for this a few months back. I never did. Its pretty simple though. Except for the last part.
your recovery partitian has a folder called Dell and inside there, a folder called image I believe. and then there's a factory.wim file which is your factory backup of windows before it was turned on. If you restore this file at any time, using the dell restore or your own version, on the next boot, your notebook will act like it did when you took it out the box.
that being said, what do you do to use it from a dvd?
Well just save your whole partition to another computer or jump drive first. But at least get that factory.wim file because thats all you need. Then you will need a bootable imagex cd or usb drive.
Once you boot into imagex using ur cd or usb drive, you can run the command to restore that factory.wim file from where ever you have it, back to your hard drive. Ive done it a few times. I use a 256 meg usb drive and my 40 gig usb drive with the factory.wim file on it. I could easily use the factory.wim on a dvd drive if I wanted. because the imagex acts like a memory OS, u can boot it up then eject the cd and put another media in the drive and it will still be loaded.
read about imagex in wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageX
And later I can get you the link to show you how to make a cd, usb, or bootable jump drive. I am at work so I dont have the link.

Once done you can even make another customized save of your cleaned up OS after you delete and modify your vista, and save that as another wim file for restoring later.

The only thing I didnt know how to easily do is, after you restore, they laptop wont boot right away. it will act like its not bootable, and at that point you have to put in a normal vista boot disk and run the restore option which will find the problem and make the restored factory image bootable.
__________________
TheDon

[TonyR]

Seems like a quite an effort just to use the built-in recovery partition. This is a new Mini12 from Dell, that I just got last week. It hasn't had any other OS installed, and I haven't messed around with the MBR.

After doing some more searching, I came across this page http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/ that makes me believe there is something wrong with the image stored on the recovery partition. I don't have the mini with me now, but I'll have to do some more poking around later on.

[ravic]

yup looks like the image they shipped is useless. It is missing files.

[itsonelouder]

Originally Posted by TonyR

I'm attempting to perform a system recovery using the recovery partition. I can see this partition available in Windows. I do not have access to a USB CD/DVD drive. The steps from Dell are below. I have no trouble getting to the System Recovery Options screen, but I do not have the option for Dell Factory Image Restore, only the standard Vista options (Startup Repair,System Restore, Windows Complete PC Restore,Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool, Command Prompt). I've seen on some other sites that many Dell's use Ctrl+F11 during bootup, but that doesn't seem to work. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Dell Factory Image Restore
Turn on the computer. When the Dell logo 1. appears, press <F8> several times to access the Vista Advanced Boot Options Window.
Select 2. Repair Your Computer.
The 3. System Recovery Options window appears.
Select a keyboard layout and click 4. Next.
To access the recovery options, log on as a 5. local user. To access the command prompt, type administrator in the User name field, then click OK.
Click 6. Dell Factory Image Restore. The Dell Factory Image Restore welcome screen appears.

Hi.

Have you made any progress with finding a solution to this problem? I have the same issue but the laptop is out of warranty so I can't get help from Dell. Have you contacted Dell technical support?

Thanks

[BITSian]

pop in ur vista cd and boot from it
note that the source drive letter may change while booting from the CD...so to find the new drive letter of the image..follow the next steps..

click install now
go to repair computer
click no when the attempt to recover startup window pops
go to System recovery options
select OS then click next..

it then checks for any backups...then select the option to browse for backups(i don remember the exact option)
there you can find the drive letter of the recovery drive containing the .wmi image.

go to the first window
click on command prompt and type the following
(there is an x: in the start of the command line)


e:
cd tools
imagex/apply e:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:\

here e is the source directory

and then the recovery starts...wait for around 15 minutes and then the process ends.The system restarts.

then i guess factory settings must've been loaded..

Now in case it isn't and if the startup recovery window pops up during the restart ,let it do its job (dont remove the vista CD).

The computer restarts and then the satrtup recovery menu again opens up and here you will find that the Dell Restore PC settings option will be present...click it to restore image...and everything should be fine then onwards....

[Dettery]

you can use the built-in recovery partition.

[jodevos]

have a dell e521 that has had xp installed over the primary partition but has the recovery partition in tact for vista.

Originally Posted by ravic

Ok, here is what i found from this thread. I have not validated it yet.
Guide to Making a Dell System Restore DVD
Edit: Looks like this approach might not work for mini, but it is a step in the right direction


Guide to Making a Dell System Restore DVD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was going to make a guide for this a few months back. I never did. Its pretty simple though. Except for the last part.
your recovery partitian has a folder called Dell and inside there, a folder called image I believe. and then there's a factory.wim file which is your factory backup of windows before it was turned on. If you restore this file at any time, using the dell restore or your own version, on the next boot, your notebook will act like it did when you took it out the box.
that being said, what do you do to use it from a dvd?
Well just save your whole partition to another computer or jump drive first. But at least get that factory.wim file because thats all you need. Then you will need a bootable imagex cd or usb drive.
Once you boot into imagex using ur cd or usb drive, you can run the command to restore that factory.wim file from where ever you have it, back to your hard drive. Ive done it a few times. I use a 256 meg usb drive and my 40 gig usb drive with the factory.wim file on it. I could easily use the factory.wim on a dvd drive if I wanted. because the imagex acts like a memory OS, u can boot it up then eject the cd and put another media in the drive and it will still be loaded.
read about imagex in wiki
Windows Imaging Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
And later I can get you the link to show you how to make a cd, usb, or bootable jump drive. I am at work so I dont have the link.

Once done you can even make another customized save of your cleaned up OS after you delete and modify your vista, and save that as another wim file for restoring later.

The only thing I didnt know how to easily do is, after you restore, they laptop wont boot right away. it will act like its not bootable, and at that point you have to put in a normal vista boot disk and run the restore option which will find the problem and make the restored factory image bootable.
__________________
TheDon