Factory.wim

steve1957 · 14 Dec 2009

Several months ago I bought a Dell Inspiron 537 with Vista Home Premium x64. When Windows 7 came out I upgraded to it. I did a clean install but kept the OEM and Recovery partitions (they are the same as when shipped).

I had to once restore the pc using the F8 option (still using Vista). I found this to be extremely helpful rather than having to format the drive and reinstall eveything. I feel the
convenience is worth the partition space.

What I want to do is to replace the current factory.wim (Vista) that Dell installed on the pc with the current state of the pc (Win7 and all the app I have installed so far).

My question is how do I do this. Can I simply delete or move the old factory.wim (Vista) or do I need to unmount it and then run imagex to create a new factory.wim (WIN7). If so, will F8 still work and what is the proper imagex settings or command line options that I would need.

Thanks to all in advance for your help.

Steve1957

richc46 · 14 Dec 2009

steve1957 said:

Several months ago I bought a Dell Inspiron 537 with Vista Home Premium x64. When Windows 7 came out I upgraded to it. I did a clean install but kept the OEM and Recovery partitions (they are the same as when shipped).

I had to once restore the pc using the F8 option (still using Vista). I found this to be extremely helpful rather than having to format the drive and reinstall eveything. I feel the
convenience is worth the partition space.

What I want to do is to replace the current factory.wim (Vista) that Dell installed on the pc with the current state of the pc (Win7 and all the app I have installed so far).

My question is how do I do this. Can I simply delete or move the old factory.wim (Vista) or do I need to unmount it and then run imagex to create a new factory.wim (WIN7). If so, will F8 still work and what is the proper imagex settings or command line options that I would need.

Thanks to all in advance for your help.

Steve1957

I do not have a full answer to your question, but will give you the benefit of what I know. I, too, have a Dell (XPS 420 desktop) and it came with the Drive D, (original settings). When you are told the correct procedure to delete the partition, you can do so without worry about f8. The dvd that you received with the computer contains the same settings that are in the Dell partition. If you ever have the need to return to the original factory settings you can do so with the DVD. I do not think that the need will ever arise, since you will be using Windows 7.

If you do not have to many programs to reinstall, you can reinstall with the Windows 7 DVD, chosing advanced options and formatting the entire hard drive, then reinstall your programs. You can then make a system image and never have to worry about reinstalling with the DVD, again. You do realize, that by using f8 or the DVD all the unnecessary bloat will return. Now you have a mean and clean OS, with just windows 7, and the programs that you want.

In any event, I wish you many happy hours with Windows 7.