Accidentally installed windows 7 on my Recovery Partition D:\

I am pretty sure you have at least one wim in the recovery folder - it will be a hidden file - so if you don't have hidden files showing - go to folder options and show hidden files and show protected operating system files.

Greg - you are not helping by giving alternatives.

This should be very simple.

Did you forget to unblock it?

When you download a file that came from another computer - you need to unblock it.

Rt click the findwims.cmd, select Properties, click UNBLOCK , click APPLY , click OK.

Please excuse my asking, but why would he want to mount Factory Recovery if he just Clean Reinstalled with Dell Reinstall DVD?

He asked if he could get rid of D:Recovery which was accidentally installed upon, which I answered.

Khraum said:

I can't find it, it must be gone. I guess if it is gone then I would be willing to get rid of D:. Would getting rid of it damage my system? Would I have to reformat the system again? As well would simply formatting or deleting D: get rid of all the residues of the windows 7 I installed on it, including from boot files?

Why do people want half the things they ask for round here?

Just helping to do what he was asking.

It is also a way of finding out more about the dell recovery partition setup and how to deal with it.

If we just tell everyone to reinstall from the dvd - we would learn nothing.

SIW2 said:

I am pretty sure you have at least one wim in the recovery folder - it will be a hidden file - so if you don't have hidden files showing - go to folder options and show hidden files and show protected operating system files.

Greg - you are not helping by giving alternatives.

This should be very simple.

Hi, I unblocked findwims-V2, and clicked on findwims.cmd. I just don't see a text file telling me the locations of the wims files. Is the text file supposed to be in the findwims-V2 folder? As well, the Recovery folder is empty, with 0 bytes in it. How do you get it to show hidden files?

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Forums

Sorry to interrupt but may I ask what you hope to do here?

Just went to folder options and changed settings to show hidden files, folders and drives. However, I still don't see any files in the Recovery folder in D:. It is really empty.

As a last resort you can Explore with Partition Wizard CD which will show them if they're there.

It is likely empty because you installed Win7 over it. Do you want to salvage C now or clean reinstall?

You can easily get Dell Recovery disks from Dell as whs said, probably for free. But almost no one who clean reinstalls wants to factory recover again.

gregrocker said:

Hidden Files and Folders - Show or Hide - Windows 7 Forums

Sorry to interrupt but may I ask what you hope to do here?

Actually I was hoping to clean format my whole computer and start completely over. I hope to do so and not have previous installs and boot configurations cause any problems. (Will clean install get rid of everything on my computer?) I am indifferent about retaining the factory image, but just wondering, does Dell send a free resource DVD to anywhere in the world? (I'm in Canada) Or do they only send you one within the time of your warranty? Do they also send you one if you didn't buy your computer directly from them?

you don't have hidden files showing - go to folder options and show hidden files and show protected operating system files.