Accessing my restore partition

thanks to everyone for your help but i think im just gonna format the lot and stick on ubuntu, and if the new owner wants buy, or otherwise obtaine a new copy of windows then they are more than welcome

OK, your choice.

Thanks for letting us know.

I would restore the licensed OS which came with the computer since it adds approx $100+ value. If not be sure to point out to buyer that it comes with a Vista license which can be reinstalled with the Product Key for the life of the machine..

Thanks again.

gregrocker said:

Hi Johnny -

The problem is that during reinstall somehow the 100mb System Reserved boot partition was deleted which took out the F8 Advanced Boot Options. We could help you restore that and Dell Recovery Partition - restoring F8 link.

However there is a way to add the Recovery partition to a Boot Menu at startup using EasyBCD (free Download at bottom of page - no name or email required) so that it will run and recover to factory condition.

Go to Control Panel>Folder Options>View and unhide Hidden and System files. Then in EasyBCD, choose the tab shown below then Browse to the boot.wim in the Recovery folder on recovery drive to add it to a Dual Boot menu, Save then reboot to Dual Boot menu to choose RAMdisk to start Recover.

Attachment 208149click to enlarge

Hi Greg,

Just wanted to say thanks for the instructions above, you saved my bacon! Have Dell Inspiron netbook and installed Win 8 for a laugh. However meant I couldn't do system reimage from the Recovery Drive as I couldn't access it. Used your guide for EasyBCD after reinstalling from a generic Win 7 disc. A couple of pointers though for Win 7

1. Once generic Win 7 is installed go disk management in the control panel and give the Recovery Drive a drive letter (I used R:)
2. There's no boot.wim in Win 7, it's WinRe.wim

Other than that it worked a dream!

Cheers

Sudman