Issues with using PC restore on xps M1530 vista

I have windows seven currently installed on my laptop. Before I installed win7 I had a vista installed. This was the factory setup right out of the factory. Now that I have installed win7 I tried to access the pc restore feature from the recovery tool and it cannot find the image file to do a restore of vista. Something else I noticed when searching around was I originally had four partitions; 1)OEM install, 2)Recovery, 3)OS, and 4)Media Direct 3.5. After I installed win7, the first partion disappeared but the other partitions were labeled 2,3,4.??? Another thing to note I came across the command prompt commands to execute the pc restore option and it didn't work. I also tried putting the vista disc that came with the laptop in and the trying to do the pc restore from the options available with the disc. Help Please.

xxmatrix19xx said:

I have windows seven currently installed on my laptop. Before I installed win7 I had a vista installed. This was the factory setup right out of the factory. Now that I have installed win7 I tried to access the pc restore feature from the recovery tool and it cannot find the image file to do a restore of vista. Something else I noticed when searching around was I originally had four partitions; 1)OEM install, 2)Recovery, 3)OS, and 4)Media Direct 3.5. After I installed win7, the first partion disappeared but the other partitions were labeled 2,3,4.??? Another thing to note I came across the command prompt commands to execute the pc restore option and it didn't work. I also tried putting the vista disc that came with the laptop in and the trying to do the pc restore from the options available with the disc. Help Please.

XX

Hi

FIRST AND FORMOST BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING FURTHER TO THE COMPUTER MAKE SURE YOU HAVE HACKED UP ANYTHING YOU CANT LIVE WITHOUT TO ANOTHER DRIVE
1-the pc restore is from vista to vista. not from win 7 to vists. win 7 doesn't know what to do with the vista resore files.
2-Again OEM install contains the files and utilities specific to the factory vista installation

3-pc restore from cmd in win 7 would work if you had a win 7 restore file to restore but you have a vista restore file, right?

What is the size of the partition marked restore> does the folder contain any files/folders

bwfore you start you can run a system file checker ( sfc /scannow) to verify teh windows system files

I think you want to go back to vista (i dpt know why, but hey) You can always do a clean install by booting from the vista dvd and formatting the partition.

Can you give me more information about the computer setup and problems you are having

Ken

2.6GB is the size of my recovery drive. I know that I can restore from the DVD, but the last time I did that I had problems with driver installation. I just want to be able to restore the factory image and I can't figure out how to...

xxmatrix19xx said:

2.6GB is the size of my recovery drive. I know that I can restore from the DVD, but the last time I did that I had problems with driver installation. I just want to be able to restore the factory image and I can't figure out how to...

the dvd you have is it a vista dvd, or a "oem recovery dvd"?

ken

Responding to PM

the dvd you have is it a vista dvd, or a "oem recovery dvd"?

not ken

This is the DVD that came with it

What is your goal?

2.6 GB partition is probably your original Dell recovery part.

Driver install issues on a Dell system recovery is user error. All drivers readily available at support.dell.com

Please provide Dell service tag.

Ken, the old man retires. May not be around for a while. Selling a PC store.

You putting up the gone fishing sign? Or just gone on walkabout?

xxmatrix19xx said:

This is the DVD that came with it

Ok that is the DELL recovery disk. It should be bootable. To boot from it repeatedly hit the "d" key, and make sure booting from dvd is enabled in bios

Ken

Ah a redirect, eh. say hi to joli, and whatever.