Accessing my restore partition

[barmanjonny]

I have a dell Inspiron 1545 on w7 home premium. It originally came with vista. Vista is in the recovery partition but I cannot access it I'd like to restore it before I sell it as I want to keep my purchased copy of w7. I no longer have the 'advanced boot' option at the startup screen so, Erm help please.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Did you ever make Vista recovery disks?

Are you positive you still have the recovery partition?

If nothing else, you should be able to buy Vista recovery disks from Dell.

A screen shot of Windows Disk Management would help.

 

[barmanjonny]

no i never made any vista recovery disks and i'm 100% sure the recovery partition is there also i refuse to buy recovery disks to give to someone when i sell it

 

[seavixen32]

If you can't lay your hands on a Dell recovery disc, you might want to try this Digital River link for a Windows Vista ISO and use your Dell OEM product key to activate the OS.

Dell Community

Your screenshot shows that the Dell recovery partition is in place, but the Dell OEM partition isn't, which will explain why you don't have the advanced boot option. The Dell OEM partition should be where the 110 MB unallocated space is.

Why would you refuse to buy a recovery disc? A computer without an operating system won't sell as well as one with an operating system.

 

[barmanjonny]

That's exactly what I'll do. I'll give it a bash and report back. )

 

[barmanjonny]

To be honest I just want shot of the laptop it's old and slow and I have 4 other machines. All I want is my w7 off it so I can use it on my main machine.

 

[whs]

Are you saying that nothing happens when you tap the F8 key during boot ??

 

[barmanjonny]

Whs yeah that's what's happening. It just starts this horrible beeping. And I've tried holding it past that.

 

[seavixen32]

To be honest I just want shot of the laptop it's old and slow and I have 4 other machines. All I want is my w7 off it so I can use it on my main machine.

In that case, just boot into Windows 7 and choose the custom install option, and then delete all the partitions.

Providing you have a retail copy of Windows you can then use it on another computer providing you've removed it from the old computer.

Deleting all the partitions is as good a way as any to remove it.

If you have an OEM version of Windows, it's tied to the computer it's installed on and can't be transferred.

If you really want to go to town you can use Diskpart to clean the drive before you get rid of the computer.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

 

[gregrocker]

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.

click to enlarge

 

[barmanjonny]

thanks but i give up

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

 

[seavixen32]

OK, your choice.

Thanks for letting us know.

 

[gregrocker]

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..

 

[barmanjonny]

Thanks again.

 

[sudman]

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.

View 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