How to make disk from recovery portion of hard drive

[kaschiro]

While poking around my disk management I found that I have a RECOVERY section of the hard drive. It is grayed out and I cannot see the files in it. When I got my Dell inspiron 17r n7110 from best buy they had lost the data from the box, so when ever I needed help I went to dell since I was in warranty. Now that I am out of warranty I have to go to 7Forums which is better. Any how getting back to RECOVERY, which must be the program files in case I get into trouble. It must have the OS and all of the drivers for the dell system files. So I think(which is dangerous for me) I have to make a bootable disk with this recovery data on it. I noticed from prior post that the s/n of the os is on the bottom of laptop.

So far am I correct in my assumptions.

I want replace my current hdd with a ssd and all I have to do is put the new drive and place the disk in the drive and go, and Voila I have the system on the new disk.

The only question I have is how do I make a bootable disk of the recovery, since it is greyed out (so am I) I do not know how so I need a step by step how to do this!!

I know you guys have the secret formula for this, can you help me out

Regards,
Kas

 

[patio]

Really no secret formula...it varies from manuf. to manuf....
Check your Manual or visit the manuf.'s site for instructions.

 

[whs]

It is either this: http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/KCS/KcsArticles/ArticleView?docid=266282

Or better even, make images: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[kaschiro]

After I posted I went looking and I found out how to make a recovery disk right there on win 7.I made a recovery disk. Are you fellows telling me I cannot use this recovery disk on a new drive to install the same drivers and dell programs?
Kas

 

[whs]

There should be no reason that you could not use this disc. But a reinstallation is always painful. Restoring your system with a recent image is a lot less work - takes on average 20 minutes.

 

[andrew129260]

You can make a system image in windows 7 (backup and restore) as well. Much easier and faster IMHO

 

[whs]

You can make a system image in windows 7 (backup and restore) as well. Much easier and faster IMHO

And completely unreliable. I have bailed out a whole bunch of people that could not recover from a Windows 7 image. We had to reimage the VHD in order to get them back on track.

I highly recommend to stay away from Windows 7 imaging.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210195-system-image-recover-broken-windows-7-system-image.html

 

[kaschiro]

After I posted I went looking and I found out how to make a recovery disk right there on win 7.I made a recovery disk. Are you fellows telling me I cannot use this recovery disk on a new drive to install the same drivers and dell programs?
Kas

All I really care about is putting the OS back and restoring the drivers back, I had a whole bunch of old programs that I wanted off. I only have about 5-6 programs that I want back, and they are simple to re install,
I do not keep data files on the OS disk as they are on a separate partition/drive. I guess there is a bunch of bloat ware that is on recovery drive and I will get rid of that.

#1 So nobody has told me and this is the question I am asking, are the drivers and the OS on the recovery disk...
YES or NO. ?

#2 Do I have to format the new ssd or will the recovery disk do it?

Kas

 

[whs]

#1 - Yes

#2 - I recommend to format the SSD to a primary, active partition. Then you don't get the dreaded 100MB system partition. The commands are:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active Exit