How to restore my DELL lappie to the factory image?

[jumanji]

Today I contacted Dell Support and told them that I am unable to do the Dell Factory Image Restore. The Service Associate wanted me to remove the battery, the power adapter and keep pressing the power switch for 30 seconds, reconnect everything thereafter and try. That did not resolve the problem.

Then he has asked me to take it to the Service Center who will reinstall the OS. I told him that reinstalling the OS is not the issue. As a user I should be able to do the factory image restore whenever I want to and that capability should be ensured. He said the service center should be able to do it.

So there it rests. ( Good thing that I have the complete day 1 hard disk backup by Paragon)

 

[jumanji]

Update:

On and off I was trying to experiment with my Dell laptop/netbook. I downloaded Dell DataSafe Local Backup.

In the first step it pronounced " Congratulations - Passed - your computer has passed. Go to Easy Step 2 and download the software"

But during the install process, it threw out a message "no Windows Recovery Environment" and retracted.



A day or two later, I downloaded the Dell Support Center Software and installed it. It is a skinned, customised OEM version of PC Doctor for Windows PC-Doctor, Inc. - Computer Hardware Diagnostic Software .



Playing around with it I found a tab in it' goading me to download Dell DataSafe Local Backup. Now no congratulations. In the very first step itself it proclaimed
"No Factory Image found" and did not allow me to download.



All this when there is a 15GB recovery partition and a 1GB winre.wim image. Beyond my comprehension.

Following my call to Dell Technical Support, another Dell Tech. Support executive from DELL India Headquarters called me two or three days back, took my address and has now sent me a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Reinstallation DVD. He couldn't say why the recovery partition has gone dumb.

Problem remains unresolved.

 

[TVeblen]

Just curious: have you at any time re-sized or moved partitions on that machine, or restored a disk image?

I'm wondering because I seem to recall reading about recovery partitions being 'keyed' to a particular location on the drive (in front of OS or behind).

 

[jumanji]

Nope TVeblen. (same question asked by Tech Support )

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I have the day 1 image of the complete HDD immediately after first switch on and the initial Windows setup, taken with Paragon. I had restored my lappie to that day 1 image and tried F8 restore. That precludes any possibility of any thing getting corrupted/ modified by later usage in anyway.

 

[writhziden]

Have you thought any more about following the steps outlined in the link I gave in post #16?

 

[jumanji]

^ I am still reading and rereading the reference you had given and try to make sense out of it .

My own thinking in this case is Dell has somehow goofed and the system came with a non-working Factory Image Restore. This is actually a dual-boot system with Ubuntu light on it. It is the first system to come with the experimental Ubuntu light released only to OEMs by Canonical. While incorporating the additional partition, Dell could have somehow missed to modify the BCD to take this into account.

Well, I see another thread here http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...not-accessible-after-resizing-partitions.html trying to sort out a resized partition issue. My system may have a similar issue. Dell resized the OS partition to accomodate Ubuntu light but did nothing else and so the Factory Restore does not work.

This is only my guess and I am not definitely going 24X7 researching into this or try to make a recovery CD with the .wim image with uncertain end results.

I am now veering towards a complete reinstall doing away with the Dell Utility Partition and the useless 15GB Recovery partiton - if and when the need arises. May be I have to do away with the 5GB Ubuntu light also. (Ubuntu Light is available for download in Dell support site for Dell systems)

 

[writhziden]

^ I am still reading and rereading the reference you had given and try to make sense out of it .

My own thinking in this case is Dell has somehow goofed and the system came with a non-working Factory Image Restore. This is actually a dual-boot system with Ubuntu light on it. It is the first system to come with the experimental Ubuntu light released only to OEMs by Canonical. While incorporating the additional partition, Dell could have somehow missed to modify the BCD to take this into account.

Well, I see another thread here http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...not-accessible-after-resizing-partitions.html trying to sort out a resized partition issue. My system may have a similar issue. Dell resized the OS partition to accomodate Ubuntu light but did nothing else and so the Factory Restore does not work.

This is only my guess and I am not definitely going 24X7 researching into this or try to make a recovery CD with the .wim image with uncertain end results.

I am now veering towards a complete reinstall doing away with the Dell Utility Partition and the useless 15GB Recovery partiton - if and when the need arises. May be I have to do away with the 5GB Ubuntu light also. (Ubuntu Light is available for download in Dell support site for Dell systems)

Definitely feasible that Dell had everything set for recovery, then installed Ubuntu Light, and as a result, that recovery partition was no longer where the system needed it in order to activate the recovery image.

You have a method to make your own backup/recovery image of the system, so a clean install wiping out all partitions followed by setting up Ubuntu Light yourself is also a viable option. Considering everything you have done to this point, this sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[TVeblen]

I like your theory. I doubt anyone at Dell thought about making a special Recovery Partition file for systems with Ubuntu Lt. Good one!

You can get the full version of Ubuntu 11.10 free. You could just set up a dual boot and run the full beast!

 

[jumanji]

Yep, for a long time now, I have been thinking of dipping into Linux. It is no longer considered as a "Geek Stuff" and that suits me.