Solved Recovery disk from recovery partition?

[rosawoodsii]

I recently restored the operating system for my sister's Dell Latitude, It had become very, very slow, and so I would have expected that it would be a lot faster. Not so. It crawls, and I can't figure out why. What I'd like to do is a clean install, but I don't want to reformat the C drive because I'll afraid that will make the recovery partition (which doesn't have a drive letter) unavailable.

Is there any way to make recovery disks from the recovery partition?

 

[dg1261]

Yes, there should originally have been a link in the Start Menu to the Dell tool to burn Recovery discs. However, in some configurations you were only allowed to burn one set of discs, so if that had been done previously the link may have removed itself.

Regardless, if the Recovery partition is still intact you should be able to launch it from the F8 menu at boot time and do a full factory restore. That will reformat the C: partition and restore everything to the way it was when the computer was originally shipped. (Aside: if you do that, you'll get a new chance to burn Recovery discs because it's been returned to its "as new" state.)

You said you "recently restored the operating system"... how did you do that? If you used Dell's factory restore feature, then it would have reformatted C: and restored the contents to its "as shipped" state. The computer should then operate as fast as it originally did. Reformatting the C: partition manually and reinstalling via a DVD disc won't do anything different.

If you've done a factory restore and it's *not* working as fast as it used to, then I don't think Windows is the problem. Perhaps your hard drive is starting to fail and slowing down Windows' read/write attempts?

 

[rosawoodsii]

I did a system restore, which I thought would bring it back to the previous good point. Instead, it completely reset to factory defaults. I wasn't sure whether that would format the disc or not. So is that factory reset the same thing as a full reinstall with formatting the disc?

It was working fine after that, then I took it to my sister's house and it was slow again, nothing else running, connecting to a hot spot. It took 3 or 4 minutes to bring up a browser, over 5 minutes to shut down. I brought it back to my house, and it did the same thing. Then I let it sit for a couple of weeks. Yesterday I hauled it out again and everything seems to be working okay again, but maybe you're right about the problem being the hard drive.

I'll look for a recovery disc option. I don't know if she ever made discs.

 

[dg1261]

I did a system restore, which I thought would bring it back to the previous good point. Instead, it completely reset to factory defaults.

Microsoft's System Restore and Dell's recovery to factory settings (aka, factory restore) are two different things. If it reverted the computer to the way it was when it came from the factory, then you did a Dell restore.

I wasn't sure whether that would format the disc or not. So is that factory reset the same thing as a full reinstall with formatting the disc?

Yes, the Dell factory recovery is the same thing as reformatting and reinstalling from a Dell reinstallation disc.

You can tell whether that's what you've done by the time it took and the result. A factory restore should take about 10-20 minutes. The result would be you'd have only factory-installed programs (any user-installed programs and user data would be gone) and Windows Update would be way outdated. (The Windows Update status would revert to the date the computer was shipped.)

It was working fine after that, then I took it to my sister's house and it was slow again, nothing else running, connecting to a hot spot. It took 3 or 4 minutes to bring up a browser, over 5 minutes to shut down. I brought it back to my house, and it did the same thing.

And I gather you've ruled out slow internet? Was it slow bringing up random programs, or only the internet browser?

Another possibility to consider is that if you did do a factory restore, Windows Update would be so outdated it could have been tying up the computer for quite some time as it would have been working to bring itself back up to date.

...but maybe you're right about the problem being the hard drive.

Find out the brand of hard drive and download a test/diagnostic utility from the manufacturer's website. It wouldn't be unusual for the hard drive to be on its way out.

I'll look for a recovery disc option. I don't know if she ever made discs.

Most Win7-era Dells often shipped with "Dell DataSafe Local Backup", and the option to create recovery discs would have been in there.

If the computer isn't too old, there might also be an outside chance you could download a recovery image from Dell. It's worth a try, but to be honest, 90% of the time I've tried that site it came up empty.

 

[rosawoodsii]

No link to anything connected to Dell. The computer seems to be running okay now, so she took it back. If it bogs down again, I'll do the factory recovery.
Thank you for your detailed response and instructions.

 

[AddRAM]

The only reason a computer slows down is because people download and install garbage on it, if used properly and the hardware is kept in A1 condition it will run fine for a very long time

The best thing you can do is install Windows on a solid state drive for her.

SSD 850 PRO 2.5" SATA III 512GB Memory & Storage - MZ-7KE512BW | Samsung US

 

[Layback Bear]

Seldom does Windows 7 slow down Windows 7.
It's normally programs that have been added or removed that slows Windows 7 down.
Slowness can also be cause by all kinds of different types of infection. Their are just to many to list.

I agree with AddRAM. If it was my system I would do a Clean Install of Windows 7 on a SSD. Although my brand of SSD would be different.
I prefer Intel SSD's. A SSD would be the biggest bang for the buck one can do to any system that is using a hard drive.

If you look at AddRAM's and my (My System Specs) you will see we both use SSD's.
We do that because they are reliable and very quick. Another good point for a laptop is SSD's run a lot cooler. Which matters a lot in a laptop.

Jack

 

[rosawoodsii]

I did a system restore, which pretty much wiped out anything my sister had on the computer. It worked fine at my house, but was slow as molasses at hers--and she has a fast hotspot. Brought it back to my place, still slow. Left it for a couple of weeks and now it seems to be good again. I don't know the explanation, but if it bogs down again, I'll do a clean install. BTW, the only programs downloaded were Chrome and Firefox, and since I downloaded them, there were no extras with the downloads.

 

[Layback Bear]

Does everything work slow or just things done online?

Do you monitor your temperature on the laptop?

Jack

 

[rosawoodsii]

When it's slow, everything is slow. I haven't been monitoring the temperature. How would I do that? BTW, everything seems to be okay at the moment, but if things go south again, it's nice to know what to do.

 

[Layback Bear]

This should work for monitoring your temps.
Because I don't use a AMD cpu I don't know what other program to suggest.

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

Jack

 

[rosawoodsii]

Thanks, Jack. I'll download that.

 

[hazel123]

If you've restored it to factory settings now you should be able to make new recovery discs as mentioned earlier. Do that (so you don't need a recovery partition as you can always reinstall from the recovery discs which is the same thing as restoring from the recovery partition).

Then when you've made the recovery discs, do a clean install. There is probably a lot of bloatware in the original installation. There's a tutorial on here for clean install of Windows 7. You can download the ISO now I believe, and then just enter the product key from the base of the computer to activate.

I just did a clean install the other day and found it better to activate after doing the windows updates as lack of drivers before the updates was making the laptop crash trying to activate. It worked fine after the windows updates were done.

Windows will download the drivers - probably all of them. You can check to see if any are missing afterwards (there might be the odd one - eg for an sd card slot) and get that driver from the Dell website afterwards.

A clean install should speed things up. It did on mine.

Another way to speed it up is increase the RAM - you maybe have the minimum ram in it. Check on the crucial website for your model of laptop and it will tell you the maximum ram the laptop will take. It's worth buying extra ram as it does speed things up.