Windows Vista - Manual Restore from Dell Factory Image The Dell Vista system can normally be restored to factory settings through a selection on the Vista Advanced Boot Options screen. To perform a factory restore, first try the F8 method, '. If that doesn't work, next try the DVD method, '. Try the above two procedures first. If neither of those works, try directly accessing the factory image using the procedure below. Note this procedure assumes the Factory.wim file is still intact and has not been damaged.
Should I remove Dell Backup and Recovery by Dell? A manual Operating System Re-Install (OSRI) takes a lot of time to complete the procedure, from Windows.
(Note: Click on any image below to view a larger image. Click your browser's 'Back' button to return to this page.). Screen 13: Click the 'Computer' button to show the drive letters that the Recovery Environment has assigned to the drives. (Note: your computer may show different drive labels or sizes than shown in this example.) On a Dell-configured hard disk, the main Vista OS partition will be identified as drive C: with the label 'OS', and the Recovery partition will be identified as drive D: with the label 'RECOVERY'.
Dell Backup And Recovery For Windows Vista
If you have readjusted the partition layout, you may have different labels or drive letters. You may double-click any drive letter icon to study the files and folders in each partition. Once you are satisfied that you know the drive letters of the Recovery partition and the partition we are going to overwrite, press 'Cancel' until you return to the System Recovery Options menu (screen 7).
Screen 14: From the System Recovery Options menu, select the 'Command Prompt' option. The following instructions assume the Recovery partition (as determined in screen 13) is drive D: and the Vista OS partition to be overwritten is C. At the command prompt, type 'd:' and press Enter.
At the 'D: ' command prompt, type 'cd tools' and press Enter. At the 'D: Tools' command prompt, type the following command: imagex /apply d: dell image factory.wim 1 c: When you press the Enter key, the ImageX utility will begin overwriting the C: partition with the contents of the Factory.wim image.
Did your most recent Windows PC purchase come with a set of reinstallation media? Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. As I noted in my, big PC makers-the so-called royalty OEMs-are required to include a recovery solution as part of their installation of Windows. But the details of those recovery systems vary by manufacturer, so there's no one-size-fits-all set of instructions. As part of its initial public response to the Microsoft lawsuit, Comet said it was.
In, the company said: Comet firmly believes that it acted in the very best interests of its customers. It believes its customers had been adversely affected by the decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer. That is, as my friends across the pond would say, bollocks. My research shows that Comet is acting in its own financial self-interest, overcharging customers for something they can get for free or for significantly less money than Comet is asking.
I churn through a lot of PC hardware in my home and office. Many currently available PCs ship with reinstallation media. I have an office full of business-class and high-end consumer machines from Dell and HP, purchased over a four-year period. Every one of them included reinstallation media in the box. When I recently from HP, Samsung, and Sony, I found reinstallation media in every box.
My wife's new Samsung Series 9, purchased online from the Microsoft Store, included this System Recovery DVD. Some cheap consumer PCs don't include disks in the box. But every single PC sold with Windows preinstalled offers an easy way for the end user to create those recovery disks for literally pennies. The option is usually presented to the user as part of the initial setup and is included with the option to recover the PC from a hard drive partition. Here's what Sony's Recovery utility looks like: And finally, a customer of any leading PC vendor should have no trouble ordering replacement media from the manufacturer of his or her PC, typically at a price well below the £15 charged by Comet (that's $23 at current exchange rates). For this report, I surveyed five PC vendors that were consistently atop the for 2011: Acer, Dell, HP (which also sells PCs under the Compaq brand), Lenovo, and Toshiba.
A few general notes about ordering recovery media. In all the cases I looked at, you have to supply a serial number, service tag, or some other identifier to indicate that you own the system. Your replacement media is for the version of Windows that came with your PC. If you bought a PC with Windows Vista and upgraded it, your recovery media will be for the original Vista install. (Sorry.).
Some companies require payment of a nominal fee to cover postage and handling. Most companies limit the number of replacement discs you can order. This report includes as many details as I could uncover about the policies and procedures that each company follows for its products. I've divided the available information into three pages: -. By registering you become a member of the CBS Interactive family of sites and you have read and agree to the, and. You agree to receive updates, alerts and promotions from CBS and that CBS may share information about you with our marketing partners so that they may contact you by email or otherwise about their products or services. You will also receive a complimentary subscription to the ZDNet's Tech Update Today and ZDNet Announcement newsletters.
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