Restore Dell laptop with WIM file on recovery partition?

[stantheman1976]

I re-installed Win 7 64 bit on my wife's Dell Studio XPS1647 laptop last night using the Win 7 installation disc that came with the machine. I should have used the Dell restore function.

The recovery partition with the Dell WIM file is still instact but is there a way that I can use that WIM file to restore the laptop back to factory settings now?

[aedipuss]

you won't know until you try, but it should work unless the master boot record or recovery partition were messed up. i think it's f11 at power on to get to the menu.

[stantheman1976]

If I formatted and re-installed on the section that held the OS that would have deleted the MBR wouldn't it? Or if the MBR was gone would it also not show the recovery partition?

I tried Dell tech support but we had a 1 year warranty and it happens to be 1 month past that. So they either wanted to extend my warranty for $299 or charge me for any other services rendered.

[El Heggunte]

I re-installed Win 7 64 bit on my wife's Dell Studio XPS1647 laptop last night using the Win 7 installation disc that came with the machine. I should have used the Dell restore function.

What are the problems in using a fresh install of Windows 7?

Anyway, and FWIW, you can open .WIM files with the latest 7-Zip.

[stantheman1976]

I'll try 7-zip and see if it helps.

The problems with a normal install is there were a few drivers with unknown device or generic names I had to research to get working correctly. Her original install also came with software like MS Office which she uses frequently. Another weird thing is she has touch pad buttons above the keyboard and all work but the eject button for the optical drive. You now have to go to windows explorer, right click on the drive letter, and tell it to eject. Not the worst problem to have but definitely annoying if there's a dedicated button that is supposed to make that happen.

[stantheman1976]

I can uncompress it with 7 zip and I get an entire uncompressed image of what the hard drive was out of the box, complete with file folders and such. Now what can I do with that though? Can I create a bootable set of discs that will write that image to the drive and wipe out the previous install?

[stantheman1976]

F11 doesn't let me access anything. Whatever I needed for that was on the MBR before I formatted C: apparently. So is there anything else I can do?

[budz]

you probably erased that partition with the restore os on it when you reformatted.....only thing you can do is contact dell to get a recovery disc for the laptop model and pay for it.....did you try hitting F8 key when lappy is booting up? just my 2 cents!

[stantheman1976]

I requested a set of recovery discs from Dell. Don't know how long they.

[stantheman1976]

Dell sent the discs overnight but they are the same discs that came with the machine with a Cyberlink and Roxio install disc included. So I'm basically back to square one.

There has to be some way to get Windows to recognize that image file or recovery partition and use it right?

And yes, I did try hitting F8 and F11 while booting. F8 lets me choose whether to boot in safe mode and such.

[JimmyS]

If the recovery partition on your hard drive is intact, the procedure in this link:

http://smsoftdev-solutions.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-restore-dell-factory-image-when.html

may provide some help. Although it references a Vista install disc, it should be the same for a Win7 disc. Once you reach the System Recovery Options, do any of the options allow access to the recovery image partition? If so, verify if the specified files are there and the path locations are the same as listed in the above link. If not, modify the instructions accordingly, then see if they will execute.
If you can't get the above procedure to work from your Win7 disk, try using an XP install disk and boot in to the recovery console from it. See if you can access the recovery partition, then try the above procedure again.
If none of the above allows you to see the recovery partition, it's probably because it is hidden. Get GParted and make a disk. Boot into it and unhide the partition. Then retry the above suggestions. Rehide the recovery partition when you are done.

[stantheman1976]

I tried those instructions already but maybe I misread some. I can boot from the Windows disc and try to restore but it doesn't see the recovery partition. I'm assuming it is hidden then. I can access the partition in Windows and see a few folders, one of which contains the WIM file. If I access it through command prompt in recovery mode there are more folders and files that don't show up in Windows Explorer.

I'll try unhiding it and see if that makes it work then. Thanks for the advice.

[classfour]

Go to Dell support, read up on recovery for that machine. If the partition is still present in W7, and is labeled RECOVERY - there is a chance.

I believe it involved the F8 key to get to the recovery screen, and select the recovery option.

I had an older Dell that had been updated enough the recovery option was not available (the RECOVERY partition and it's contents were) until I had installed Vista from the DVD.