Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Alert

Reinstall Windows 7 from Recovery Partition on a Dell Inspir

Mar 29, 2012 10:03AM PDT

Hi,

I desperately need HELP! I have formated my laptop Dell Inspiron N5110 and reinstall a copy of windows 7 after noticing several viruses running on my pc. But I didn't delete or format the Recovery Partition. The recovery partition is intact. I now want to recover my pc to the factory settings of the original windows but I do not know if it is possible and how. I didn't know that I could just use the Dell Datasafe from the beginning before formatting my pc (how stupid I am). I have given a letter to the Recovery partition (FHappy and I know can see all the files included inside it. After searching for a while, some people suggesting to execute the following cmd under "Tools" dir (dir which I cannot find):

imagex /apply f:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:\
Can anyone please help me??? I really need help with this! Can anyone give me guidlelines what to do???

Thanks,

Chris.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Only Dell can tell you this one.
Mar 29, 2012 10:06AM PDT

If the recovery system has been tampered with and you elected not to create restore media the cheap fix is to order said media.

Dell has a custom recovery system and after looking at your issue a few too many times, we know how to fix it now.
Bob

- Collapse -
The partition recovery is intact
Mar 29, 2012 10:20AM PDT

I do find the file factory.wim, I just do not find the dir tools which I suppose should be in the C: drive where original OS was installed. So, do u know any way to recover using the partition recovery please???

Thanks,

Chris

- Collapse -
It's like having an intact car
Mar 29, 2012 10:30AM PDT

But no spare tire. Or a missing lug wrench. ONLY DELL can answer if there is any known procedure to recover using only that partition.

Remember that this has been asked by many and so far, as long as the OS HDD was dinged up so bad the boot Fkey function does not work, then we move to recovery media (you know, the ones you made when you set up the machine?)
Bob

- Collapse -
No recovery media
Mar 29, 2012 10:42AM PDT

Hi,
unfortunately I haven't created the recovery disks! So, my only hope left is the partition recovery. I was thinking if I could install the Dell Datasafe program, that was installed before formating, on the current copy of windows I now have and try to run this software as I assume it will retrieve the data from the recovery partition drive. But, I can't find it to download it and I mnot sure if it is gonna work.

Thanks,

Chris

- Collapse -
What data is that?
Mar 29, 2012 2:50PM PDT

Sorry but without a working boot area... That is if the usual Fkey does not launch the Dell System Recovery then what data are you asking about?

That system only works when the system is intact enough to launch that.

It appears you have a lot of hope. I wish you lots of luck on this and had hope you would learn that (a) this has been discussed many times in many forums and (b) not once has anyone found a way to recover with just that partition intact.

So it's like having a flat tire and your spare tire is not usable because you have no jack, tire iron or key to the trunk.
Bob