Need help restoring dell factory image from hidden recovery partition

Hello All.
My Dell XPS M1530 Model PP28L Service Tag <ADMIN NOTE: Service tag removed per privacy policy> Windows Vista Home 32 bit crashed the other day. Windows Vista would not load either in normal or safe mode. It kept going into a endless loop. Tried F8 and repair no go. Then hooked this drive as a slave on another system and ran chkdsk.exe which deleted several attribute records. The drive now boots into Vista normal and safemode fine.
I would now like to troubleshoot how to run the factory restore using Dell restore feature.
I've tried Ctrl-F11 but no menu comes at POST. I've also tried the F8 during the POST and after selecting Repair My Computer the laptop continues right into Windows Vista and no System Recovery Option displays. Can I run the Dell factory restore from the hidden recovery image partition ? If YES then what software do I need in order to this ? Thanks
As a slave hooked to a Windows 7 computer I cannot see the hidden recovery partition in Disk Management. Same when the drive is booted into Vista safemode.
How can I restore Vista to Dell factory settings from the hidden recovery partition ? Please see the picture of the disk management snapshot which I have taken when booted into Vista.
Thanks
Victor

Windows Vista is obsolete (no Office 2013, IE10/11 or drivers for new hardware support and no Digital Distribution).
I'd advise installing a SSD in the system and installing Windows 10 Insider 10074 which is a relatively stable build. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users are eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 RTM. Windows Vista users aren't eligible for the free upgrade but theres likely going to be a free upgrade from Windows 10 Insider to Windows 10 RTM or at least a significant discount.
Use 64 Bit and note this is a MBR Legacy BIOS (non-UEFI):
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/download-windows-10-technical-preview-iso/
The drivers should all be installed automatically, if not use these:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/driver-sets/xps-laptops/xps-m1530-windows-7-64-bit/

Similar Messages

How to create Windows 8 installation media from Hidden Recovery partition

My laptop (HP Envy 15- j048tx) came pre-installed with a Windows 8 (OEM) on UEFI GPT partition. Somehow I messed up with the pre-installed Windows 8 and made a clean update to Windows 8.1 (Pro) after enabling Legacy BIOS as the boot method in the CMOS setup. Then i realise that the 8.1(pro) doesn't have Windows product key and hence could not be activated. Before I change the boot method from UEFI to BIOS, trying being cautious, i managed to make a copy of the Recovery partition (22.6 GB) to a USB drive. FYI, While I was still using the pre-installed OEM OS, I also tried to create a recovery DVD (which requires 6 DVD) but I gave it up after burning only the first Disc (Disc-1 of 6.)
Now i'm trying to go back to the default Windows 8 provided by the OEM, as I believe, it has with it a product key embedded somewhere in the BIOS. However, I cannot load the Windows from the copy of the recovery partition I've made earlier. Here's what i've worked around unsuccesfully: Burned an ISO of the Disc-1 (recovery DVD) with 'Image Burn', Edited the ISO file with 'WinISO' and added the entire 22.6 GB file from the recovery partition and then generated a USB Installation drive in GPT partition style with 'Rufus'. I disabled the Legacy BIOS mode, enabled Secured boot and tried to re-install Windows 8 but a message pop-up showing "Selected boot image did not authenticate. Press <enter> to continue."
I've tried to look-up the HP site to see if I can get help or to order HP recovery Disc (reluctantly though), but, guess, the site's support section was probably having some problem!
Inspite of all my failed attempt, i'm still hopeful that something can be done to go back to the original OEM Windows from the back-up copy of the recovery partition I have with me. I shall be very grateful if somebody can help me get this mess sorted, while, keeping the ordering of HP Recovery Disc as a last resort.

Hi @Renz75
Welcome to the HP Forums!
It is a terrific place to find answers and tips!
For you to have the best experience in the HP forum I would like to direct your attention to the HP Forums Guide Learn How to Post and More
I understand that you copied the recovery partition to a USB drive before you accidentally did a clean install of Windows 8.1 pro but you did not have an activation key for that version.
When you copied the recovery partition to the USB drive did you use Windows 8 to format the USB for Windows 8 before you copied the recovery manager. If not it will not work properly.
If you did format the USB correctly you can try this.
Format the drive creating the necessary partitions first. Now try coping the recovery manager to the one partition . Once you have it copied then try to access the recovery manager to do a full recovery back to factory.
If this was unsuccessful please contact HP support to obtain a recovery kit.
Please call our technical support at 800 474 6836. If you live outside the US/Canada Region, please click the link below to get a support number for your region.
World Wide Phone Support
Best of Luck!
Sparkles1
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Click the “Kudos, Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

Can I switch from Win7 32-bit to 64-bit by clean installing from hidden recovery partition?

Hi all,
I'm posting from Australia.
Two weeks ago I purchased a new Toshiba laptop (http://tinyurl.com/ye6jkuq) with the following specifications:
Model: Satellite L550
Part number: PSLW8A-01101F
BIOS: V1.60
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P7450 @ 2.13GHz
RAM: 4GB
HDD: 500GB
OS: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (pre-installed)
My question is this:
If I use the HDD Recovery Utility (the hidden recovery partition) to do a clean re-install of Win7 Pro, will I be given the choice during the re-installation process of installing either the 32-bit or 64-bit version? Or will I not get the choice and simply be restricted to the 32-bit version that came pre-installed?
Any assistance or advice would be appreciated.
Nick

Satellite L550/011
I can't say for certain, Nick, but it would be a real surprise if Toshiba packaged the restore procedure so that you have a choice of versions.
If it matters, you should inquire at local Sales Support.
Australia: 13 30 70
New Zealand: 0800 441 615
-Jerry

Need help restoring ThinkCentre A70z from windows 8.1 back to factory settings windows 7

Purchased used ThinkCentre A70z from someone and it has Windows 8.1 on it but it keeps giving me message that it isn't activated so I just want to restore to factory settings which would be windows 7 which is still in place on a partition on hard drive. I have tried f11 during boot to absolutely no success. If someone could please give me instructions on how to do this I would be so happy! Also tried searching in windows 8 for system recovery and this doesn't work either. Please help!

See if you can change the brightness by installing this software.
HP Quick Launch Software
File name: sp56929.exe
If that doesn't work, I won't be able to help you with that, and you should be able to adjust the brightness in the power options menu in the control panel using the brighjtness sliders (if the AMD graphics driver successfully installed).

Need help accessing the factory default restore disk - Ideapad b5609

I am working on a friends PC. It will not start up in normal mode but will start in safe mode. This PC has Windows 7 64 bit installed.
I don't know whjat he did to this except I used Malwarebytes to remove some malware. After I removed the malware, the PC would not boot in safe mode, but would get stuck at classpnp.sys. I searched for a solution for this and the only thing I could get to work was renaming classpnp.sys to classpnp.old. This allowed the PC to boot in safe mode again but this needs to get fixed.
What I wanted to do was access the factory default restore disk, back it up to USB ( No dvd's) if possible and reinstall a fresh copy of the system. - But I don't even know if this laptop has a factory restore disk, Is there one?
The PC owner says he didn't get a dvd when he bought the PC. This person was born without arms and is not too PC literate. He uses the PC for e-mail and going to porn sites. It's possible he did have a dvd for the PC if it came with one but he just doesn't remember or even knew what it is.
I do see a Backup and Repair app in the start menu / Maintenence folder but It doesn't start from safe mode. One Key Recovery doesn't work either.. I don't know what it does but I was going to look at it to see if it will help fix the PC.
I tried a windows system recovery disk, and it says it cannot fix the problem. My friend told me this PC is over a year old so i assume it's out of warrenty.
Please help, Thank you.
Moderator Note; similar threads merged

I've already removed the malware with malwarebytes and double checked this with the offline version of Defender. The PC is over a year old.. the owner tells me it's not in warrenty. I didn't want to mess up the hidden recovery partition so i installed a fresh copy of windows 7 to C drive. Since I can now boot into C i will try to install and use OneKey recovery to access and reinstall from the hidden partition.
I understand there is an Enginers version of Onekey Recovery I may have to get if i have problems - it's the version of OKR that the OEM's use to set up the partition in the first place.. from my info anyway..
This is the second time tryiong to fix it from a fresh install on C drive. The first time had a Windows.old folder I wanted to try to reinstall stuff from, but on trying to back that up to a external hard drive via USB, the system crashed and said missing master boot record. A StartUp Repair disk ran 6 times could not fix the problem ( same disk I used to install.. told me it didn't find any problems !
Other odd behavior.. when i was copying the windows.old folder, it didn't tell me i had so many files to go.. always sais it had 0 files left to transfer.
I couldn't get the sound drivers to work even after downloading the right ones from lenovo. I even let device manager try to reinstall the drivers from the Realtek folder in the windows.old folder - those should have worked - and the pc told me that the drivers matches and were up to date - however, the error i get told me there is a problem with the drivers and installation would fail when i tried to install from the downloaded exe.
I have been fixing my own systems for over 20 years, i have never seen a system as screwy as this with a fresh install.

I need help installing reinstalling Windows 8 from factory supplied flash drive please

I recently bought an Acer Aspire V5 laptop with Windows 8. I installed Ubuntu to take advantage of a few applications I like, and then realized that two of the main business applications that I need would not run on Ubuntu (none of the Windows emulators
would work).
Before I installed Ubuntu, I created a recovery image on a flash drive, but that failed when I tried to go back to Windows. I ordered a new recovery flash drive from Acer, and I get the following error- restore failed- can not find image path:M:\recovery
image\install.wim.
The acer support person advised me to use a third party application to format the hard drive, so I used gparted to complete the format. I attempted to restore the disk again (using the exact instructions from this forum), and I get the same error.
While the flash drive is attempting to restore the factory image, I do see that the recovery image drive M created, and the install.wim being applied.
Does anybody have any ideas how I can fix this issue? Thank you in advance.

Hi,
A recovery flash drive cannot function as a installation disc, thus I suggest you contact the Acer for the right process of restoring the image. Especially for the requirements for the restore condition.
Regards,
Yolanda
Yolanda
TechNet Community Support

HT201210 please,I need your help ! I was updating my iphone ios to ios4.2 and then problems begins when it shows that it needs to restore the factory software to I was trying to restore ,but that didn't happen it begins but then it shows unknown error 101

please,I need your help ! I was updating my iphone ios to ios4.2 and then problems begins when it shows that it needs to restore the factory software to I was trying to restore ,but that didn't happen it begins restoring but then it shows unknown error 1015

Stop being impatient.
From the article that the question was posted from:
Errors related to downgrading iOS
The required resource cannot be found: This alert message occurs when your device has a newer version of iOS than what is available in iTunes. When troubleshooting a device that presents this alert message, go to Settings > General > About and check the version of iOS on the device. If it is newer than the latest released iOS version, the device may have a prerelease developer version of iOS installed. Installing an older version of iOS over a newer version is not supported.
Error 1015: This error is typically caused by attempts to downgrade the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch's software. This can occur when you attempt to restore using an older .ipsw file. Downgrading to a previous version is not supported. To resolve this issue, attempt to restore with the latest iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch software available from Apple. This error can also occur when an unauthorized modification of the iOS has occurred and you are now trying to restore to an authorized, default state.
You cannot downgrade.
If you have a 3GS, you can only install iOS 6.1.3 which is the current version of iOS for the device.

HT4859 I need help restore my old messages and pictures to my phone. I did a restore from my computer and my boyfriends stuff downloaded on my phone. How do I get my stuff back?

I need help restoring all of my pictures and infor to my phone. My ex boyfriend info started downloading on my phone and earsed all of my info

Mission accomplished. While waiting for your reply,. I found an article that mentioned a copy/paste of the following code from the old pref.js to the new pref.js:
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo.position", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.description", "Outlook Express Address Book");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.dirType", 2);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_1.filename", "impab-1.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.description", "Outlook Express Address Book");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.dirType", 2);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.OutlookExpressAddressBoo_2.filename", "impab.mab");
That identified the impab.mab file, and now all my contacts are showing.
Here is a link to the article: http://nctritech.com/thunderbird_contact_groups.php
Case closed. Thanks everyone for all your help.
Ted

I have a 4S and just tried updating to the latest iOS version and my phone went into recovery mode and iTunes says I need to restore to factory settings. Anyone know how I can fix my phone without losing all my content?

I have a 4S and just tried updating to the latest iOS version and my phone went into recovery mode and iTunes says I need to restore to factory settings. Anyone know how I can fix my phone without losing all my content?

You would only be able to restore to a backup to iCloud or iTunes:
Restore from Backup
Cheers,
GB

Installing the factory image from linux

Currently I have Cianogenmod, since I'm getting tired of it, I want
to go back to the factory image, if possible the lollipop one directly.
I tried the emma tool, but I'm behind a very ugly firewall and it
couldn't connect to the internet.
How can I download and install the factory image from linux
using adb and fastboot?

I don't think sony provides fastboot flashable images.
Now you're left with these tools.
Official > There's just PC Companion ( locked bootloaders) and EMMA ( For unlocked bootloaders)
Unofficial > Flashtool
You should use emma from other internet connection and PC.
I don't think there's another way
Discussion guidelines.
Message me or any other moderator to seek help regarding moderation.

I need help restoreing my ipod nano 3rd gen so its like new

I need help restoreing my ipod nano 3rd gen so its like new

Plug it to your computer using iPod USB Cable (any cable should work excluding iPhone 5 and Shuffle cables)...... when you see your iPod in iTunes go to that iPod and click restore...... the whole process should take (depending on what you have on your iPod and its is up to date) it should take no longer than 30 minutes...... then it will ask if you want to set up as new iPod or restore from back-up (itunes back up), since you said:
so its like new
click set as new iPod and follow through what they said.

Hi, i need help restoring my pictures

Hi, i need help restoring all my pictures backed up in my iCloud I have tried everything I have read out here ,when I signed into this new iPad I only got a song I purchased on iTunes and some games but my pictures didn't restore ... Need help pls

Hi LaLaMelodic,
If you are having issues restoring your iPhone from a backup in iTunes, you may find the following articles helpful:
iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766
iOS: Troubleshooting encrypted backups
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5162
Regards,
- Brenden

I need help restoring the ability to view Youtube and all videos of my 4 year old MacBook after receiviving a meaage the the Adobe ineeds to be updated? Thanks.ng

I need help restoring the ability to view Youtube and all videos of my 4 year old MacBook after receiving a message the the Adobe ineeds to be updated? Thanks.

Did you upgrade whatever product from Adobe was out of date yet?

I Need Help Syncing All My Music From My Desktop To My IPhone 5 Helllllllllllp Please

Hi can someone help me please I have a IPhone5 64g I need help syncing all my music from my I tunes library. I have a total of 3600 songs on my I tunes library which is 26g on my desktop all the boxes are checked on each song when I hit sync im only getting 1400 songs wich is only 10g of music I want all 26g of musicon my IPhone 5 when i hit sync all my music are not syncing and I need helping syncing all my music can someone help me please?

Are you upgrading from an existing iPhone? Back up old phone, then restore new phone with the cable. I had to do this a number of time to get all my purchases across.

HT201210 I need to restore the factory settings for my I phone

I need to restore the factory settings for my I phone

To restore your iDevice, you have two options.
1. Plug into iTunes and select your device and click restore.
2. On your iPhone, go to Settings>General>Reset, and click which one you would like to use.
If your device is locked up and you can't get into it,
1. Open iTunes
2. Power Down your Device
3 hold down your home button and plug in the device to the computer at the same time
4. Keep holding until your device shows the Plug into iTunes image.
5. On iTunes, click restore
Wait for the device to restore to factory settings and your done!

Need help restoring dell factory image from hidden recovery partition

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for