I can't reinstall my Windows factory image from my recovery partition!

Hello there, i'm trying to reinstall my windows factory image and when i press F8 and enter into recovery options my Alien respawn does not apear in that list...I checked the hard disk with partition commander 10 and i saw that i have the recovery partition intact 15GB i made a copy to an external usb stick with that partition. I also see an partition 32mb OES.Question how can i reinstall my windows factory image if i couldn't boot from alien respawn? I also downloaded dell data safe basic from alienware website and upgrated to 9.4.67 but still the same problem. Please need help!!!!! 1 year ago i formated my partition C: instaled windows but i left the RECOVERY PARTITION intact. I instaled windows from my resource DVD and instaled all the drivers necesary for my sistem including dell datasafe.

 

Hi Santos, When you reformatted the drive a year ago the connection to that recovery partition got lost, there will be no way to put it back together since the drive is formatted, you will need to manually download all software and drivers that came with your computer. Here's a link to the drivers and downloads page Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States] . IWork4AW

 

Hi Porras do you have any ideea what was the connection with that image i am curious if i can do something with Acronis True Image or something to recover and reinstall?

 

Open up Alienware Respawn from your start menu and choose the option to restore to factory settings from there.

 

OR .......If you made recovery media (disks or USB) using AlienRespawn or Dell DataSafe when you first got your machine, just boot from that media via F12 - it will revert you to a "factory out-of-the-box" state with all relevant drivers....basically, just as it was when you first turned it on....doesnt matter if you have the recovery partition in tact or not.

 

simonpoulton and steviejones133 are right, if you had created a recovery media since the beggining you would be able to get back to it, otherwise it would not be possible to make that happen even if you had the image on some other device saved.

 

Thanks guys! problem solved sorry for my bad english.

 

Glad you got it sorted Bro,

What did you do to fix things? - just so anyone else who encounters this can see what you did?

 

Hey Santos, please share your fix with the others so that we can have that documented on our website as an article

 

I am having the same issue and I have never used the recovery before.

It started with my keyboard...the "s" keeps sticking. Long story short, it will only boot in Safe Mode and will not let me restore to an earlier date. I keep getting messages that it's not a valid copy of Windows and it's not a Dell computer every time I try Dell diagnostics or recovery. I never can get to the recovery screen to recover from the backup factory image in the partition. It won't allow me that option.

I have tried recoving from the Dell factory DVD but the DVD does not work. The DVD drive just clicks, then spits it out. It's the first time since I bought the laptop back in 2010 that I've had to try that DVD.

Oddly, right before these issues began, I was ordering other Dell items and the Dell Agent spent 20 minutes on the phone with me trying to sell me a new extended warranty for my laptop. I finally agreed. I received my order confirmation and then the lady called me back to tell me she made a mistake in the warranty fee amount and could not give it to me at the price she quoted so she cancelled my order and would not let me speak to a supervisor. I have been a loyal Dell customer for MANY years. All of our computers, TV's and electronics came from Dell. Dell lost a customer over this and no one seems to care and I can't get any help with this issue. Everything I try through Dell wants me to upgrade or purchase more software.

I am purchasing a new laptop elsewhere I guess but in the meantime I need resolution for this one and I don't feel I have to pay for support since I was cheated out of my extended warranty package and the factory DVD was defective.

Does anyone have any idea how I can restore Windows 7 please?

Thank you.

Angela

 

Hi Angela,

Sorry to hear of your troubles - sounds like you've been given the runaround a bit. Let's see if maybe we can get you back up and running in the meantime - I hope this helps.

I'm thinking that the DVD you are trying to insert is NOT a recovery disc, it's a Windows OS disk, right?

Okay, if you can only boot into safe mode, the first thing you want to do is to check if you have the original Dell recovery partition still in tact on your hard drive/s. You can do this by typing "disk management" into the start search box (without quotes) and hit enter. You should then be greeted with a window that looks a little bit like this:



What you are looking for is to check if you still have the recovery partition as circled above. If you do, you should be able to boot from the recovery partition and reload your machine back to it's original factory image. Note that if you do this successfully, you will lose all data on the drive so if you can, backup/move any stuff you need before proceeding.

Instead of me writing a load of text here, there is a Dell video tutorial on how to boot from the recovery partition from safe mode. If you have a look at the video below, it's pretty self explanatory and*should* put you back in the game, IF you have the recovery partition - no need for optical disks.