Need help restoring dell factory image from hidden recovery partition

Hello All.

My Dell XPS M1530 Model PP28L Service Tag D6JZCF1 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 safemode but not into Windows Vista normal mode. In Windows Vista safemode I've tried running from the utility partition of the drive the PCRestore.exe which fails.

I've tried Ctrl-F11 but no menu comes after POST. I've also tried running system repair from a Windows 7 Pro repair CD but no go. It says it can't repair.

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 this Vista drive from the hidden recovery partition ? I have Norton Ghost Corporate and have downloaded Acronis True Image. Tried neither of them.

I've read that the hidden recovery partition parameters are stored in the drive's controller chip.

Thanks

Victor

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AOxRILqwYqyME2U&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AOxRILqwYqyME2U&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=45E4AF4D77248923!168&authkey=!ACVuoNjeIZJq3zY&ithint=folder,

 

Forget about that. Ctrl+F11 is only for XP systems. Dell's Vista systems went to a different methodology that does not use Ctrl+F11.

Are you saying you can or you cannot?? One of your screenshots shows you've accessed the partition as drive D:. Or am I misinterpreting what your screenshot is showing?

Assuming you've slaved the hard drive to your Win7 computer and can access the Vista drive's Recovery partition, see here and skip straight to step 14: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista/vistarecovery.shtml

Steps 1-13 are only if you're booting from a Vista Reinstallation DVD, and take you through the steps to get to a command prompt. But if you've already slaved the hard drive to another system it's much easier to simply launch a command-prompt window on the host system and skip straight to step 14.

For step 14 you're going to need to first determine three variables:

1. the drive letter your host system is temporarily assigning to the Vista OS partition;
2. the location of your imagex.exe utility (which is actually shown in one of your screenshots as D:\tools\imagex);
3. and the location of your factory.wim backup (probably d:\dell\image\factory.wim).

Open a command-prompt window and issue the command in step 14, but adjust it for the three variables you determine above.


Dan Goodell

 

Wow Dan Goodell replying to my post. Thanks. Sorry did not receive any email notification to thread.

Yes when the Dell Vista drive is hooked up as a slave drive to Windows 7 system I can see in Disk Management and Windows Explorer a partition called Recovery. I thought the Recovery partition was supposed to be hidden ? In any case I ran the command as stated in step 14 from the link you had provided and I got the error that factory.wim could not be found. But I ran the command

Dan Goodell wrote:

"Assuming you've slaved the hard drive to your Win7 computer and can access the Vista drive's Recovery partition, see here and skip straight to step 14:

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista/vistarecovery.shtml"

I get an error that the factory.wim file cannot be found. See here

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AMd4LSIfJ9P53Nc&v=3&ithint=photo,jpg

 

No, unlike the old XP recovery scheme, the imagex recovery scheme used in Vista and Win7 does not actually hide the recovery partition, it only removes the drive letter in Windows. It's a simple matter to go into Windows' Disk Management console and assign it a drive letter, then you can access the partition from Windows.

In your case, it sounds like you may not have a recovery image. You found the \Tools folder on D:, so it's apparent D: is indeed your recovery partition. Snoop around the D: partition with Windows Explorer and see if you can locate any factory.wim file--normally, it would be under the \Dell\Image subfolder.

Another diagnostic check is to right-click and check the properties of the D: partition. It's typically around 8-15 GB in total size, but if you don't have a factory.wim file it will be mostly empty. The factory.wim image file should be around 4-8 GB, so if properties says the used space is no more than a GB or so then your factory.wim is missing.

Obviously, if you don't have a factory.wim recovery image, then you have nothing from which you can restore. Your only option would be to reinstall from DVD.

 

Thank you for the reply. I hooked up the Vista drive and booted into Vista and once there I opened Windows Explorer to see what was the size of the contents on the D: (Recovery) partition. It appears to be 300MB - 400MB in size. I tried searching for the *.wim file on this partition using Windows Explorer and none were found.

I tried searching the c: drive too for *.wim and none were found there thinking that someone moved the wim file to some part of the drive. Do you think a data recovery software might work in finding the factory.wim file if it was accidentally deleted ?

Last question if I give you the XPS M1530 service tag number can you tell me what Dell Reinstallation DVD do I need to buy on eBay or from somewhere else ? I've got Vista Ultimate 32 bit running on this drive.

Thanks


https://onedrive.live.com/redir?res...authkey=!AOmXkgZHvAwW6d8&v=3&ithint=photo,bmp

 

Yeah, that amount of used space indicates there is no factory.wim there. I suppose there's an outside chance data recovery software might find something, but that assumes an image file was there originally.

But it's not that easy to accidentally delete the factory image and I've seen plenty of Vista and Win7 systems that don't have a factory recovery image, so my guess is yours is one of those that, for whatever reason, didn't come with one in the first place. If that's the case, data recovery software won't help.

Well, your first post does show your service tag number--that's generally not considered a good idea, but ... whatever.

Looking up your service tag number on dell.com shows the laptop was originally shipped with Vista Home Premium and 2x 1GB SODIMMs. Is that still the current status or have you made any upgrades?

That laptop will take any edition of XP or Vista installed from any Dell-branded CD or DVD, though to be strictly legal you're supposed to try and match the edition that's on the COA sticker on the bottom of the laptop--i.e., Vista Home Premium. Note it's the COA sticker that is your legal right to use a given Windows edition, not possession of any particular CD or DVD.

Dell's Reinstallation DVDs are not model-specific, so if you can borrow or copy a Dell Vista DVD from any other Dell computer--laptop or desktop--it will install without requiring online WPA activation. You could also buy a retail copy of Vista (with a new COA sticker) on eBay, but that seems like a waste of money when you have a legit license already in the form of a valid COA sticker on the case.

(Side note: if you wanted to try installing Win7, note that Dell does not provide any Win7 drivers for that model so you would be on your own to track down and install compatible drivers. Win7 would also have to be installed from a retail DVD--a Dell-branded Win7 DVD will not work on that laptop without hacking the BIOS.)

Crucial.com says that laptop model will support up to 8 GB of ram so if you wanted to make use of more than 4 GB of ram you could install one of the x64 versions of Vista. But if you're still on the original 2 GB of ram I'd stick with the 32-bit version.

 

Hello Dan

Thanks for the reply. The laptop actually belongs to my sister's husband's mother. The COA sticker on the bottom of the laptop says that it came with Dell Vista Ultimate. The memory in this laptop was I believe 1GB or 1.2GB don't know which one. I had someone install Windows 7 Professional 32 bit on it. They also upgraded the RAM to 1.5GB. The person who installed Windows 7 for me must have downloaded the drivers from the manufacturers site or they were native to Windows 7. I am not sure which.

Thanks for the boat load of information. I understand that I don't need to buy a retail copy of Windows Vista Ultimate on eBay when I all ready have the product key. I'll try to find someone with a Dell Reinstallation (Vista Ultimate) version. This is the good part.
Really appreciate your help.
Victor

 

Well, if that's the case I wouldn't have any qualms about installing a lesser edition of Vista if I couldn't find a Dell-branded Ultimate DVD but could find a Dell-branded DVD of a lesser edition. It will install just as easily.

That's quite possible. Win7 has a lot more native drivers than Vista did, and even for those it didn't have Vista drivers could often be used if explicit Win7 drivers couldn't be found. But the point is you'd have to trial-and-error that yourself--we won't be able to tell you what will work and what won't.

It's got Win7 now? Then it's probably a retail version. In that case, I'd suggest using Magic Jelly Bean or similar to record the product key, just in case you later decide to put Win7 back on. Whether or not you choose to reinstall Win7 or Vista, it wouldn't hurt to recover that product key while you can because once you reformat the partition the opportunity will be lost for good.

Good luck in whatever you end up doing.

 

Hello Dan. Does the above mean that even though I all ready have a Windows Vista Ultimate product key I should be able to install a different version of Vista ie Home Premium using this same product key ?

Yeah I'll likely try to get a copy of a Dell Reinstallation DVD for Windows Vista. Does the Dell branded resinstallation DVD need to be for Windows Ultimate installation since I all ready have the product key for Ultimate or can I install Windows Vista Business using the Vista Ultimate product key ?
Thanks for the help

 

No, what I'm saying is if you can't find a Dell-branded copy of Vista Ultimate but you can find a Dell-branded copy of another edition such as Vista Business or Vista Home Premium, it will still install without requiring you to enter a product key or go through online WPA activation.

With a Dell-branded DVD you don't enter a product key because there's an OEM key embedded in the DVD. The product key on the COA sticker is never used if you're installing a Dell-branded Vista DVD on a Vista-era Dell computer. (Technical aside: the computer must have a SLP 2.0 BIOS, but any Dell computer made to be sold with Vista will have the requisite BIOS.)

And yes, if you're reading between the lines, that means lots of Windows installations will have the same product key. Every Dell computer ships from the factory with the same product key (or same few product keys, depending on version/edition), and it never matches the key on the COA sticker. The OEM keys embedded in the install are not unique, but the keys on each individual COA sticker are meant to be unique.

 

Wow I did not know that about Dell branded reinstallation DVD's. So no product key needs to be entered when installing from one. Then not needing to activate a Dell reinstallation install must mean that Windows recognizes the install as a OEM manufacturer which requires no activation. Otherwise Microsoft activation sever
will be activating many Dell systems with all the same product key. Weird.