I Need A Dell Reinstallation Disc For Vista Home Premium

Those cheap-asses at Dell never gave my girlfriend a disc to re-install Vista, so now we're up sh*t creek!!

Actually... I'm playing the role of Tech Support Guy (even speaking to her with a difficult-to-understand Indian accent!!), so that means I'M up sh*t creek!!

She had a crash, so I used VistaPE to get her data off of the computer. Now, I wanna restore Vista to the original factory settings. Sounds easy enough... use f8, right?

Wrong... it won't work in my case. The recovery partition is still there... I just can't access it. The operating system won't boot up at all. I used a non-Dell Vista Home Premium disc to access the Vista System Recovery option, but that doesn't help. I can't get at Dell's recovery partition.

I figure if I had a re-installation disc that's actually from Dell, I could access Vista's System Recovery feature that includes the Dell option to restore the computer to the original factory settings. Problem is, I can't get ahold of one.

Does anybody know where I can find one without going directly to the Dell website? I think Dell has the worst customer service on the planet and I would pay someone to hit me in the head with a sledgehammer before I'd spend one dollar on a Dell product. I've been scouring the internet for two days and can't seem to find a stray copy of what I need.

The computer came factory-installed with the 32-bit (x86) Windows Vista Home Premium.

Yeah... you read that right: a DELL with VISTA!! Could it get any worse?!

This whole thing is driving me bat-sh*t crazy.

I hate Dell... I thank you all in advance for any help that you can give.

Maybe someone would be so kind as to post an .iso image of their own disc?!

 

Try Ctrl - F11 at boot. It might be a PC restore partition, and as such, is actually a Ghost partition.

If you are in a town with an active Craigslist community, try to find the disc there.

If the system is under warranty, you can call or chat into Dell and one will be sent to you.

My opinion:

If she ordered it from Dell.com, she had the option of including the disc at point of sale.

If she didn't choose the disc, or got the system from a retailer, it had the option of making backup discs when it was taken out of the box.

Either way, not Dell's fault.

 

you could try requesting here.
http://support.dell.com/support/top...ackupcd_form?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1

 

That page seems to be for Win 7 systems.
EDIT: Maybe that just applies to the stuff at the top... maybe you can use that request form for other systems.

BUT... I have a Dell with Vista, and my computer came with the OS installation disc... but they sent me another OS installation disc so I could upgrade my computer to 64-bit (long story). That was hard... but if you just want a copy of the installation disc for the OS that came preinstalled, it's easy. Call tech support (or use the online chat on their website) and ask them to send you a copy of the OS disc.

 

I have an extra Dell Vista Home Premium for 1640 if you need it.

 

You should have received DVD's with the OS, ask Dell for a replacement.

 

So far every Dell I have purchased has come with an OS disc.

My Inspiron 6400 from years back came with XP Media Center 32bit, my current system(in sig) came with Vista Business 64bit and my girlfriend's XT2 came with Vista Business 32bit.

As other have said, if you are still under warranty, just call Dell and have them send you one. Or you could just use chat support.

 

Get on dell chat, and ask for reinstallation discs, they will send them with no problem overnight. =) free