Build image for brand new Dell 9300

I was careless enought not to order backup CD, which is only $10 bucks.

Now, the laptop arrived and I was wondering if there is any way that I can completely back-up (build image) so that if something happens, I can restore the very original setup any time.

Any one can advise/educate me how to build image and back-up?

I have retail copy of Win XP which I got long long time ago (very old version of XP). However, I do NOT want to go through installing every driver on my dell laptop using the retail version....

Thank you in advance.

 

if you're not going to reformat and reinstall the OS, there should be an image partition already on your HD

 

Thanks for prompt responce... However, consider me I know nother about backup, where is the "partition"?

Also, what if I may want to reformat and set multiple partition on my 80G harddrive....?

 

there is a factory image on a parition on your HD. during boot, there is a key combo that will reset your machine back to the factory image. if you change the partitioning on your HD in any way, even if you leave the image partition alone, it will become useless.

 

To add on to what drumfu said: I think the key combo is ctrl + F11 at the dell prompt when you reboot, but not 100% of that.

Since you just got your laptop, call dell and see if you can order the CD. I'm not sure but i believe they have like a 30 day after purchase window where you can still buy the CD.

If you still want to backup your HDD with all of the junk, I would suggest to use Nero. It is a bit expensive, but it is well worth it in my opinion. You can use to backup your hdd, burn cds/dvd, music, data, just everything. Its very user friendly. Might want to check buy.com since they were having a good deal on it.

SG

 

Southern

You are 100% correct, it was ctrl + F11 which popped up "restore" screen. What a nice feature!! I like it! Thank you for your tip!

Drumfu,

Then, I have one more question/confirmation,

Under what operation, the restore image will be damaged/deleted?

If I ONLY reformat HardDrive to clean up HardDrive, would it (the restore image ctrl+F11) be still working/intact?

Only if I re-partition harddrive, it will be deleted, Am I right?

Thank you in advance.

 

Basically, the restore partition will be damage and will not work if you do anything to the partitions. That includes reformatting, deleting/adding, changing sizes, etc.

If you get the CD, most users find that they don't need the partition anyways. Dell has all of the junkware on CDs which you can request from Dell.

SG