I have a Dell xps 420 desktop with the hidden recovery partition.
My f8 option no longer works to recover to new (advanced boot options
menu) I do not have the "repair my computer" option I once had.
Can I unhide (with acronis) and boot from the recovery partition to do
this? I just
want to recover it back to the way it was as i received it new from
dell.


--
itzmillertyme

On Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:39:39 -0500, itzmillertyme
wrote:


I have a Dell xps 420 desktop with the hidden recovery partition.
My f8 option no longer works to recover to new (advanced boot options
menu) I do not have the "repair my computer" option I once had.
Can I unhide (with acronis) and boot from the recovery partition to do
this?

Nope.

If you didn't make recovery discs from that partition, and you can't
get into it via the normal means or into Windows, you're up that
creek.

If you can get into Windows, there SHOULD be an option somewhere in
your Dell areas to create those discs.

I just
want to recover it back to the way it was as i received it new from
dell.

Contact Dell, and they will send you a Recovery disk.
--
Mad Mike


"itzmillertyme" wrote:


I have a Dell xps 420 desktop with the hidden recovery partition.
My f8 option no longer works to recover to new (advanced boot options
menu) I do not have the "repair my computer" option I once had.
Can I unhide (with acronis) and boot from the recovery partition to do
this? I just
want to recover it back to the way it was as i received it new from
dell.


--
itzmillertyme

Okl I did it but it took 3 days of screwing around to figure it out.
With the help from the folowing link 'Restoring from Restore partition
without Ctrl+f11 nor restore disks. - NotebookForums.com'
(http://www.notebookforums.com/thread213683.html)

Download and burn this to a cd incase you need it after
'_ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/ptedit.zip_'
(ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/englis...ies/ptedit.zip)

What I did since I had a second HDD installed.

1- was to install Vista on it.
2- unhid my recovery partition with Acronis I believe you can download
a free trial
3- Restarted to hdd 2-- "E" drive was what was there and vista install
left it as "E"
4- From within windows I formatted hdd 1 drive "C"
5- then after you locate your recovery image. (factory.wim) explore
recovery drive with acronis to find it's location. mine was
D:\dell\image\factory.wim
6- go to run command and type cmd enter then D: enter (recovery drive
letter)
7- type "cd tools" without the quotes then enter
8- now type "imagex/apply d:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:\" again no
quotes enter
d: being the source or recovery drive and c: being the destination or
where vista was originally installed on hdd 1
You will now see it recover the drive from the image file..just let it
do it's thing..it'll take about 15 min.
restart finish the next few steps and your good.
ONLY Continue if you cannot boot to the newly installed recovery of
Vista

I then had to use the afforementioned download cd PTEDID
boot from cd drive at startup launch ptedit
you will now see a screen like the one attached
change the hard drive at the top to 2
then in the boot column change 80 to 00
then go to hard drive 1 and where the 07 is in the type column move to
it's boot and change from 00 to 80
this changes the startup to drive 1 your hdd 1 where you installed your
new recovery of Vista
remove cd and restart
if pc still does not restart as mine did not you then have to restart
to the setup menu and reset to factory settings
I did this then my pc started and brought me to the remaining steps to
finish the install.

Finally my Dell back to it's factory state.


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--
itzmillertyme

well another simple solution for guys without an external drive is :

pop in ur vista cd and boot from it
note that the source drive letter may change while booting from the
CD...so to find the new drive letter of the image..follow the next
steps..

click install now
go to repair computer
click no when the attempt to recover startup window pops
go to System recovery options
select OS then click next..

it then checks for any backups...then select the option to browse for
backups(i don remember the exact option)
there you can find the drive letter of the recovery drive containing
the .wmi image.

go to the first window
click on command prompt and type the following
(there is an x: in the start of the command line)


e:
cd tools
imagex/apply e:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:\

here e is the source directory(as described in the previous post)

and then the recovery starts...wait for around 15 minutes and then the
process ends.The system restarts.

then i guess factory settings must've been loaded..

Now in case it isn't and if the startup recovery window pops up during
the restart ,let it do its job (dont remove the vista CD).

The computer restarts and then the satrtup recovery menu again opens up
and here you will find that the Dell Restore PC settings option will be
present...click it to restore image...and everything should be fine then
onwards....


--
Sudhir-BITSian
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Thank you for the post. It worked like a charm, booted right to repair
from Vista DVD, identified Partitions from x: prompt with a dir d:\ and
so on trial and error method, and then ran the command as you described.


--
PwitC
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