Bringing Things back to Normal

[Wandering Flame]

I feel somewhat ignored...I asked the question what IF something happened to my recovery drive? I didn't have it for the first 2 months it was used...and my brother could have done something to it...so how am I supposed to verify what currently consists of the recovery drive is what is supposed to make it up? I asked if Dell has a way for someone to restore their recovery drive, say if it was completely formatted. According to the person above, I think, as long as I have the Dell discs that came with the computer, as well as the vista cd, my recovery drive can go to hell and then become as it was when the computer was bought...is this true?

 

[zigzag3143]

I feel somewhat ignored...I asked the question what IF something happened to my recovery drive? I didn't have it for the first 2 months it was used...and my brother could have done something to it...so how am I supposed to verify what currently consists of the recovery drive is what is supposed to make it up? I asked if Dell has a way for someone to restore their recovery drive, say if it was completely formatted. According to the person above, I think, as long as I have the Dell discs that came with the computer, as well as the vista cd, my recovery drive can go to hell and then become as it was when the computer was bought...is this true?

WF

if something happens to your recovery drive it will be un-useable for re-install. Dell has a way to make the computer factory image, but it involves installation to an empty disk drive. your best bet is to use a 3rd party app like acronis to make a system backup off the drive completely, so even if the entire drive dies you can still restore acronis to the new disk.

Dell doesn'e have a way for you to restore your disk image to factory fresh. You can use the vista dvd and dell cds to install the OS and drivers, but any of the trash apps that dell gives away cant be. some of them (like nero, and the other junk dell gave us) require their own install disks and have to be installed before the OS partition.

If you dont care abt the crap dell offerings acronis is still the most secure and fastest way to get back. I restore a clean vanilla system configuration to my drive using acrinis and it takes me 40 minutes tops.

hope this helps

let me know if you need more info

ken

 

[Frostmourne]

Macrium Reflect Free does the job for free too.

 

[Wandering Flame]

My only concern now is, to make make the recovery drive the way it was when it was bought.

The first step I know that I will take, is format the recovery drive.

I want to know what I should do next, in order to have it the way it was when it was bought. On the box it said all software that are on the cds (which came with the computer) is already on the computer, so I guess the recovery drive had some of the software on those cds.

So I want to format the recovery drive, then use the cds and/or (and I would prefer) files I can download from Dell, to restore the recovery drive. That way I know the recovery drive is in the SAME condition as it was bought. I don't know what my brother has been doing with it for the 2 months he has had it.

Thanks. Also I don't want to use 3rd party stuff or acronis.

 

[zigzag3143]

My only concern now is, to make make the recovery drive the way it was when it was bought.

The first step I know that I will take, is format the recovery drive.

I want to know what I should do next, in order to have it the way it was when it was bought. On the box it said all software that are on the cds (which came with the computer) is already on the computer, so I guess the recovery drive had some of the software on those cds.

So I want to format the recovery drive, then use the cds and/or (and I would prefer) files I can download from Dell, to restore the recovery drive. That way I know the recovery drive is in the SAME condition as it was bought. I don't know what my brother has been doing with it for the 2 months he has had it.

Thanks. Also I don't want to use 3rd party stuff or acronis.

WF

there isn't a way to format the recovery partition and recreate the recovery partition to the way it was when it left the factory.

If I remember correctly when I got my ispirion 1525 the cds contained drivers which you need. the version on the cd's is already old. they are at best vista drivers. the cd's also contained things like mutli media, nero, office, whatever they were giving aeay at the time. NOWHERE on the cd's is the recovery image which is located on the recovery partition which you want to erase. erase that and its gone. no file, no cd, not even if you have vista dvd will you be able to make the custom image that dell put on your computer. You can send it back to them and they will be happy to re-image it, for a fee.

you understand what Im trying to tell you? I threw all that junk off as soon as I got it.

You can create a new restore partition. it will be the state of the machine when you create it. its static. You can frankly make a better recovery partition than dell gave you.

Now using built in tools. win 7 has a virtual disk management that cant do some things you are going to need to do.

hope this helps. just make sure you have a vista dvd.

ken

 

[Wandering Flame]

Wait, is there a difference between a recovery drive and a restore partition?

Also, if the recovery drive is not restorable then I guess I should just leave it alone, and I confirmed at least the main folders that are there are the ones that are supposed to be there, and I doubt my brother did anything to it. I also don't think I'll notice anything wierd in the future with regards to it. After all, Dell can't restore it without charging you, which is funny because they have all sorts of drives on their site but not a simple fix for the recovery drive, according to what I've read here.

Also I don't mind using the discs, since the laptop was bought just two months ago. If Dell makes updates for their drives every week then I really don't care.

Also it seems by your last statement that I can make a new restore partition/recovery drive with the vista cd, well I have it but I'm not sure how this can restore the recovery drive. All it seems to do is either upgrade vista or install a fresh copy of vista on the C drive only since the recovery drive (E) does not have space for it.

 

[zigzag3143]

WF

yes there is a difference. a recovery drive uses all the space on the drive, a recovery partition uses the space on just its partition. If you want to format it, you can format a drive but not a partition.

Ken

 

[zigzag3143]

Wait, is there a difference between a recovery drive and a restore partition?

Also, if the recovery drive is not restorable then I guess I should just leave it alone, and I confirmed at least the main folders that are there are the ones that are supposed to be there, and I doubt my brother did anything to it. I also don't think I'll notice anything wierd in the future with regards to it. After all, Dell can't restore it without charging you, which is funny because they have all sorts of drives on their site but not a simple fix for the recovery drive, according to what I've read here. I suspect you have a recovery partition and not 2 internal HD's.

Also I don't mind using the discs, since the laptop was bought just two months ago. If Dell makes updates for their drives every week then I really don't care. True cd drives will do fine

Also it seems by your last statement that I can make a new restore partition/recovery drive with the vista cd, well I have it but I'm not sure how this can restore the recovery drive. All it seems to do is either upgrade vista or install a fresh copy of vista on the C drive only since the recovery drive (E) does not have space for it.

You can make a new recovery partition with the cd's and a vista dvd. It will however just restore the operating system not the apps you installed, or the ones dell installed way back when

Hope this helps

ken

 

[Wandering Flame]

Thought I had something typed here...oh well.

I had a couple of things to say here.


1. Last night I got helped by a Dell guy and he took online control of my laptop and installed necessary drivers, so that I had internet, wireless internet, my awesome resolution back, the webcam and dvd player. Said all other utilities are useless and will slow down my comp. 'Course I was like, well this is subjective, because I don't consider the dell dock useless and the touchpad features, like zooming and scrolling useless...features of which, do not EVEN appear on the Dell site when I put in my service tag code. They list 36 things, and among them are application files and zip files. Honestly though, I'm not done extracting all the app files, and have not touched the zip files (I guess there are app files in the zip files, or something).

However I did fully utilize the drivers and utilities Dell cd, and there were only 2 other dell cds those being for the camera and dvd, which the guy installed. The dell dock and touchpad features were nowhere on the drivers+utilities cd.

What's wierder is some of the things on the dell resource cd (drivers and utilities cd) had things my laptop could not even run or install, lol, like software for a 1515 wireless adapter since my computer was made with one like 1310 or something. So, why would this disc say on it it has things already installed on the computer when it cannot install this one thing (since the way it was made prevents it from installing)? There I think is no other driver that couldn't be installed, just that one.

Would anyone happen to know which drivers are for the dell dock and touchpad zooming + side scrolling?



2. You said I can make a recovery drive/partition (I don't know why I still don't know the difference, even after research, but I guess a partition is just part of a drive) with the vista cd and/or dell cds, but I don't think this is true. Windows just installs windows if I'm not mistaken, not a recovery drive on the pc.



3. Out of curiosity what does it mean to have something added to your recovery drive? Is it just a matter of dragging some files to it, so that when the computer is imaged, those added things will appear in the new state? For example, when someone pcrestore's their laptop from the E drive, it will be brought back to the state at which he bought it, and when he bought it, he already had a bunch of things installed to it, so if he wanted to add his favorite scanner to the recovery drive, and he images, will the newly imaged computer state have the scanner installed into it? I'm guessing yes, but just making sure. Also is 305205 MB the size limit for windows vista? When it asked me to pick a size for it while I was booting the laptop from the vista CD, it asked me for the size I want it to be. I have 320 GB hard drive, but it had listed 305205 MB for vista, which equals about 300 GB when you divide it by 1024. I guess the other 20 was meant for the recovery drive...which I no longer have.

 

[Wandering Flame]

One last thing, I was told recently by someone who has Windows 7 that "there are not viruses for Windows 7" thereby making me think viruses are special to each OS, not so much each TYPE of OS like Windows, and Macintosh. Is this true? Is a virus exclusive to the OS or the company that makes them?

 

[Wandering Flame]

bah

 

[zigzag3143]

One last thing, I was told recently by someone who has Windows 7 that "there are not viruses for Windows 7" thereby making me think viruses are special to each OS, not so much each TYPE of OS like Windows, and Macintosh. Is this true? Is a virus exclusive to the OS or the company that makes them?

Not ture. win 7 is slightly more secure. virii are OS bound. A mac virus usually cant infect linux, pc, solaris, etc

 

[Wandering Flame]

You mentioned acronis before in relation to imaging, well is there a free version or a free pc imager? Acronis costs.

 

[Frostmourne]

Macrium Reflect Free

 

[Wandering Flame]

Enter the service tag number and snag your drivers.
Dell - Drivers and Downloads
Yes, I have Dell at work and my notebook (cough).

Why does Dell have to be a bunch of tards?

Somehow now I can't download anything from that page (after putting in my service tag) it keeps failing and it's beyond retarded at this point. With or without the failing-95%-of-the-time download manager, I cannot download the drivers, even when they're not that big in size anyway. It's funny they have to screw up with this considering these are DELL DRIVERS people need for their computer. Screw them.

It's sad enough that I'm considering someone downloading them FOR me and emailing them to me.

 

[Wandering Flame]

Nevermind...Safari did the trick. Guess Apple doesn't suck that much after all.

 

[Wandering Flame]

This is the link to Macrium Free: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

I like it also, because it is a new one and the first on the bottom list in here: http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilit....shtml#imaging

After reading the description for Macrium in the second link, and the entire first link (which is only about Macrium) I've come to realize the free version won't back up your files.

Does this, then, mean it will back up the system (I guess this is what disk imaging is)? And what is the system exactly? Is it the registry, or is it that in addition to other things? Thanks very much...also can I save the image to be current C drive, or does it have to he to another drive? And how much space would the image occupy?

Once I finish all this, would THIS be as if I had my recovery parition back? :D Meaning does it serve the same purpose as the recovery E partition that came pre-loaded on my dell vista laptop?