OS Recovery Tool "unable to connect to back end"

Power outages when updating can cause all sorts of problems. Use the Create media tool to make a boot disk or thumb drive on another computer to do a clean install of windows.

That might work if there was no permanent damage. 

It's been down longer period of time now, making recovery of proper Dell image a lot harder than it needs to be.

Win media creation tool is nifty, but is under no circumstance a valid replacement for a under-warranty machine's manufacturers image.

One can hope they get to the fixing of this, but alas I wouldn't hold my breath.

Currently I'm dealing with a 5400 that lacks a lot of Dell's stuff for proper 2-in-1 work, and causes keyboard issues as pure windows doesn't seem to like working on the move, as a laptop, while hinge goes past certain point. I'd love to install a Dell image but... you know, backend's not reachable.

I just installed the Dell OS Recovery tool for the first time a few minutes ago and got the same "unable to connect to backend" message.  I made inbound and outbound Allow rules in Windows Firewall for:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\OS Recovery Tool\DellOSRecoveryTool.exe

C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\OS Recovery Tool\LogCollectionTool.exe

Then I closed the program and reopened and the error was no longer present when I tried to download recovery image for a 2016 Latitude. It finished creating the USB boot drive and it's booting from it now.   (will only boot to UEFI mode, not legacy)

IDK if the Windows Firewall exception will be the fix for everyone, but it seems to have worked for me.

Just go to the Microsoft site and create a bootable USB stick for Win 10 or Win 11 as @Mary G said.

That OS install will likely be much more up-to-date than the Dell OS Recovery Image, and that will save you lots of time installing Windows updates, etc.

Windows should install all the necessary drivers, but if it misses any, you can download them plus all Dell's software from the support page for your specific model.

Dell is very coy about this, not wanting to state it explicitly, but I caught a hint in another post on exactly this same issue. It seems they don't allow download of the recovery image for computers out of warranty. I just tried three different machines and for the one still covered by warranty the download started instantly; on the other two, out of warranty, I got the "unable to connect to the backend".  Code of Conduct, profanity removed. DELL-Admin>  Clearly there is nothing wrong with my Internet connection anyway since I was able to download the recovery tool in the first place, but really - why not just tell us what the real issue is so we can avoid wasting our time? Thanks Dell.

@ChrisBedford This must be something new.  Back around late 2020, I was able to download the recovery OS for a 7 year old Inspiron 23 AIO (All In One) - and it downloaded the proper Win 8.1 software.  It was well past the warranty period at the time.

However, as a test, I just tried it again.  The old machine died last year but I still have the Service Tag number to try.  Sure enough, I get the "unable to connect to back end" error too.  This wasn't a problem before.  This is only after typing in the service tag, selecting the USB drive to send it too, and it showed that the original Win 8.1 was going to be downloaded.  Except, after verifying, it doesn't - just shows that back end error under the progress bar.

I also tried it with an old Inspiron 530 from 2008, and it immediately told me "Recovery image currently unavailable" and didn't bother giving the next page option.  Figured as much since that machine's original OS was Win XP, and it came with a disc.  I just thought I'd try.

Now, my wife's current 5400 AIO just went out of warranty just last month, and I can still download that machine's recovery WIn 10 OS.

However, as @Leo R has stated above, he is getting that error for a machine that apparently IS under warranty.  So there goes that idea.

Now, that brings up another question for @Leo R - if it is still under warranty, why not just contact Dell about whatever issue is happening that seems to make you think it requires an OS reload.  Also, believe it or not, but the recovery OS you download from the Dell Recovery Tool is not really a factory image of everything that was originally on the hard drive.  As I stated, I've used the recovery OS on an old Inspiron 23 AIO after having to replace the hard drive in it (twice in 7 years before the machine itself just died).  It DOES NOT put the machine in "as-shipped" condition.  It just loads the plain basic Windows OS, with all the basic Windows drivers and none of the added Dell stuff or Dell specific drivers.  I still had to download the Dell drivers for the network, sound, video, as well as the support and system update apps.

Assuming you are not replacing the hard drive itself, you can do a "Factory Image Restore" which does put the whole thing back in "as-shipped" condition - or close to it (still not perfect).  It uses the recovery image on a hidden partition on the hard drive to do that.  That means you still need the original hard drive for that option to work.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000176966/reset-or-reinstall-windows-10-on-your-dell-computer#Recovery-media

That article gives you all the options for reset of reinstall.  It does say that using the recovery tool to download the OS gives you the factory image, but it doesn't really.  At least not of a particular build

Definitely think you guys are onto something. I just tried the tool on a machine that's still under warranty as as you said it started with no hitch. 

Plug in a machine thats OOW and same issue.. Unable to connect to back end. I have 100+ computers I need to reimage. Support told me I would need to spend $99 per machine to get "Software Support" at which point they'd mail me a USB stick with an ISO. Seems really messed up if you ask me especially since for the first 3-4 months of 2022 I was able to use the tool with no issues on all of my dell machines. 

The worst part about all of this is the machines that I am trying to reinstall windows on were from ~2016 and shipped with Windows 7 on them. Even when I had access to the OS recovery tool I could not download Windows 10 as the licensing for 10 would not work properly even though it's hardware/embedded licensing. So the workaround for me having active licenses on these machines was to first install Windows 7 on the machine via the OS recovery tool and then using a Win10 ISO from MS I could upgrade the machines with an active license. 

Now I am stuck with all of these machines.. and I COULD install Win 10 on them but due to the licensing BUG that Dell will not address I am SOL with invalid licenses and therefore cannot use these machines in any official capacity. Really frustrated with Dell. 

@mcdoncod  If you have that many PCs, it sounds like you work for a big organization. Do you have a Dell TAM who could help out?

Have you tried contacting Microsoft directly to see if they'll assist you with this licensing/activation issue?

Thank you.

When did Dell or MS stop requiring OEM images?

Same issue here - happening on an out of warranty laptop that I was attempting to prep for a new starter.  I'm attempting to reset using the hidden partition but it's very underhanded to try to sneak this past and give a generic "...check your internet connection and try again" message.  Ridiculous - definitely going to feed it back to our account manager and head of IT.

We're going to have a pile of bricks thanks to this.

Yup Dell servers are bugging with this error message. However Unlike my Lenovo Dell doesn't ask to pay for Recovery media. 

you can use an alternate computer to download OS recovery images on a flash drive using this tool. 

Reinstall Microsoft Windows | Dell US

This tool will need the service tag of the broken machine and will download the required image on thumb drive (minimum 16GB) 

No necessarily - you can reinstall using the generic Microsoft images. Look for the WIndows 10 Media Creation Tool which can create either an ISO file or a bootable USB flash drive using download as its source. The Dell tool does pretty much the exact same thing anyway, still leaving you to download the Dell-specific drivers and tools.

You seem to have missed the point of this post: whether you use the "expired" computer or another one (doesn't even have to be a Dell) when you enter the serial no and it is determined to be out of warranty you get the error message.

Thanks!  That seem to work for me.  It failed partway through a few times, but then eventually I was able to download for an old Optiplx 3050 that I was repurposing in our office.

I had the same problem. Combination of those firewall rules (thanks for the tip) and a VPN (I live in Germany)  solved it. after second attempt i got a fast download. Right now it's "verifying image", lets hope that goes anywhere...