Dell Backup and Recovery - Factory Restore fails

Question

I have tried this three times on three separate laptops, with identical results.

Someone brings me a pc full of viruses, etc. - gotta love family!

I first boot it off of a live disk and backup any desired files. Then I boot, press F8, choose "Repair your computer" and discover that "Dell Factory Image Restore" is not one of the available options... so I boot the pc off of a different live disk and remove a bunch of "viruses", then I boot it off of the internal harddrive.

In Windows I find that "Dell Backup and Recovery" may or may not be on the pc. It may or may not have ever been run before. If it is absent I download it and install it.

When I run DBaR it tells me it needs to update, don't power off or disconnect the machine from the internet, etc. I then wait HOURS for this part to complete. When done it tells me I need to create my "Factory Restore" media, which I do.

Now I power the pc off and reboot it from the recovery media I have just created. I choose the "Dell Backup and Recovery Manager" because there is still not a "Dell Factory Image Restore" option. The harddrive races for several minutes, but only minutes and the pc reboots by itself, but only as far as a Windows Boot Manager error: 0xc000000f.

The pc is now rendered effectively useless until I reinstall from a Dell OEM windows disk.

I would like to discover how to use DBaR to return a ruined OS to factory state instead of just making it worse.

What am I missing here?

Philip_Yip · Answer

It sounds like the recovery partition is corrupt. What is the model of Dell and version of Windows?

-NoOne- · Answer

Yes, on all three the recovery partition is corrupt. They are an n5110, an E5430 and one other one (don't have it here, right now). Windows 7 on two of them and 8.1 one one.

It seems like somebody out there has figured out Dell does nothing to protect the recovery partition, so it is a sitting duck.

The truly frustrating part of it all is that DBaR is a joke when it comes to the supposed "Factory Restore".

It will state that you need to keep the pc powered on and connected to the internet. This is misleading, at best - it downloads nothing from the internet. It only creates a "Factory Restore Partition" from your existing "C: drive". Any missing Dell drivers or customization will still be missing after spending HOURS going through all the steps.

I am simply trying to return these pcs to there Factory "like new" state but this software cannot achieve this.

In fact, this software has the potential to be quite dangerous:

Imagine you have an infected Dell Laptop. You decide to download the latest version of DBaR to create a backup of your files before performing a factory restore.

After DBaR installs it creates/updates your Factory Recovery Partition (you think this is a good thing). You do your backup of your files and then do a Factory Restore. When it is done your desktop is the same as before.

You take matters into your own hands, thinking the virus(es) must be interfering. After cleaning up the virus(es) you try the factory restore again... and when it is complete your pc is infected again!

How is this a good thing for the user?

Philip_Yip · Answer

See here:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/dell-backup-and-recovery-1-8-1-71/

If it doesn't work see here for instructions on downloading a Windows 8.1 .iso:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/download-windows-8-1-retail-and-oem-iso/

Microsoft have unfortunately removed the Windows 7 .iso meaning you need a Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation DVD for them if the partition is corrupt however in 2 weeks you should be able to upgrade all 3 systems to Windows 10 for free providing Windows 7 can boot (even if it is virus ridden). After the initial upgrade of a system to Windows 10 you should be able to download a .iso and perform a clean install.

Productivity Software

Dell Backup and Recovery - Factory Restore fails

Was this post helpful?