Drive restore problem

If you formated the drive you will have lost the ability to access the Factory restore function. IF you did a full install of windows you do not need the factory restore. Once you alter the MBR the Factory restore option will not work, and the only way to redo the system will be a fresh install using the recovery partition.

I'd very much like to do a fresh install using the recovery but the steps in the manual do not work, and I think that's because there isn't any recovery partition on the hard disk as now! How can I proceed to restore the HD to factory settings?

I find it completely unreasonable that software provided by Dell broke my installation. I am really looking forward to get a fresh disk or disk image to copy to my HD.

I find it completely unreasonable that software provided by Dell broke my installation. I am really looking forward to get a fresh disk or disk image to copy to my HD.

Hi heels87, HERE is an support journal on how to get your Operating System on your system, and HERE is an support journal on how to get your drivers on and in what order, also HERE is an support journal on medis direct.

Thank you RobinBredin, I've read what you've suggested and found this particular notice:

"Restoring the original factory image erases ALL existing data. This includes files, folders, programs, drivers, E-mails, photos. Before performing a PC Restore, back up all personal files. If you do not back up your personal files, the data will be lost."

I'm afraid to see that this was not specified on user's manual!I'll give some explanations about the facts that generated the bigger problem:

1. After the laptop was shipped to me, I turned it on and Vista started correctly;
2. I decided to try the MediaDirect functionality, then turned off the computer and pushed the external MD button;
3. MediaDirect showed "MD partition missing", and failed to start;
4. Angry for that, I've read the User's Manual to restore the MD partition, and the steps were:
   1. Prepare the Hard Drive with MD Reinstallation DVD
   2. Reinstall MD with the same DVD
   3. Reinstall the OS (so I thought that if the process needs to "prepare the drive" and the "reinstall the OS", the utility won't erase the recovery partition too (it would be unreasonable!);
5. I managed to follow the steps as indicated and reinstalled Vista;
6. I inserted OS Reinstall DVD and searched for the Image Factory Restore, but there was not.

I discovered that MediaDirect DVD erased also the RECOVERY partition, so now I have solved a problem (MediaDirect is correctly working) to get another one bigger (Vista can't be restored completely, because a fresh OS installation cames without Aero and so many other things that I paid for).

I managed to have a deeper view of the hard drive by starting Ubuntu Live from a CD (I didn't installed that). The Recovery partition is definitely lost, and when Ubuntu loads (with "nosplash" set) it shows a list of hardware errors on different sectors of the hard drive.

I think that MD wasn't working from the beginning because of some physical disk errors, that I have been able to discover only by starting Ubuntu Live; I think I would contact the phone support now, to request a new working hard disk.

Does a replacement hard drive come as in factory state?

Any suggestion?

Hi, If your hard drive needs replacing and your system is still under warranty. Then you can request that your hard drive has the partition. If by chance they say no, then i would tell them to send you out replacement disc as well.

It's the better thing that I cand do, but not what I was searching for (in case the answer "no" to the factory state replacement hd request). I mean, if I played bad with some dangerous apps then it has been a choice, mea culpa. But I used Dell's software, if they say "no" I would became very angry.

Il'let you know how the story ends, stay tuned :emotion-5: