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August 13th, 2021 11:00
SupportAssist OS Recovery - backend success
My newly acquired Inspiron 7591 2n1 came with no drive, but I wanted to start with the Dell factory image pushed onto my 1 TB .M2 SSD. Without Windows drivers, the BIOSConnect SupportAssist couldn't drive a WiFi connection, nor could it figure a wired USB3-to-Ethernet possibility. So I used another Inspiron to download the SupportAssist OS Recovery tool, using the Service Tag for the 7591, and it burned onto a 16gb USB drive.
But it was not without difficulties. I had an immediate success the first time. I then thought I had corrupted the USB drive, and I went back to burn it again. Error! I kept getting a failure, "cannot connect to backend". I tried a dozen times over a couple of days, all with failure. On the third day, it worked. I have to assume the Dell image server was inop, undergoing maintenance, or overloaded. So, if you're having that error, be prepared to keep trying over a couple of days until you succeed. I also suggest trying at odd hours, middle of the night, or whatever.
I also made an image of the USB drive after the successful creation. Mine has two partitions, so ImgBurn wouldn't do the job. But PassMark had freeware ImageUSB and it worked. Now I can save that USB image to my backup drive along with the factory image I intend to get on the SSD.
Good luck to all!
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anami
17 Posts
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August 15th, 2021 12:00
Well, I learned that SupportAssist OS Recovery download image for a USB drive only contains the empty partitions for the factory image, with a raw Windows boot partition. Although I watched that image download, saying it was downloading drivers, and although I saw that it created a Recovery partition, both of these were almost useless.
When the OS Recovery completed, it did boot into a very minimal "Out of the Box Windows Experience". But there was effectively no Dell driver support for this Inspiron and Windows was old, not having basic native drivers for minimal function. These things did not work, because there were no drivers: WiFi (AX201), Bluetooth (AX201), Touchpad, Sound. Without network, it's kinda hard to get the machine working.
And Windows Recovery informed me that there is no Recovery data available, to reset the machine to Factory. I had hoped that this SupportAssist OS Recovery would make the newly replaced SSD ready with everything it would have had from the factory.
(Sigh!)