Windows 8.1 , Dell Backup & recovery (premium edition ) problem

I have an XPS8700 desktop that I updated to Windows 8.1 from the Dell store and am considering upgrading my Dell basic backup and recovery to premium.

In my case I then added a new external USB 3.0 hard drive that installed as E: and ran the basic backup and recovery to create a bootable backup on it. This stores boot information on E: and creates another partition F: on the external HD where it stores the bootable backup files (12 GB). I do not know if this backup would work if I ever needed it or how much of the C: drive content it would restore.

That F: may be the Recovery Partition referenced in the system message you received. You did not say what external media you were using as the backup destination, but you could try using the basic backup software on it first to create the Recovery Partition.

Perhaps you have already solved the problem anyway. If you return to this thread please add a message indicating whether you found a way to get the premium software to work with Windows 8.1. 

I own a XPS One 2710 which was preloaded with Windows 8. I upgraded the system to Windows 8.1. all works just great including all My Dell utilities which I downloaded and installed. I upgraded the Dell Backup to Premium (the paid version). After running it it was kind of initializing for about 20 min and then said the following : " Dell Backup and Recovery has not been able to detect the Recovery Partition on this computer. It may be missing or corrupted. to recover your computer to the original factory state and restore the Recovery Partition, please use your system recovery disks.  Note : you will not be able to preserve your data with Dell Backup and recovery System Backups until the Recovery Partition is repaired" The problem is that my recovery disks are all Windows 8 not Windows 8.1, and I believe that what the utility discover that the OS and the Recovery Partition don't match. Is there anything I can do ?