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Computer Recovery
I have a Dell Inspiron 531 and it contains one main hard drive with a recovery partition. How would I ever recover my computer and all the factory software if this hard drive were to fail? Is there any way that I can purchase a set of recovery CD's?
Right now my computer sounds like a thrashing machine and all of the fans are okay. I also checked the DVD-ROM and the floppy drive. They are not making any noise. Trouble is the noise is intermittent and when I open up the case, all is well.
It would be to my benefit to have a set of recovery CD's or a way I could make my own from the recovery partition.
Mary G
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February 11th, 2009 12:00
The recovery partition is only useful for restoring a damage operating system, not a bad hard drive. If the hard drive fails, you must buy a new one, format and install the operating system, all your programs and your personal files from backups. It is not possible to have today's huge hard drives on cd's. You might consider using cloning software with external hard drives. If you ever had to use the recovery partition, you still would need to reinstall all your added programs, system updates and personal files since that only restore the drive to "as shipped" condition. As for your current noise problem, run the Dell Diagnostics to check all the hardware, including the extended Hard Drive Test to check the drive. Make sure you have all your original disks that came with the computer. If you need another set, get them from Dell HERE.