Factory Image Restore

Afarhangdoust15,

First off, we need to know if you have a high speed; i.e., broadband, Internet connection, and access to a computer with Windows XP SP2 installed.  The tools you will need to do a manual restoration of the Factory Image are rather large and need to be created using a Windows XP SP2 or better computer.

Tony

Hey tony

This worked a treat for me. Following weeks of unhelpfull emails with Dell

Using the Usb as above, I entered, \x86\imagex/apply d:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:\

The restore worked fine and the Lappy re booted with the Factory settings. so i decided to try the F8 funtion which restored it again to factory settings but when i went to re-boot the damm thing kept re booting over and over. I used the vista disk, to repair Start up repair.

I was wondering is there a file missing from the recovery partition which should instruct the correct boot order,.

Secondly when Vista sorted the boot up problem i pressed the Media direct button when it was switched off, it began to boot up to Media then a black screen came up saying something like LSTDR. nothing else. Vista disk repaired boot-up again, media button works fine but not when the lappy is switched off, it just turns the lappy on, boots up the OS and Media direct.

Thanks again

andy

Andy,

Glad you got your factory image restored.  Quite often the manual restoration of the factory image requires a Startup Repair before it functions correctly.  Theoretically, once the factory image is restored, the Media Direct button should work the same as it did when you received the system from the factory.

Tony

Hi Tony.

One thing i have noticed whilst researching the forum from the link below is a possible file missing from the restore partition "D" in the "Tools" folder "CmdShell.cmd"

I have the XPS M1530, VISTA PREMIUM, 250GB, 4GB RAM

Should i have this file and if so where can i get it!

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19198294/19439413.aspx#19439413

Again

Thanks

Andy

Tgsmith I tried the command prompt method to try to restore by 32bit vista home basic but I keep getting the error that it failed to create the file and the uh file is being used by another process. I want to try to live cd method but im not sure what to do. Can u tell me what to do because I dont have the Vista DVD. Thank you.

I Would Love To Know How This is Done Please Help Me DELL Keeps Telling Me That They Dont Have And CD Or Anything Like HP Has The Will Recover The Protition Or Software So I Manuily Have To Reinstall Every Thing One By One And It *** And My Computer Is Only 2 weeks Old i have a DELL INSPIRON 1525 you can email me at <ADMIN NOTE:Email removed per privacy policy>

How to recover Dell Factory Image Restore (to restore Factory settings) if the ‘Repair Your Computer’ Option is missing from the repair mode menu on your screen when you press ‘F8.’

This worked for me on my 1 year old Dell XPS M1330, which I spent ages trying to restore to original Factory settings, after I discovered that the repair option simply wasn't there when I pressed F8. Give it a shot, hopefully, will do the same for you.

  1)  Shut down computer after inserting Windows Vista (Dell OEM) disc.

  2)  Power laptop on, hitting F12 when the Dell flash screen appears
  3)  Select CD / DVD ROM DRIVE from the list that appears
  4)  Press any key when prompted
  5)  Laptop will likely appear to be loading (Windows loading bar)
  6)  Select Language, Time, Keyboard settings. Select Next
  7)  Do not select ‘Install Now’. Instead select ‘Repair your computer’ at the bottom   left
  8)  Select 'command prompt' box.

  9)  Type: D:   then press enter (D = recovery drive )
10)  Type: cd tools   then press enter
11)  Type imagex/apply d:\dell\image\factory.wim 1 c:  then press enter

12)  This is the trick – Plug in a USB device – Anything with storage capacity like a flash drive, ipod etc. This basically ‘tricks’ the 

        system into thinking a further drive & gets round the “Cannot access c:\backup\bcd as it is being used by another process” issue

13)  The Factory Image will now start rebuilding, wait till it reaches 100% & you receive confirmation that it has rebuilt successfully.

14)  Click on the restart option.

15)  Remove the Windows Vista (Dell OEM) disc.

16)  Your laptop should now restart. Press F8 & follow the instructions to access Factory Image Restore in the correct manner as

        the repair option will now no longer be missing from the options screen.

17)  Once the restore operation has completed, your laptop will restart and the original Windows Vista set up screen will appear.

        Follow the prompts on your screen to complete recovery of your Dell system’s Factory settings.

18)  Your system should now have been repaired.

Hope this helps !!

If you don't see "Dell Factory Image Restore" in the Repair Mode options and you still have the Recovery partition, then

Boot in Repair Mode, choose Command Prompt and then type:

"

path d:\windows;d:\windows\system32
d:
cdtools
pcrestore

"

Worked like a charm for me. It saved my day, good luck!

Yes it is a big pain in 64 bit crashing constantly. I will also go back to 32, if i can get the restore to work. Maybe just upgrade to win 7 ?

Before trying the method I posted above, I tried many different ways of trying to use the cdtools>pcrestore method, similar to those outlined in ressurector's posting, but none would work for me as the Recovery drive seemed determined block access !!

Hopefully the USB method I have outlined in my previous posting will help someone. If you do manage to get the restore to work perhaps Windows 7 will be a much better option than 64 bit, as it can't be much fun if your system keeps crashing !!

Good luck, hope you get it to work :)

In cases where there are problems running the restore through booting the Vista DVD, I've found that using a Live CD like BartPE or VistaPE allows the restore to proceed correctly (both the PCRestore.exe and the imagex.exe /apply technique).

  Yes the post above by Ressurector worked  great for me--Two days of frustration and google this and that all ended with this fix,so simple,cant believe no one found this long ago....

   Only thing is I believe on the cdtools I had to leave a space between them  ( cd tools )  

Try this people it works.  Again ressurector thank you much.

'

Hey worked like a charm for me. saved my day too, Good Luck!!

  Yes the post above by Ressurector worked  great for me--Two days of frustration and google this and that all ended with this fix,so simple,cant believe no one found this long ago....

   Only thing is I believe on the cdtools I had to leave a space between them  ( cd tools )  

Try this people it works.  Again ressurector thank you much.

'

Hey worked like a charm for me. saved my day too, Good Luck!!

I thank you for the posting.  I currently have a Dell Desktop (home) which has a corrupt File System.  I pressed F8 to go through repair, answered yes to reformatting the disk but for some reason it never does reformat the disk.  What is the  best way to work around this problem?

Thank you for your time.   (just a fyi, I have been windows/unix sys admin for over 20 years)