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Factory restore for WIndows 7
I bought an XPS 15 (L501X model) new several years ago. It came with Windows 7, which I still have installed. It did not come with any recovery media or Windows CD, but did have a recovery partition.
At some point when Dell backup and recovery was downloading an update for the recovery partition, it crashed, and the partition was left in a half updated state. I can't recover via the partition any more.
I am giving this laptop away and want to restore to factory condition. Certainly without paying for a Windows license since I have a valid one already that came with the notebook.
What are my options?
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
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February 3rd, 2016 01:00
The Windows 7 Downloader requires a retail product key and deliberately blocks the Dell Windows 7 OEM product key. You will get the following error message:
“Error The product key you’ve entered appears to be for software which was pre-installed by the device manufacturer. Please contact the device manufacturer for software recovery options.”
If you can get retail media you can use the OEM key with phone activation or ABR program and OEM SLP activation.
Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation .isos are not available from official sources. You can however download Windows 10 TH2 for free without input of a product key and then use your Windows 7 OEM product key to activate Windows 10 TH2:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-windows-10-oem-and-retail-iso/
Unofficially Dell Windows 7 Reinstallation .isos are available on GetIntoPC and I have tested the ones they host on my Dell Systems. They seem to check out but you should be careful when downloading from unofficial sources and ensure there is no malware slipstreamed into the .iso:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/windows-7-sp1-iso-download/
ieee488
4 Operator
4 Operator
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11.1K Posts
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February 1st, 2016 14:00
Buy a Dell OEM Windows 7 DVD on eBay or borrow one from a friend.
BeeOnRope
14 Posts
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February 1st, 2016 15:00
Unfortunately I have no friends with that DVD (Dell hasn't even shipped these DVDs for a while as far as I can tell).
Buying a DVD for a system for which I already have a valid license seems pretty unnecessary.
BeeOnRope
14 Posts
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February 1st, 2016 15:00
If I download the free Windows 7 media (e.g., from Microsoft via the media creation tool) will my existing key work to activate it (on the same hardware)?
BeeOnRope
14 Posts
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February 4th, 2016 21:00
That's very useful, thanks. I ended up using a retail ISO (via bittorrent, SHA-1 verified OK) and then going the phone activation.
Worked mostly OK except that neither the Ethernet nor WiFi drivers were known to the install so I had to jump through some hoops to bootstrap the driver download process. A Dell reinstall ISO would have helped here.
Philip_Yip
7 Technologist
7 Technologist
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16K Posts
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February 5th, 2016 11:00
If you need help with the drivers provide the hardware IDs of your system variants:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/checking-hardware-ids-in-the-device-manager/