Windows 7 Starter Disc Not Provided with Dell Inspiron Mini 10 (1012)

Here in the States it is normal to not get the discs. If you look under control Panel/Disk Management you should see a partition without a drive letter that is the "Recovery Partition" as long as you do not format the HDD you will be able to use that to restore your system to the same state it was in when Dell shipped the machine. Of course anything you added afterwords would have to be re-installed.

I didn't like not having discs so I kept after them until they sent them to me! You might try that.

Good Luck.

Jeff

I don't have a new Dell PC, but from what I read there is a procedure to create a set of discs.  Look over the supplied programs on the new PC.  I just bought a new Samsung netbook and along with the recovery partiton on the hard drive, there was an icon on the desktop that linked to instruction on creating a set of reinstall discs.   I reinstalled a new HP desktop for a client several months ago and HP does the same thing.  Appears to be current "industry standard".

Thanks Jeff Hoffman and Firebird.

I ended up buying a cheap external DVD-RW drive (because the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 doesn't have an internal one) and used the "Create a system image" and then the "Create a system repair disc" options to produce a series of DVD-ROM discs that can be used to restore and/or repair the operating system.

If anyone is wondering, both the "Create a system image" and the "Create a system repair disc" options are accessed by clicking on the "Start" icon, then clicking on "Control Panel" and then clicking on "Backup and Restore".

The system image required three DVD-ROM's and the system repair disc fitted on a single DVD-ROM.

I also had a good look on the Dell website and it looks like it is actually fairly straight forward to request a copy of the OEM system discs if the operating system were to become corrupted.  All you need to do is submit an online request using a standard online proforma.  I presume the same would apply for any other Microsoft software that came preloaded (e.g. Microsoft Office).

Finally, in case anyone is interested, the cheap DVD-RW drive I bought was an Asus SDRW-08D1S-U.  It doesn't need an external power supply (i.e. it just relies on getting power from its USB connections) and has been working great so for.  It has two USB male connectors, with the second one being wired in series with the first.  The idea is that you plug both USB connectors into your computer and (between the two of them) the computer will be to deliver sufficient power to run the drive without the need for an external power source.

One comment.  If you request a set of discs that is ONLY the Operating System and the Drivers and Utilities disc.  It is NOT any optional added software such as Microsoft Office.  If you have, for example, purchased optional software such as MS Office you should have received the discs and the Product Key for the software and if not you ONLY have 30 days to contact Dell and request the discs.  After the 30 days Dell, in most cases (actually every one I've seen posted on here) will not provide free replacements for the the optional software.

Thanks Jeff Hoffman and Firebird. I ended up buying a cheap external DVD-RW drive (because the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 doesn't have an internal one) and used the "Create a system image" and then the "Create a system repair disc" options to produce a series of DVD-ROM discs that can be used to restore and/or repair the operating system.

I purchased an eMachines netbook a couple of weekends ago. Acer/Gateway/eMachines is also participating on the media reduction campaign for Windows 7, so I had to burn 3 DVDs (2 for the OS, 1 for the drivers and installed software).

One benefit of having several computers--I pulled a DVD writer from another computer. I used a USB to SATA adapter to burn the disks.

Just got an email back from Dell regarding how the Microsoft Office 2010 software would be retrieved in the event of a total HDD failure or an irreparable curruption of it.

Dell don't provide OEM backup discs for Office 2010.  It sounds like this is common for most computer suppliers.

Their advice is:

1.  All of the original preloaded software (including Office 2010) can be reloaded via Dell's Data Safe Local (DSL) website.  This process refreshes the whole HDD (i.e. if there is any other data on the HDD then it would be completely wiped).

2.  If only the Office 2010 software needs to be relaoded (i.e. if evertything else is working) then you can download and install a free Office 2010 trial version from the Microsoft website.  The Activation Key (i.e. the alpha numeric code printed on a piece of cardboard that shipped with the original computer) can then be used to activate it.  Using the Activation Key the trial version will be converted into a full licensed version.

I would be interested to know if anyone has tried either of the above.  If so, did they experience any problems with the reinstallation of Office 2010?