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questions about Dell Recovery Environment
I purchased a very nice Dell XPS 8700 last November and love it.
So, I recently had the Dell make a recovery media- to a USB flash drive- then tested it. It boots up, after the F12 thing to tell the system to boot to the USB flash drive.
I then see the options that come up, which are: run from hard drive--- or run from system recovery USB drive
I'm surprised that an option to run from the hard drive exists because in most cases, I'd think that the user has a problem with booting from the hard drive or other hard drive issues and the hard drive would probably not be functioning, though I'm not sure about that.
So, not wanting to test that first option, I chose to run from the flash drive.
then, I saw 4 options.
1. smart repair
2. if smart repair not succ., we will attempt to restore sys. from factory setting, or previous backup
3. opportunity to backup up data....
4. recovery process will begin
OK, all of that is fine- but what I'd prefer to see are the Win 8.1 options I see in the following book: "Windows 8.1 The Missing Manual" on page 701.
That page shows what it calls the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)- showing what looks like Win 8.1 applet type screens. The one that comes up first has the heading "Choose an Option" which includes Continue, Troubleshoot, and Turn off your PC. The book also shows the screens if you choose Troubleshoot- and a screen if you then choose Advanced within the Troubleshoot option, and then if you then choose Startup Settings from within the Advanced screen.
This WinRE seems like a more sophisticated recovery environment than the Dell recovery environment- at least to me.
At some point, previously, I did mange to see these WinRE screens, perhaps somehow from within Windows- but I can't seem to find how to do that.
But, how can I create a standard WinRE recovery media on a USB flash drive, rather than the Dell Recovery system???
Or am I confusing 2 different things?
Joe
Philip_Yip
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April 4th, 2015 13:00
Joe
The Dell Backup and Recovery programs main purpose is to get you to factory settings and it does a very nice job of this. You should ensure you have the latest version 1.8.1.71 see the instructions here:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/dell-backup-and-recovery-1-8-1-71/
I'm still working on this guide so its not complete.
There are some limitations for Dell Backup and Recovery media however (as Dell want you to more or less remain on a standard Factory Settings).
One of them is the inability to select where to install (when you have multiple drives) and the inability to setup a dual boot (on a single drive). These configurations are never shipped as factory settings. I also use DISKPART which can be launched from generic Windows Installation Media.
The Premium version offers the ability to make custom images (additional software/files installed on the factory settings) which you can restore to and incremental backups etc.
It will by default try to use the internal recovery partition or fix your current installation. You can however select the advanced option and perform a factory reset which will use the USB media opposed to the recovery partition as illustrated in my guide.
If you need generic media for some reason, see my guide here:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/download-windows-8-1-retail-and-oem-iso/
hellogoodby
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April 5th, 2015 16:00
Natakuc-4,
thanks for those suggestions- though, I'm still wondering what happened to the standard Win 8.1 WinRE, as I noted above? Isn't there any way to get to those screens as described in that book I mentioned?
after I review your comments, I may post here again- the more I learn, the more questions I ask!
Joe
Jostian
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April 6th, 2015 00:00
Premium version is useless, dunno if you've seen the latest posts that Dell Backup & Recovery is STILL not working...last month it didn't pick up ext drives now with the new version (1.8.1.71) it picks up ext drives but no matter if you choose Recovery or System backup one gets a pop up window within a minute saying "An error has occurred..." the fact that Dell cannot get basic functionality right is very frustrating, especially for those that have paid for 'Premium functionality'...
hellogoodby
79 Posts
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April 6th, 2015 07:00
Jostian, I also have Acronis True Image backup program but I've had some problems with that recently so I'm investigating doing standard Windows backup in addition to Acronis backup- the more backups the better! Interesting that you mention that the Dell recovery with its past problem of "seeing" external drives because that's been the problem with the latest version of Acronis- which can't seem to see some external drives, especially Seagate drives.
Meanwhile, I'm still trying to find out how to use he Win 8.1 recovery environment as I mentioned above- which may work better than the Dell backup and recovery.
Is it that only the Dell backup can "see" the Dell recovery partition?
Joe
PS: replies are not sent to my email- I have to check here to see replies- how do I get the replies sent to my email? I have checked the box below.
hellogoodby
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April 8th, 2015 07:00
Getting back to my original post- at the top of this thread- regarding the following:
3. opportunity to backup up data....
Exactly what will be the options with this? Can the Dell RE create an image of the drive? How does it differ from the image that might be created by the standard Windows Recovery Environment? Are they interchangeable? That is, would the Dell RE and the Win RE recognize an image created by the other RE? Why does Dell bother with this at all?
So, what is the name of the hidden Dell partition?
I do have the Acronis True Image back up program which I make image backups- it shows the boot drive with the following partitions: ESP, DIAGS, PBR Image, OS(C). It must be one of the first 3.
It would be nice if Dell provided us with a DETAILED explanation of the Dell RE- exactly what's going on with each step- instead of the obscure 4 steps I noted above. I always want to know exactly what will happen before it happens.
Joe
hellogoodby
79 Posts
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April 9th, 2015 14:00
Which version is the Premium version-- is it 1.8.1.71? Exactly what does it mean to be a Premium version? We have to pay for it?
Joe