It indeed is a concern, but as an IT admin i would make a backup copy of the recovery image from the other systems and keep em handy. If they all are the same configuration then the same backup disk could be used for all if and when the need arises.

Any Modification of the drive partition sizes etc would have this issue.  If the drives were cloned with Ghost they would have this issue.  The new datasafe partitions are encrypted ntfs partitions that cannot be cloned whereas the old ones were ghostable or cloneable via acronis etc.    I would order another one and get a 16 gig or larger USB flash drive to backup the entire system including diag and recovery partition then see if what is being done to configure these machines for use is causing the problem.  With the backup on the USB flash you can boot from it and do a factory restore that will put back the Recovery partition as well as the diag and OS partitions just as it came from the factory.

Even if the drive dies and you put a new BLANK HARD DRIVE in and boot from the usb flash it will work.  The only Limitation is that the drive MUST BE AS LARGE or Larger than the original hard drive.  It will not factory restore to a smaller hard drive.

I didn't modify any of those things... I just created a profile, installed windows fixes and service packs, set a home page on the browser, and installed Office and a software program. I have almost 20 of these netbooks, and each one has an identical, worthless recovery partition.There is definitely a problem with this particular model. I am experienced enough to work around it. That isn't the issue.

What worked for me was installing Dell Backup and Restore, then creating a system image on DVDs. I have been able to use these to restage several netbooks so far (after which I reset the license key to the official sticker on the bottom).

Dell is selling computers with defective restore images. Period. And when you call them on it, they lie. This is more of a rant, not a request for a solution - unless that solution is to hire better support at Dell.

Well, you are definitely not stupid... so I won't call you that.

I am trying to convince my supervisor to go to images, but we have too many models to make it worthwhile. We aren't that large a company - about 200 people. Right now for portable devices we provide Asus EeePCs (the only non-Dell on site) Inspiron Minis, Latitude 2110, Inspiron 11z, Vostro 3500 and 3550, plus various Inspiron 1400 series and 1500 series. In every single case, EXCEPT the 2110s,  when one comes back in and needs to be deployed to a new user, I have been able to simply restore to the factory partition, install the updates and service pack, upgrade Flash and Java, create a profile, install Office, printers and our software then redeploy. This avoids any crap from the previous user being passed along to the new one, and they get a brand new fresh OS.

So yes, Dell does as a practice provide either a Windows reinstallation disk (I have a drawerful of all flavors) or a recovery partition, which I prefer because all the licensing information comes over intact, and they get to keep the various software that is bundled in.

What upsets me about this is that Dell was doing their best to either A) make me feel like an idiot, or B) lie to me when they realize they are mistaken about A. I know I need to just get over it and forget it, but I hate it when people are condescending liars.

Call me stupid but i've never seen a Dell computer shipped with a factory recovery partition in my life. When other companies started using partitions, Dell stuck to CDs and DVDs. The only partitions ive ever seen on Dells are the factory installed OS partition and the diagnostics partition. this partition can be accidentally removed by many imaging systems if you're not careful.

We use images for everything and have MS volume keys so this is never a concern for us. In fact the first thing we do when opening new computers is to plug cat5 cables in and boot into PXE to push out a universal image, so maybe i've been blind?  I made an image for 75 new 2120's this summer (since our image for 2110's wasnt working b/c they had a different screen resolution that refused to auto-adjust after plug and playing the video driver and i didnt want to mess with it) and i definitely dont recall seeing a recovery partition and they definitely didnt have a BIOS key to boot to anything related to recovery.  

Is this something you request from Dell when ordering computers?

Is this something you request from Dell when ordering computers?

Through out my tenture in Dell Tech Support never came across this. As per my knowledge the recovery partition HAS to be present on all systems, wont deny the fact that the partitions have gone missing from certain systems ...for unknown reasons..

I get that that is what happened... what I don't get is why they find it so difficult to provide me with a copy.

Off topic but it may help later on.

We have ~10 desktop models and 13 or 14 laptop/netbook models making up about 1450 clients. We have 2 base images that are used on about 75% of all our clients. Those 2 images are for Optiplex desktops ranging from GX60s and 755s and Intel-based Latitude laptops ranging from D510s to E6420s. We have 3 AMD-based Latitude models that share an image, Precision desktops that share a base image (we install different software on them based on use and recapture it for 3 different images), and 3 images for the 3 Latitude Mini models that i didnt have time to consolidate over the summer. The Minis would be sharing an image.  We also have one model of HP Compaq desktops with its own image.

We create Universal Images for general-use desktops and laptops. As long as they use the same HAL I can get it to work with an existing image by adding drivers to the image.

I still have never seen a Dell recovery partition lol. We've thrown out stacks and stacks of Dell Windows CDs throughout the years, especially now that we have a microsoft volume contract, but never seen a recovery partition. We make sure to keep OEM partitions when creating and deploying images b/c the diagnostic tools are easy and effective, so we definitely havent been overwriting them accidentally.

If you want to see a recovery partition, go into Disk Management. It is on a hidden partition called Recovery that is not assigned a letter. If you assign it a letter, then turn on viewing invisible and system files you can see what is on there. It has protection on it, like SpeedStep indicated above. You aren't able to do anything with it unless you completely blow it away during a clean install. The boot file is on there, so if you try anything foolish like trying to recreate the partition with a real image the system won't start at all. Ask me how I discovered that! ;-)

And I know for a fact I am not doing anything stupid like deleting them or corrupting them. These were new systems, shipped fresh from Dell. The first time I got one back from someone who quit, I thought, hmmm, I can't restore this but it must be a fluke. I needed to send it out again fairly quickly so I just blew away the profile and added a new one. The second time I had some time, and I did everything in my arsenal of tricks over a couple of days trying to get it to recognize the recovery partition with no success.

The third time I got Dell involved, and I got conflicting advice as to what to do. I messed around with it some more, then let it drop because they weren't being helpful - although they were kind enough to send me another Windows install disk to add to my vast collection as long as I let them drool over the possibility of renewing my warranties.

The last time I hit Dell hard about it, because it occurred to me there was necessary software on it that would not be on the Windows installation disk. If one came in needing an OS reinstall I would be screwed. I did everything I could think of, including getting Dell Premiere involved to try to solve this issue. Talk about banging your head into a brick wall!!! Even my Premiere rep shook his head in disbelief over the entire mess. He did manage to talk someone into sending me a drivers and diagnostics disk, however, so I did come out of it better than I went in - and it only took a month. So now, instead of spending 20 minutes restoring a system it will now take the better half of a day.

Then I decided to see if a custom recovery disk set along with a repair disk from one could be used to restore another, and it did work. I have done this a couple of times, and I do like that it contains all the hotfixes and software I installed already.

So really, I am just kind of venting. I don't need a solution, I found one. I would like to use this thread to let Dell know how ridiculously bad their overseas support center is... so feel free to share the things that made you want to bang your head against the desk. They seem so concerned about customer support, yet it is so ridiculously bad it is almost funny. I truly feel for the poor saps without much computer knowledge.

i only do support chats. if one guy doesn't give me what i want then i close the session and start anew. for every CSR that's hard to deal with (mainly b/c he's following the rules by the books but also occasionally b/c they're bad) there's 1 or 2 that let me breeze through the process without having me jump through hoops.

"Hello my name is Bob" (yea right) "how can i help you?"

"i ran the dell diagnostics and it says there's a bad hard drive."

"ok, we will send a replacement out right away"

5 minutes later, i've got a transcript email and the part is on order.

biol passward forgott

You need to call Dell support with verification of ownership.