Orphaned Dell Partition

Question

Hi,

I am purchasing a Dell Desktop, about 3 years old, that I have worked on for years from the company I work for. It has had its C drive wiped and a different OS installed on it. I can see the dell recovery partition in the windows partition manager and would like to know the best way I can access that partition and do a restore.

Thanks.

Frank

osprey4 · Accepted Answer

Hi fpearson2,

The fix in that site refers to the older Dell PC Restore provided with consumer systems running XP. For newer systems and business desktops, a different restore utility was used. But I need to know the model and original OS. The original OS is listed on the system sticker on the side of most desktop cases.

DELL-Sundeep B · Answer

Hi Frank,

If the OS has been wiped off and a different version of OS has already been installed, then there is no way to access the partition and do a restore. You need to manually re-install the OS and delete all the partitions.

For re-installing the operating system using a OS re-installation disc you may refer to article Here and select the correct OS. Once the OS is installed you may download and install the drivers from Dell Support site Here -> Enter the Service Tag -> Select the Operating System -> Download/install the drivers in correct sequence as mentioned Here.

Note : Re-installing OS leads to complete data loss. Please backup important data before proceeding with re-installation.

fpearson2 · Answer

I know there are third party scripts written to reassign the dell recovery partition when it has been orphaned. I am going to try one of those and follow the steps you laid out here if that doesn't work. An example script:

www.goodells.net/.../fixes.shtml

fpearson2 · Answer

I don't have the PC with me right now but the original OS is Windows 7 Home Premium.  I will update with the model later tonight.  Thanks for the help.

osprey4 · Answer

There are two utilities used with Windows 7. OS Restore and Dell Backup and Recovery. Details here.  Try both procedures.

DELL-Sundeep B · Answer

Hi Frank,

If you are going to use Windows 7 OS, you may follow the steps given in my initial reply for clean installation of OS and drivers. Once the drivers are installed, you may install basic softwares and setup the computer as you intend to use it.

Once the initial setup is done, you may download Dell Datasafe Local software from Here and install it. Dell Datasafe Local will create a custom recovery image with your present OS state and put it on a recovery partition on your system. This recovery partition can be accessed through F8 Advanced Recovery Options and can also be used to create recovery media.

Please reply if you have any further questions. I would be glad to help you.

Storage, Drives & Media

Orphaned Dell Partition

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