Cannot restore factory image

When using Acronis, you should have Imaged the Entire drive (all partitions), by imaging just the C partition, and using this image to restore, you have in fact changed the MBR, damaging the restore function.

 

Here is some info on the Restore Partition, it was written before Vista, and the fix does not work with Vista

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm   XP

 

 

 

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista.htm  Vista.  No info on a Vista Fix yet,

This is where I could say "snap"....I've done the exact same thing with my E520.  So far I haven't found a complete fix but I did find a way of getting to the Dell Factory Image Restore via the DVD.  The only problem was that the DOS commands they tell you to use didn't work and fortunately I was able to drag my DOS knowledge out of the dark depths of my brain and work it out.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&dl=false&l=en&s=gen&docid=298A2E89689E13C2E040A68F5B280AA4&doclang=en

 

You will need to know what the drive letter is for the Recovery Partition for a start because mine isn't D:\,  it's F:\. 

 

On the Recovery Partition there's a directory called "Tools" that contains PCRestore.exe and if you can get that going from DOS, it invokes a file called imagex.exe which calls upon the image file found in Dell>Image>factory.wim and away it all goes...as far as I can find out....the problem is getting to the PCRestore.exe :o). It won't work from within the Vista enviroment, of course.

 

Failing that suggestion, the only other way is booting to the DVD and installing from it....that's providing you do have a DVD?

 

I've also sent an email to Dan Goodell who writes a very good fix for the XP problem, hoping he may be able to find one for Vista.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm

 

Best of luck with this.....Wendy

Thanks Wendy, all very useful and glad to see I'm not the only one who's had this trouble.

 

I have tried using the vista install dvd and followed the dell instructions. However, when I tried to do a restore after a minute or so the pcrestore utility just threw up an error box and I was back to square one.

 

I have also tried reinstalling vista complete from the dvd and then attempting to boot into a dos prompt and follow the dell instructions. However, the system then seems to think that vista is installed on the d: partition and the recovery files on c: Yet if I then boot into vista it tells me that vista is on c: and recovery stuff on d:.....aaaarrrrgggghhhhh.....!!!

 

I am going to copy all of the files off the recovery partition onto a dvd as a back up just in case anything else goes wrong...!!

 

I also wonder whether completely reformatting the hard disk, partitioning then installing vista will then let me re-copy the recovery files back onto d: and then let me run the recovery utility. My main worry on this is that whatever original master boot record existed on the disc which gave the option for the factory restore has now disappeared. Any clues on how to recover the original copy of the mbr (surely dell must have put it copied onto something).

 

Robert

 

 

 

Yes that MBR is the proverbial pain. I haven't yet found anyone who knows how to repair the darn thing, Robert. It's so easy to damage it with software like Acronis or Norton and I don't recall a warning from Dell on the subject.

 

My daughter stuffed her's up the year before last not long after she got her Dell using the Norton that shipped with the computer! Our solution to that was hose all the partitions, load XP and drivers from the cd's then do a drive image with Acronis and use the Acronis F11 boot feature to restore the drive whenever she needs a cleanup.....that works just fine, a lot easier and less stressfull than Dell's restore.

 

I've also made a copy of the Recovery Partition, not sure where I'll go from here, I suppose I'm hoping that some bright spark out there will come up with a repair for the MBR as did Dan Goodsell for Dell machines with XP, although I do recall trying that with daughter's and it didn't work but may of been the operator ;o)

I did find 
http://auscoder.com/2007-05-18/restore-vista-mbr-bootloader.html  but I think it's just to restore the general Vista MBR after it has been corrupted

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/927392  

Need to find out more about it before I'm game enough to try it. It refers to a file called bootrec.exe and Dell have that in their Recovery partition, where they have rewritten it to contain their particular MBR, I don't know.....more research ........

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/760993.html .... another Dell casualty ;o)

 

Will keep you posted.....Wendy

 

I wish that I had read some of this before I got involved with Acronis.  I can two more to the list Paragon and R-Image.  However I can offer a procedure to do factory image restore that works!  BE SURE TO BACK UP IMPORTANT USER FILES BEFORE DOING THIS!!!  One thing you need to know is the letter name of your Vista Recovery Partition (NOT Dell Recovery Partition).  In my case it was "E".  The procedure is as follows (1) Boot to WinRE using the Dell Vista DVD, i.e. etc.  (2) After Windows loads, select language/keyboard options and click on next.  (3) On Install Windows menu select "Repair your computer".  (4) on System Recovery Options menu select "Next". (5) On System Recovery Options menu click on "Command Prompt". (6) Type "path e:\windows;e:\windows\system32" and press key. (7) Type "e:" and press key. (8) Type "cd tools" and press key. (9) Type "PCRestore" and press key and Dell Factory Image Restore window will appear. (10) Click on "Next" and Confirm Data Deletion dialog will appear. (11) Place a "check mark" beside "Yes, reformat hard drive and restore system software to factory condition" for the final confirmation and click on "Next" when ready.  Note: The restoration process takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes, the format bar will run back and forth. (12) Click "Finish" to reboot system!

 

Need help

 

E1505 Vista 100 gb hard drive.

 

Dell made me do a complete reinstall of media direct and vista.  Now I can no longer access the windows recovery utility by using f8 (option is not there.)   Only way to get to it is using the OEM disc.

I want to be able to get to it without using the disk.  This is a built in feature of Vista.

The new hard drive configuration has the D drive after C.  D 10 gb was the drive that held the Dell factory image and all windows recovery tools) . Now configurations has D drive after C and there is nothing in the D drive. 

I backed up D but system will not let me enter it.

 

How do I get the system to set the hard drive configuartion back to the way it came. Which was

47 mb Healthy EISA

81.1 GB NTSF  C; drive

10 GB NSTF this was the recovery partition   D Drive

2.0 GB   (Media DIrect)

victorian1:  I could never get the option to work.  The only way I could restore the factory image was with the Vista OEM DVD.  I would suggest that you first of all check your D backup to see if you still have files like Factory.wim and PCRestore.  If you don't have those, you are out of luck, period!  My son had a 150GB HD that had a D recovery partition which was overwritten by Vista File save/restore.  Also check to see if you have a Windows\System32 folder on the D partition.  You'll need that for a barebones OS.  If you have all the required recovery folders/files, you should be able to substitute a "d" for the "e" that I described in my procedure and restore your factory image.