BIOS A12..and whatever was recommended for my service tag number...

I have a two week old Inspiron 15z and just experienced this same issue. I tried creating the recovery disks a couple times and got the first disk burnt before getting stuck an unable to continue burning the second disk and third disk.  Disappointed in Dell that this issue has been going on for a while and there does not appear to be a clear solution.

BIOS version I have is A11, but I have heard that there maybe issues with BIOS A12 afraid to update do you have the 7720 with the 32gb drive and 1gb drive?

yeah i do..seems to work fine..

@Big Ralphie I had the same issue with making DVD-R CD-R DVD-R/W and CD-R/W drink coasters.  I gave up after making a stack of them and tried using a USB Stick instead.. happy to say that it worked.

personally I think Dell should reimburse customers for all the coasters they created due to their incompatible software issue.

What I want to know is who's doing the quality assurance testing and how does something like this get out?

Seriously is it some big monkey in a cage?

  OK Joe the Monkey just flung the laptop around a bit.

  Right Steve, did it break open?

  Nope, Not that I can see Joe.

  Great Steve, send it out for shipment.

  Hey Joe, Aren't we at least going to check to see if the contents inside broke.

  Who care's Steve it looks good on the outside let the customer worry about what happened to the insides.

Reminds of that old American Tourister Luggage commercials in the early 70's 
Same thing luggage held up to that one test but did anyone care to check out what happened to the contents inside? LOL

I purchased a Dell 17R (5720, didn't know there were 2 different ones until tonight) and have now spent all day dealing with the same issue of not being able to make recovery disks. First disk seems to burn fine, but when it asks for the second disk and I put one in nothing else happens. Tried this multiple times, no luck. 

I called Dell Consumer Services after not finding anything in any of the online manuals, or other areas that I searched through. Obviously this was a big mistake, the guy could hardly speak English and had me let him remotely connect to my computer, he tried to create the recovery disks and hit the same problem, he had no clue. After he has already had me remotely connected, and we are in the process of trying to make the recovery disks, he tells me that I don't have software support and he'll do this for free this time, but if I ever call again I'll have to pay $129 (each time or per hour?) for assistance or buy the support for $239 a year. I wouldn't have called if I'd know that (probably wouldn't have bought a Dell). Anyhow, he could not figure it out and while the first disk was burning, I found this blog and mentioned to him that it was a known problem, he said no it wasn't. When I asked for recovery disks to be sent to me, he finally, after much run around and my asking multiple times, said he couldn't and that he would transfer me to Technical Support and they could send them. I was waiting for the transfer for over 10 minutes and he re-opened the line, I could hear him talking, but when I said Hello, are you there, he did not respond then hung up. I called Technical support and briefly explained what happened and she said she would send me recovery disks, this took quite a long time, but she was very polite, however she only said that it was probably a corrupted partition on the hard drive. Really, a brand new computer, I haven't even make recovery disks, haven't done anything else and there is a corrupted drive? I'm scared to find out what else may go wrong. This computer may be going back. Oh...and when he closed the remote a little comment box popped up, I filled it out and when I hit submit it said it couldn't send, figures.

I don't have time to play with it anymore tonight, but hope to have a better experience tomorrow when I get home from work, as I was excited about this computer, now not so much . So, if I would have questions or problems in the future is there a Dell support that I can call or even live chat with that will not charge? I've never had issues or needed assistance with other computers (other brands), so this issue is new to me. 

Not so happy customer, hoping that will change or as I said this computer will be returned.

@taphouse: I wouldn't count on any changes in the near future!

My 7720 is a splendid machine, it really is .

(IMHO) DELL is pretty poor performing in most things support, sales and software related these days, but they are still able to put together a very decent piece of hardware for the money.

If you are one of the lucky ones whose machine arrived without dead components, I'd advise you keep it.

For recovery, just use CLONEZILLA (free)  or ACRONIS (paid, unless you happen to have a western digital USB drive you can attach - in which case you can get a free version that works great...)  for keeping a safe image backup of your machine (assuming software is currently in good working order).

Forget about getting meaningful support from DELL, they have proven to me (and countless others) that they are quite unsatisfactory at present. Someday they might get their ducks in a row, but I'm not betting on anytime soon. So if you really think you will need 'software support' then I'd be sending your Dell back QUICK, (before your 30 day return period expires) and look elsewhere for that sort of thing. (HP, Samsung, Sony perhaps? I can't really advise you...)

I managed to install a clean copy of windows 8, only adding in the DELL drivers for chipset, sound, and touchpad (I wanted to be able to turn the touchpad off when I'm typing) and now I'm very content with the machine. It was pretty awful as shipped from the factory, but it's a lean, mean computing machine now!

@taphouse: Try using a USB Stick instead to create the Recovery Software, I made a bunch of beer coasters myself and I now have a nice set of 2 CD-R's & 2 DVD-R's for me and my mates to keep our pints from putting glass rings on the Miss's nice coffee table, bad enough she hate's it when they come over to watch a game ;)

Anyways a USB stick works I used a 16GB one myself  and the Recovery Creation completed successfully takes a while but it does work.

@taphouse in regards to @090909's message about using Clonezilla or Acronis yes you can use your Western Digital Passbook to create a System Image on.

I personally use Acronis not only for myself but I recommend it to my clients. And have had great success with it - it's a bit in depth for a backup system but one thing it will allow you to do a Full Bare Metal Restore of your system, boot the Acronis Restore client from a DVD, point it to your external USB Hard drive that contains your system image and your done.

No Problem - as to USB Stick aka Thumbdrive  I used as "SanDisk - Cruzer Glide 16GB" cheap found one for about $12.00 USD

Looks like this

Thank you for your response, I am hoping this is the only issue I run into. I've never had to call support for software issues in the past and hopefully, won't have the need again.  I have a Western Digital (hmmm, Passbook? I think it called) external drive for back ups, is that the type of thing you are referring to? Thank you again.

Yes get a 16GB conveniently the Recovery software takes 8.26GB according to my properties of File Space used on my USB stick here.