Replace XPS HDD with SSD and retain recovery option

It may be possible - but be sure you have a Windows DVD, since any alteration to the disc structure will render the F8 menu unusable.

There is no point to transferring the restore partition - you can't use it on a drive smaller than the original - the replacement has to be as large or larger.

The old Sysprep utility had the same problem but there was a way to edit the parameter file with a hex editor to reset the required disk drive capacity to a smaller value, I presume this is not possible with WIm files?

any alteration to the disc structure will render the F8 menu unusable, how so ??

If you alter the boot record by adding or changing a partition, the F8 boot option for recovery will be gone.

Except that if you now try to do a restore, it will fail because of the size reduction.

Question?  If I make a new recovery flash drive after reduction with Dell Datasafe local 2.0 and then restore it,

Will it work?

I went to disk management did a shrink volume on the c: volume and make a d: volume and the F8 still works.

So maybe not all changes will have the same effect, you think ??

It should -- but to be sure you should probably try restoring it after making it.  Better yet, Acronis True Image is inexpensive and will surely work for keeping backups.

I do use Acronis, just want to understand the Dell Recovery partition better. I have been testing a few things and it looks like you can restore just the OS partition from F8 with datasafe to smaller partition ( if it will fit ) or if you make a complete backup disc set or flash, it restores everything as it was when the set was made. I'm checking the

Dell Backup and Recovery Manager software now. The datasafe software works with both x86 and x64, while need different software when using DBRM software. One for x86 and another for x64. I have found it hard to brake the link to recovery partition but having good luck at fixing it when it is broken. If a person keeps the Factory.wim file, the rest can be rebuild. I made my own Factory.wim file with all the updates and SP1, saves a lot of time. When I'm in real trouble, I just use the Acronis True Image restore.

When I look at a clone system built from DVD I see two partitions, System Reserved and Boot. As I understand it this System Reserved is the bootstrap loader for Windows and also contains WinRE for repair and recovery. This differs from the Dell sytem as that also has the recovery partition, hidden primarily because it has no drive letter assigned. I presume this has the .wim files for a recovery back to factory spec and from what has been said these will be different for each hardware spec. This system is available with disk capacities that vary according to the order but as the file will only work on a disk of the same size or larger a 320Gb system will have different files to those on a 500Gb system.

I found when replacing the 500Gb HDD on my desktop with a 320Gb SSD the Windows System Image would not restore to the smaller SSD. Intel provides access to a version of Acronis to transfer an operating system to one of their SSDs for this very purpose, presumably because of the limitations of the Windows System Backup Utility

It would appear therefore that not only can WinRE find  sytem restore points within an operating system disk but it will also recognise recovery images held in other partitions on the disk provided it has a TypeID of 0x27. This link explains some of it technet.microsoft.com/.../dd744365(v=ws.10).aspx although I am not sure about the section of theXML file does. From what I can see the fact that Dell creates the recovery as partition 1 and Microsofts example  uses partition 2 does not matter because of the TypeID field.