Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
More info?)
I got caught by the same thing on that last Dell 4700 we bought at work a
couple months ago.
Been buying Dells for years at work, and I either missed something when I
configured this system originally prior to ordering or....
Either way, the system was bought without a burner of any kind as we already
had a dvd burner we were going to install when the system arrived.
I could have sworn that when I first booted the system and looked in the
Dell program group, there wasn't any option for creating the OS recovery
disk.
Later on after I installed a DVD burner, I looked again and this time the
option to creat the OS recovery disk was in the Dell program group.
I honestly don't remember if I looked before or after I installed the DVD
burning software (in my case, Nero).
I was able to create a XP cd just fine (XP Pro by the way), but as you
pointed out, there was no option to create any type of application CD that
would contain the original Dell apps.
I wasn't concerned myself with that, because there were'nt any of the
original Dell apps that I'd ever re-install.
I spent a few days expirimenting with the system.
If I remember, if you go into the Drive Management section buried in the
control panel and looked at the partitions, you could see that there was a
very small 55meg partiton (Dell diagnostics), a large single partition for
the OS, and a third 'hidden' partition around 2.5gig.
I had used Ghost in the past, but I hadn't bought a new version in a while,
so I bought Ghost 9.
You can backup any or all the partitions just fine with Ghost, and I did,
but I didn't like Ghost 9.
I had heard good things about Acronis True Image, so I downloaded a 15-day
version. This product, I like very much. Much simpler and straight forward
to use than Ghost 9 for me at least. I prefer the older versions of Ghost
that ran from a boot floppy.
Anyway, using either Ghost or True Image, you can see the contents of the
hidden system restore partition. The files contained within have file
extensions that suggest some version of Ghost were used at the factory to
create these images.
One thing I noted while discovering the use of Ctl F11 to restore the
system, and using the Dell option to create the OS recovery disk.
you can create a OS recovery disk ONE TIME. after that, the option no
longer appears appear in the Dell program group
After I got True Image 8.0 and burned an image of the entire drive to a DVD
for safeties sake, I used the option and burned a OS recovery CD.
I then used the Ctl F11 option to return the system back to original
condition (which I think is great!).
Then I went back in to see If I could burn another OS cd (after all, I just
returned the system back to original condition didn't I?), and sure enough,
the option was no longer there.
So bottom line, make sure you use Ghost or True Image or a similar program
to create an image of the drive as it came from the factory 'just in case'
I never did get around to asking Dell about a application recovery CD.
I now see that on Dells web site when you configure a new system it gives
you an option of buying a OS cd for around $10
"Terry" <gobeyondgobeyond@yah00.c0m> wrote in message
news:MPG.1d5c1945581994699896d2@news.tc.umn.edu...
>
>> 1. Have you already wiped the HDD's? If so, there was probably a hidden
>> partition that contained the files, that the Utility would create a
>> recovery cd, that you destroyed.
>> 2.. Does your PCs have CD Writers? The cd creating utility, onced used,
>> won't be available for you to use again. So be careful.
>
> The 4 machines I got all have CD writers. I checked all four of them
> and none has the create CD option. I called Dell and they shipped me
> the OS CDs, but not the application CDs like those for the CD writing
> software.
>
> Anyway, this change of policy is new to me. When I ordered the
> machines, there was no such option as to adding the CDs for extra $.
>
> Thanks for all your responses!
>
> Terry
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram