ArtReid said:
I have created a system recovery disk on a DVD but when ever I had to
use it it was of know use to me.
Is this the Optiplex 780 ?
Info is lacking on the Dell site. No proper user manual that I could find.
The setup manual tells you how to plug in the power cable, but it
doesn't review usage of the software features of the computer.
When you receive a computer, a partition (hidden or otherwise) may contain
a copy of the OS installation.
You will be prompted by the computer, to burn recovery media. In the case
of Windows 7, it might take three DVDs (perhaps 12GB of data or so), to
copy what is in the recovery partition onto the DVDs. The prompt
in that case, should come from some Dell software. The Dell software
will tell you, that it will only burn one copy of the media. If you
wanted to make duplicates of the three DVD discs, you'd do that outside the
Dell tool.
Within the first few days, Microsoft may also put up a dialog box. It
will ask if you want to burn a recovery console disc. This is perhaps 200MB
in size, and is a bootable disc. It includes "command prompt", for command
line repairs. It also has some semi-automated procedures in place,
to recover a non-booting system (like, if you trashed something
associated with booting).
You probably got a short user manual or sheet of paper in the
box, telling you that if you pressed a magic function key at
startup, the system could re-install itself. In that case,
the hidden recovery partition, is used as a source of the operating
system image. The contents of the hidden recovery partition, are
used to overwrite C:. (The manual in the Dell box, will go into
more details, as to how destructive their recovery process is.
I'm not going to guess at the options, as they vary from one
brand of computer to another.)
If the hard drive died, that would no longer work. The replacement
hard drive you installed, would have nothing on it. That magic function
key would no longer work.
Booting the 3 disc DVD set you prepared, would allow copying back the
12GB of data, and the Dell software would format the new drive,
create a C: partition, but also re-create the recovery partition.
From that point, you could also return to the BIOS, and press the
magic function key, and the system would again be able to reload
C: from the hidden partition. So the purpose of a three disc set,
is to reload a new and empty hard drive.
So when you say "I have a disc, which is useless", you need to
clarity which of the two "burning disc" opportunities you've
exercised. The three disc set, is big enough to contain 12GB of
data, and from that you can restore the OS (and the recovery partition).
If you had a single disc, burned when a Microsoft dialog presented itself,
all that disc (200MB) is good for, is booting the computer, doing
simple repairs or using "command prompt". The 200MB disc, isn't
big enough to contain a real copy of the OS. The hidden partition
on the hard drive is big enough (has the 12GB). The three disc
DVD set would be big enough. Make sure you've burned the set of
discs, as you may need them later. If you don't, and the hard
drive dies, it could cost you $50 to fix it. (Disc sets can
be ordered, for several years from introduction date of the
computer, but the disc set won't be available forever. Which is
why, burning your own is important. I even backed up the
contents of the three disc set, in case the discs went bad.
So I have three ISO9660 files in case of emergencies.)
When the 200MB recovery CD boots, the menu looks like this.
And this doesn't have a copy of the OS on it. It's only
good for fixing a "slightly broken" computer, not a dead
hard drive. And Microsoft makes you burn this one. Dell
makes you burn a three or four disc set, suitable for
starting from scratch with a blank hard drive.
http://0.tqn.com/d/pcsupport/1/0/i/4/-/-/windows-7-startup-repair-7.jpg
Paul
