Dell now offers the ability to download recovery media from the Dell website. This video will walk you through locating, downloading and creating bootable media that can be used to recover your Windows operating system.
Recovery media downloads are available for many Dell systems supporting Windows 7, 8, and 10. Visit Dell.com/drivers and Auto-detect or enter your Service Tag to see your download options. Make sure the Drivers and Downloads tab is selected then click “Find it myself”.
If a Windows Recovery Image is available for your system you will see a category called “Operating System”. Expand the category, then click “Download the Windows Recovery Image”. Your OS image will be the operating system originally shipped with your computer. Any upgrades will need to be installed after recovery.
On the Recovery Image page enter your service tag and the verification code, And press submit. The next page will display your system model, service tag, and a description of your operating system with a download link. Click the download link. You must review and agree to the terms and conditions before downloading begins.
A “Browse for Folder” window should appear. Select an existing folder or create one that you can locate easily. Then click OK. The download will now begin. When the download is complete a bootable OS DVD or USB key can be created. To create a bootable USB key you will need a USB key that can be erased And that is at least 8GB in size.
The first step is to launch a command prompt in Administrator Mode. For Windows 8.1 and 10 you can right-click on the Start button and click Command Prompt (Admin) to launch it. If the User Account Control box appears verify it displays the action you plan to take, And click continue.
From the Command prompt window enter the following commands: Type diskpart and press Enter. Type list volume and press Enter. Determine the volume for the USB key, which should be marked Removable. Type select volume #, where # is the number obtained in the previous step. Type clean and press Enter. Type create partition primary and press Enter. Type format fs=fat32 label='OS install' quick and press Enter. Type active and press Enter. Type exit and press Enter. Now that your USB key is prepared, you will need to transfer the image.
In Windows 8.1 or 10, right-click on the ISO file and select Mount. A file explorer window will open, displaying the contents. Select all of the files and copy them onto the USB key.
For Windows 7 a third party software such as Winzip will be required To extract and copy the contents of the ISO file onto the USB key. Congratulations, you now have a USB Operating system Recovery key.
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