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Article Number: 000138931

Using a Computer Running macOS to Recover a Dell Computer Running Windows

Summary: The following article goes through the various ways that you can use a computer running the macOS operating system to help recover a Dell Computer. (macOS was previously Mac OS X, or OS X.) ...

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Article Content

Symptoms

Table of Contents:

  1. Using a computer with macOS to recover a Dell computer
  2. Using Boot camp to create a working version of Windows to operate in
  3. Using Virtualization software to create a working version of Windows to operate in
  4. Using Boot camp to create a USB bootable on a computer
  5. How to download Dell Drivers and Dell Software
  6. How to create and use the Dell Windows Recovery image

Using a Computer with macOS to recover a Dell Computer

 

When you have to troubleshoot, and recover a Dell computer to full working order. There are a few technical minimum requirements that are required to access the various tools and utilities that Dell has put together to aid you. You must access the Internet and the Dell Support and have a way to transfer and use the software you get there onto the faulty computer.

This can be further complicated if your only means of access to the Internet is running a competing and/or different operating system. (For example: macOS (Mac OS X, OS X) or Linux)

This article takes you through several different ways to accomplish this using a computer running the macOS operating system.

Using Boot camp to create a working version of Windows to operate in

 

Note: Boot Camp Assistant is a multiboot utility that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows operating systems (OS) on Intel-based Macintosh computers. It is included with Apple Inc.'s macOS: www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/  This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies. To install a Microsoft Windows operating system, you must access a Retail copy of the installation media (or a 90-day Trial Installation ISO).

Boot Camp Compatibility

Boot Camp Version macOS Version Supported Windows versions
Boot Camp 3 v10.5 Leopard to v10.10 Yosemite Windows XP Home or Professional SP2, SP3, and Vista Home, Business, or Ultimate SP1
Boot Camp 4 or 5.1 v10.5 Leopard or later Windows 7 Home, Professional, or Ultimate (64 bit)
Boot Camp Assistant v10.10 Yosemite, El Capitan, or macOS Sierra v10.12 Windows 8.1 Home, Professional, or Ultimate (64 bit)
Boot Camp Assistant v10.10 Yosemite or later Windows 10 Home, Professional, or Ultimate (64 bit)
 
Note: Computers running macOS Sierra v10.12 support Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 (New installations only.) Ensure that your model type supports the version of Windows you want to install. Apple support has a hardware compatibility table  This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies. you can check.

Installation Instructions

You can follow Apples own support pages for detailed guides on checking compatibility and for carrying out the Windows installation. I link below to a good starting point for you to branch out from, depending on what operating system version you are looking to use.

Recovering your Dell computer

You can now use the Windows operating system that you have installed. You can use it to carry out the downloads and media transfer material that you require to recover the Dell computer. For help with this, see the information in sections 5 and 6.

Using Virtualization software to create a working version of Windows to operate in

 

A less intrusive and permanent way to accomplish the effect is to install third-party virtual machine software onto the computer running macOS. (VirtualBox, VMware, Parallels, QEMU, and so on.)

Note: Dell cannot recommend a particular third-party software package to you. You can use any third-party software of your own choice and at your own risk. To install a Microsoft Windows operating system, you must access a Retail copy of the installation media (or a 90-day Trial Installation ISO).

Virtual Machine - For our purposes, a virtual machine is an emulation of a computers operating system within another operating system. Virtual machines are based on existing computer architectures and provide the same functions of a physical computer. Their setup may involve special hardware, software, or a combination of both.

Note: There are some immediate pros and cons to using virtual partition software compare with using Boot Camp Assistant. I cover some of them below:
Pro Con
Boot Camp Assistant is Free Third-party virtual machine software is chargeable
Boot Camp Assistant runs the Windows operating system on its own partition directly on the hardware Virtual machine software can be opened as a window within the macOS
The computers hard drive and SSD read/write rates drop when running the Windows operating system created with Boot Camp Assistant The computers CPU and Graphics rates drop when running the Windows operating system created with virtual machine software
Boot Camp Assistant creates a multiboot computer There is only a single bootable operating system when using the virtual machine software

Installation Instructions

You are best served by using the installation documentation that came with whichever third party virtual machine software you decided to go with. This documentation should also cover how to use the virtual machine software to install the Windows operating system of your choice. This can differ between different software packages.

Recovering your Dell computer

You can use the Windows operating system that you have installed to carry out the downloads and media transfer material required to recover the Dell computer. For help with this, see the information in sections 5 and 6.

Using Boot camp to create a bootable USB on a computer

 

There is a way of using terminal and free utilities to create USB media that is bootable on your Dell computer. It depends on:

  • The age of your computer
  • The specification of your computer 
  • The version of Boot Camp that is running on that computer
  • Your level of skill with using Terminal
Note: When creating a bootable USB, ensure that the USB flash drive is of a larger size than the information you are going to copy to it. Remember that this process deletes all information that is already on the drive.

Creating Bootable USB media:

Using Disk Utility:

  1. Open Disk Utility to format the USB.

  2. Select your USB drive and click on Partition.

  3. Select the first (1) Partition in the partition layout and select Master Boot Record in the options.

  4. Select MS-DOS (FAT) in the format type and click Apply.

  5. Click Partition and close the Disk Utility (The USB is formatted using the MBR.)

Using Fdisk:

  1. Find the device name of the USB drive by running the following command:

    diskutil list

  2. Run the following command to unmount the USB Drive:

    diskutil unmountDisk /dev/{USB Drive Name}

    (Where {USB Drive Name} is the drive name that you got from the results of the diskutil list command.)

  3. Use the following commands to mark the partition active and then unmount it again:

    1. sudo fdisk -e /dev/{USB Drive Name}

    2. print

    3. f 1

    4. write

    5. print

    6. exit

    7. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/{USB Drive Name}

  4. Download Syslinux This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies. and extract the mbr.bin file. (syslinux-5.00/mbr/mbr.bin)

  5. Use this command to install the MBR:

    sudo dd conv=notrunc bs=440 count=1 if=mbr.bin of=/dev/{USB Drive Name}

For Newer computers creating a Bootable ISO:

  1. Open Boot Camp Assistant

  2. Click continue, now do you see an option that says Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk?

 

  1. Check the box next to the option and click continue.

  1. Right click on the Boot Camp Assistant program icon and select show package contents.

  2. Double-click on the Contents Folder Locate the Info.plist file and copy it to a temporary folder on your computer (You are going to edit this file and need a backup in case something goes wrong.)

  3. Use a text editor application to make the following changes. Look for PreUSBBootSupportedModels and replace it with USBBootSupportedModels.

  4. Underneath USBBootSupportedModels, it lists the MAC computers that support creating bootable USB drives and the version. (If your computer is in this list, then your version is older than the declared number.)

  5. Click APPLE then select About this Mac from the drop-down menu.

  6. Click More Info and then on System Report which lists the model identifier.

  7. Copy this and paste it into the Info.plist under USBBootSupportedModels and save the file. (If your model is already on the list, replace it with the correct number. DO NOT copy it in again, you cannot have a duplicate entry in the list.)

    Note: For those using macOS v10.09, a signature is created that stops you from editing the Info.plist. Open Terminal and run the following command to sign Boot camp assistant again. It runs the new Info.plist: Sudo codesign -fs -/Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app

  1. Plug in your USB media and then using Boot Camp locate the ISO file from the folder where you downloaded it and click continue.

  2. Wait for the ISO extraction to the USB media to complete.

  3. You can now plug the USB to your Dell computer to boot from the ISO.

  4. For help with this see the material in: Section 6

Cause

How to download Dell Drivers and Dell Software

 

Drivers

The following article provides information about how to find the correct drivers for your Dell computer. It takes you through how to download and install them from the Dell Support site to your computer:

Dell Software

The following article is an overview of the Dell Command | Configure, Power, Monitor, and Update Utilities. It links to the latest information available about them on the Dell support site:

The following article provides information about SupportAssist and My Dell (formerly Dell Support Center), including download resources, features, and troubleshooting resources.

Resolution

How to create and use the Dell Windows Recovery image

 

The following article provides information about:

  • How to download the Dell ISO recovery image file
  • How to download and install the Dell OS Recovery Tool
  • Create a USB recovery media to reinstall Microsoft Windows on your Dell computer
Where you must install or reinstall Microsoft Windows on your Dell computer, you can download a customized Dell recovery image. Use the recovery image and create your own USB recovery media:

Article Properties

Affected Product

Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, XPS, Fixed Workstations

Last Published Date

05 Oct 2023

Version

5

Article Type

Solution

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