I’m a Linux guy and only keep Windows on dual boot on my desktop for my daughter to play online shockwave flash games, and although she only visits two kids sites, windows was still magically able to accumulate 6 viruses, just by the power of it’s very existence, I suppose. I scanned with AVG and it said it fixed them a couple of days ago, but now it won’t boot to windows.
After the failed start, I can get to a Startup Repair utility, but it fails with absolutely no useful information whatsoever. I have a Dell disk labeled “drivers and utilities” but it won’t start the utilities.
Should I have a windows disk somewhere or do OEMs sell computers without them? I can’t find one anywhere and don’t remember having one. I can access the Windows and recovery partitions from Linux and the recovery contains a 6GB factory image. Is that all there is?
Yes, it’s possible to get a computer without a physical recovery disc. In fact, that’s often the norm these days.
The recovery partition, if it’s still intact, should let you boot into a special installer that can recover Windows to its default configuration. It’s meant to replace the physical recovery disc. Check the manual to see how to use it. (To be clear, the recovery partition lives outside of your Windows installation.)
Flash games? That seems like a bad reason to keep Windows, however.
Can’t you view Flash under Linux?
If not, how about a virtual machine running Windows that gets reset after every session?
Thanks, that’s what I figured. I thought I remembered thinking “Hmmm, no disk, I guess it’s all on the recovery partition these days” when I bought it, but wasn’t sure. I found the manual and there’s apparently a repair option if you press F8 at startup.
Flash works with Linux but not Shockwave Flash. A VM would certainly be better, I’ve just never had time to look into setting one up. I might try to find time instead of fixing it, I’m worried the repair will wipe the rest of the drive.
You can find an ISO of the Dell OEM installation disk for your version of Windows online (ie. bittorrent) - just be sure to get one that’s unmodified - and then use your legit license Key
From my experience, Dell includes the actual Windows disk (identical to the one Microsoft sells retail), and then a separate disk with the computer’s drivers/etc.
But Dell is large; it contains multitudes. If you buy a different product line (small bus. vs home), or a different model (laptop vs. desktop, Dell vs. XPS) then the answer might be different. I can only tell you that the consumer desktop PC I bought from Dell about 4 years ago came with a standard Windows DVD.
Hmmm, short answer is that some Dell’s come with a Windows disk, some with just the windows recovery disk, and some with just the utils and drivers disk, and some with no disk(s) at all.
My circa 2006 Latitude D620 series came with the utils disk, but my circa 2010 Latitude e6400 came with neither, but the Utils were on the hard drive, as was the recovery image.
For the D620, I have to have a [dos] bootable CD with the utils on it for the utils to run. For the e6400, it boots to dos first, then asks if you want utils or windows.
Table of Contents:
Why did my Dell System not come with Disks?
Where can I find information about this Backup and Recovery Software?
How do I create a Backup?
How do I Restore from a Backup?
How do I Restore to my Factory Image?
How do I create my System Recovery Disks?
At work, we buy 99% Dell computers (mostly for resale), and we pay a little supplement to get the Windows recovery DVD.
In my personal experience (with Acer or Gateway, not Dell so far), if you use the recovery partition or the recovery DVD, it will often repartition the hard disk to what it was at the factory. So your Linux partitions could be wiped out.
