Restore Windows 7 from Dell Factory Image on your Dell desktop or laptop

This brief guide will tell you how to restore your Dell computer to Factory state, which includes all drivers, applications and settings.

If you own a fairly recent model of Dell desktop or laptop computer, most likely you have a Dell Recovery partition. It is usually hidden from the user and is not visible in the Windows Explorer, but can be found in the Disk Manager. This operation works on Dell Vostro, Inspiron, Optiplex, XPz, Latitude and other Dell computers.

1 - make a backup of your system. Even if it is infeted with a virus, not booting, has no files you care about - MAKE A BACKUP! It is often the case that only hours, days or a week later you will need something from the old installation. So make yourself a huge favor, buy a copy of Acronis True Image software a USB hard drive and make a full backup of the system.

2 - Once the backup is made (you did read the point #1 above and listened to the advise of a seasoned professional, right?), disconnect the backup drive and restart the computer.

3 - During restart, you will see Dell logo appear - start pressing F8 as the computer boots and you will be presented with a list of Advanced Boot Options.

4 - Select Repair Computer. You will see Windows recovery environment booting.

5 - Once presented with keyboard choice - select yoru keyboard layout and press Next

6 - Once presented with user and password screen, select your user, enter password and press Next

7 - On the next screen you will see various recovery and repair options and the last one will be - Dell Backup and Recovery manager. Click on it.

8 - in the drop down field you should see Dell Factory Image preselected for you, so all you need to do is press Next and wait about 5-15 minutes for recovery to take place.

9 - Enjoy your clean system!