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I have a Dell Studio 1558 and just put in a new disk drive. I would like to know how to reinstall Windows 7 and the factory restoration partition.

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Is the old hard drive still working? Edit your post to add this new information. – Moab Jan 10 '11 at 21:47
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3 Answers

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Is the original drive still operational? Some vendors place utilities on them which allows the owner to burn a copy of the recovery partition to a DVD or multiple discs in the case that the hard drive malfunctions. You should check the original drive for this type of utility or check Dell's support site for the utility.

Another choice would be to use a program like Ghost to create an image of the partition and then install that image on the new drive. Once the image is installed, you could do a full recovery and reinstall.

The last option would be to contact Dell for a set of discs for the computer. Normally the vendor charges for this option. Your results may vary.

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Dell only supplies a recovery partition (it cannot be re created unless you keep an image of it and the custom Dell MBR) and does not have "Recovery" discs like HP and others, they only give you a regular W7 install disc and a drivers disc. – Moab Jan 10 '11 at 21:52
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up vote 1 down vote

You need to find the Windows 7 installation disc if you have one. Boot your computer to the installation disc. Start the installation. Once you get to the step where it asks which partition you would like to install Windows on, create a second partition (This will be the recovery partition). Once Windows is fully installed set the second partition as the recovery partition. More information on creating the recovery partition can be found here.

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+1, nice article, but it will not be the same as the original Dell recovery partition, it will not have any special software or drivers like the original did. – Moab Jan 10 '11 at 21:39
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up vote 0 down vote

Davids post is a good one, however it will not create the restore partition the same way Dell had it, it will not have any of the special drivers or pre-installed Software that came with your Dell system, but is still a good idea.

To get your Dell pre-installed software go to the link below and register for the download.

https://smartsource.dell.com/Web/Welcome.aspx?ReturnUrl=/web/main.aspx

Store the downloads in a safe place (multiple places), you may not be able to download them again.

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If you need drivers/utilities you can find them on this page

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/entry?

**Do Not use the Dell Download manager, use your browser to download drivers.

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