Recreating operating system partition from a Dell factory.wim

Introduction
I had to replace the hard disk in a Dell XPS m1210 Laptop, I had made a copy of the recovery partition.

I used a vista install DVD to boot and sort partitions and copied the factory.wim file and imagex.exe from the Dell recovery files \tools\imagex.exe and dell\image\factory.wim
I created two partitions one for windows and a 10gb Partition for recovery files.
How I reinstalled the factory defaults from a Dell Factory.wim
Installed the new disk in Laptop, (only a 120gb)
Restoring the Del .wim
Boot the laptop with the Vista install dvd, you will need to go to the install option (this is after the country selections).
Follow the install until you arrive at the disk partition screen. If it is a new disk there will probably be no partitions. If there are partitions delete them (unless you need the data), and reformat each partition (in my case I created a first partition of 100gb and a second partition of 10gb).
Once the disk is partitioned and formatted I exited the install and returned to the repair options, go to the command prompt.

My cd was E:, first partition was C: and second D:

I popped the install DVD out of the drive and inserted my DVD with the factory.wim and Imagex.exe files.

I navigated to the DVD and imagex.exe file, at the command prompt I typed.

Imagex /apply factory.wim 1 c:\

After a short while the file was installed, I did one last step.

I popped the install DVD backing and ran repair to make sure that the boot records etc were in correct.

I restarted and I was back with a fresh install of Dell software on my Dell XPS M1210

My Dell XPS

Dell XPS M1210, 2ghz Proc, 1gb Mem, 12” screen, vista ratting 4.5

I now just need to sort the left touchpad button and replace the battery

The disk was £34.90, I am hoping that ebay will come to the rescue on the battery and touch pad.

My main concern at the moment is the heat that is coming out, but a quick blast of air will I am sure keep things in check.

Upgrade vista to Windows 7 Dell XPS 1730 laptop

Upgrade vista to Windows 7 Dell XPS 1730 laptop


I had the advantage of doing a clean install of Vista Ultimate. The Dell website didn’t give any windows 7 upgrade or driver advice for this model.

I reinstalled vista with original drivers and a couple of the original apps and made sure it worked ok in its original state (no anti virus).

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
Compare differing version of Windows 7 (Microsoft website)
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/versions.aspx

I then ran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see what it would find, the only item it reported that may cause a problem was the intel pro wireless card (this had cause a problem with the vista install getting the correct driver from Dell (several different one listed).

http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx

From the vista screen I inserted the Windows 7 Ultimate CD and followed the install and the Upgrade existing version options (numerous reboots). Once it had finished, cant remember entering to much information apart from the CD Key.

The only item which caused a problem was the Intel Pro Wifi, I just reinstalled the vista drivers and it worked!

I was expecting a lot more pain, but was pleasantly surprised how straight forward it had gone. I have seen a few horror stories, but if you follow a logical path do the pre upgrade checks and make sure all is working prior to upgrade.


Dell Advise if there is no Windows 7 Driver, then try a Windows Vista driver
For driver support from dell for windows 7
http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/document?c=us&docid=361553&l=en&s=gen#Step3