Free Dell Recovery Disk Download

[Maureen Quartaro]

DellTechnologies recommends that supported computers use Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Automated by SupportAssist for a premium restoration experience. See our article, Restore your Computer Using SupportAssist OS Recovery for restoration instructions. For a list of computers that support SupportAssist OS Recovery, see the Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Support Matrix.

If your computer does not support Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery, Dell provides operating system recovery images online. This is for the Windows, Ubuntu, or Linux image that was factory installed on your computer. The Dell OS Recovery Tool provides an interface to quickly download and create a bootable USB drive to reinstall the operating system.

The Dell OS Recovery Tool helps you download the operating system recovery image that is customized for your Dell computer and create a USB recovery media. The Dell OS Recovery Tool allows you to download either Microsoft Windows, Ubuntu, or Linux operating system recovery image that was preinstalled on your Dell computer.

Yes, the Advanced Mode in the Dell operating system Recovery Tool allows you to create a USB recovery media. It uses an operating system image file in ISO file format. This is useful if you downloaded the operating system recovery image using a Linux, Mac, or Android device.

Windows 10 or Windows 11 or Windows 11 recovery image enables you to format the hard drive and install a clean copy of Windows 10. The file size of this recovery image is considerably higher than the Windows 10 or Windows 11 Automated by SupportAssist.

The Windows 10 and Windows 11 Automated by SupportAssist recovery image can create USB recovery media for Dell computers that support SupportAssist OS Recovery. (Figure 12 [English only].)

(image in English)

Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery provides a recovery environment with tools to diagnose and troubleshoot issues that may occur before your computer boots to the operating system. When your computer is unable to boot to the operating system after repeated attempts, it automatically starts SupportAssist OS Recovery. This recovery environment enables you to diagnose hardware issues, repair your computer, back up your files, or restore your computer to its factory state.

SupportAssist OS Recovery is supported on select Dell computers that run a Dell factory-installed Microsoft Windows 10 operating system. For the list of computers where SupportAssist OS Recovery is available, see the Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Support Matrix under Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Support Documentation.

Typical recovery image files for the operating system in an ISO file format are between 5-16 GB in size. (The file size varies between different operating systems.) Once the file is downloaded, the Dell operating system Recovery Tool verifies the integrity of the file before creating the USB recovery media. The time to download and verify that the integrity of the file can vary depending on network speed and file size.

You may receive a "Not enough space on drive" error. Where you download a large file through a Dell online application such as Dell OS Recovery tool. This is due to a space limitation on the hard drive where the files are being saved to. Some operating system recovery images can be up to 16 GB in file size.

To correct this error, free up additional disk space on the hard drive. For information about freeing up disk space in Microsoft Windows, see the Dell knowledge base article: How to Free up Disk Space in Microsoft Windows.

The operating system recovery image may not contain the latest device drivers for your Dell computer. The latest device drivers are available at Dell.com/support/drivers. After the operating system is installed, Dell Technologies recommends that you download and install the latest device drivers.

The Dell operating system Recovery Tool fails to launch after installation, or running the installer does not start the installation process. You can temporarily disable the anti-virus or anti-malware software that may be installed on the computer and then run the application or the installer again.

I just dealt with this today. If you bought your Dell at a retailer like Best Buy (I did), the Service Tags are already registered...to Best Buy! You have to request a transfer of ownership to you, which is just silly. Can yuo imagine if you had to do this for all of your purchases? All of my bread would be registered to Safeway unless I requested ownership of each slice.

Anyway, once you request ownership from the store you purchased your computer at, you should be able to request the disks. Catch: That's handled by the warranty department, which is not open 24 hours. I have to wait until tomorrow to see if this works or not--this after being transferred 3 times during my call and having to convince my service rep that yes, I did actually have a writable DVD drive in my machine. >:

No kidding. There's no need to transfer ownership for the registered owner though. When the Service Tag is put into the media request form, it defaults back to the "Retail Tag Detected" and asks to transfer ownership... I ALREADY own it and I've ALREADY registered it, I just need an install CD because my hard drive died.

Hmmm. So this is an actual problem other people are having? I just posted my own issue with this request form. I didn't realize this might be a bug until I did a google search for the phrase "Retail Tag detected. Please click here to proceed towards Registration."

The media request page tells me to register, but I'm already registered. When I try to register (again) it says my PC is already registered (no kidding?). And then that's it. Dead end. Here, I'll illustrate with screencaps.

... a gigantic dead end/wild goose chase. Again, this is a newly purchased PC. I completed registration for the first time several days ago. I'm obviously in the system, it just refuses to submit my request for backup media. I'm almost to the point where I've wasted enough time on this (trying to do things the proper way) and now feel like just torrenting an .iso and saying "screw it".

I have an older PC that's out of warranty - I used that initial link, and due to my PC being out of warranty, it gave me a 1-800 number (1-800-822-6031). That's for out-of-warranty dell support, but perhaps if you call that number and ask for the number for in-warranty customer support, they could give it to you. I know it's a tedious work-around, but if no one else here helps you, perhaps it will help.

Once I called that 1-800 number I was able to get a re-installation disk and drivers & utilities disk sent to me FedEx at no charge. They give a one-time shipment at no chrg, then if you lose it you have to pay. Don't know if it's any different for in-warranty PCs, but you should be owed a re-install & drivers& utilities kit for free. Make sure they also send you the drivers & utilities disk along with the OS reinstall disk, as they didn't for me and I had to make them send it again (they sent me only the OS disk for free, then sent me ANOTHER OS disk PLUS the drivers & utilities disk for free again, because they messed up the first time, lol).

You'd think that the exchange would be pretty simple. Get on the chat, tell them you want the OS disc, and they send it to you. Nah. That's too easy. You have to jump through all kinds of hoops with them, they attempt to dissuade you from requesting the disc, and then they ask all sorts of additional, non-essential information. Finally, you cross your fingers that they actually sent what you asked for.

I've gotten several follow-up emails from the chat rep and none of them specifically state that they'll be sending me the back-up/recovery OS and drivers disc. It's all a bunch of non-descript mumbo jumbo about a "service kit" or something.

Dell no longer allows you to order recovery disks they must be made by the user. There is no other way to get a recovery disk. Almost every link at the dell site that says click here to order recovery disk yields a page not found error.

Users in the (US, Canada and UK only) can request a set of backup discs containing the factory-installed operating system as well as the Resource DVD which contains device drivers and utilities specific to the system. This option is only available if your warranty is still in force. You can request a warranty extension for systems made within the last 3 years.

To proceed with requesting these backup discs, continue to the Request Backup Discs form, fill out all the requested information and click Submit. Note that this form is available For (US, Canada and UK only)

As long as your caddies fit the backplane, and as long as both systems are PERCs you should be able to pop those disks in, boot and scan for a foreign configuration and the PERC should see the raid container.

You are right about the OS not being able to boot. Doing a recovery from software can absolutely work if it recognizes the metadata properly. The metadata is on the drives and if the controller is compatible then it should recognize them properly. Booting from a live linux OS and then imaging the single RAID volume to an external drive would make it so that that external can connect to any windows box as a normal drive. Either way can work. The safest mode is to only read from the drives as externals or as dd image files on an external and using recovery software.

If there is any possible step I'm missing before reinstalling the OS on the two new drives and starting from scratch, I'd REALLY REALLY appreciate someone schooling me on it before I kill any chance of recovery.

well, 2800 is rather old now, but still, it would help if you posted the raid configuration and the state the disks are reported in, in the scsi controller bios. In general, the drives might be ok (they did pass the diags, right? you ran the dell pediags/onlineDiags from support.dell.com?) and you might just need to recover the array and possibly update the controller and disk firmware, but without any information, it's very hard to guide you through the required steps

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