Re-installing Windows on a Dell machine with no official recovery media - Help!

Memphis

Memphis

Memphis

Soldato
Joined
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Ok guys and gals, I'll cut straight to the point...

Girlfriend knocked relatively new Dell XPS 15 off the arm of the chair earlier this evening. Machine initially looked ok, but after getting one successful boot out of it, Windows started giving random errors/locking up. Machine now won't boot. In-built diagnostics confirm hard drive failure.

Right now I'm weighing up options and I'm leaning towards just getting another hard disk and firing it in.

The problem with that is, being the seasoned geek that I am... I never used the Dell utilities to create their 'recovery disks'. This means that with a blank hard disk in the machine I've no easy way to re-install Windows and get it activated with the licence that the machine legitimately has.

Can anyone offer any advice on the easiest course of action? I have multiple legitimate retail copies of Windows 7 but based on previous experience with OEM licences, I'm presuming I can't use the key on the bottom of the machine with one of the retail disks.

Any advice greatly appreciated :).
 
You could try use the key with a retail install. My friend has managed to get an OEM key to work with my retail disk of Windows 7, but the OEM key was from MSDNAA. Not sure if it will work with the Dell key.

An option is to perhaps contact Dell to maybe send a recovery disk to you?
 
Any Windows 7 disk will do as long as it is the same version (Home Premium for example). You may have to speak to someone in India to activate but I'd say you have a 99.9% chance of it just working.

Oh and if you can't find the licence sticker on the laptop Dell sometimes hide it under the battery
 
If you cant source any random OEM disc elsewhere then contact DELL support and ask for the discs. I had to do this and got them free when my Windows 7 disc stopped working, however as I originally got the media (cost an extra £5 when ordering, no idea why others don't do this) I didn't have to pay for it, you might if you didn't buy them originally.

And, backing up d brennan, my product key is under my battery on my laptop.
 
I've installed on a replacement HDD for a Dell Inspiron 1525 (twice) using my retail Windows Vista CD and the licence key on the bottom, not sure about Windows 7.
 
Did a reinstall on a Dell the other day after the hard drive failed and just used the same version of windows which was first installed and used the phone active option which worked fine

just make sure you have a pen and paper as there long codes :)
 
Awesome, thanks for the help guys. Hopefully get a new disk sorted soon and give it a go. Helpfully the product ID sticker is on the bottom of the machine, not hidden away anywhere :).
 
Memphis said:
Can anyone offer any advice on the easiest course of action? I have multiple legitimate retail copies of Windows 7 but based on previous experience with OEM licences, I'm presuming I can't use the key on the bottom of the machine with one of the retail disks.

Any advice greatly appreciated :).
Click to expand...

Memphis said:
Awesome, thanks for the help guys. Hopefully get a new disk sorted soon and give it a go. Helpfully the product ID sticker is on the bottom of the machine, not hidden away anywhere :).
Click to expand...

It's not retail you need it's OEM....pop over to 'My Digital Life Forums' and get the Windows 7 OEM media set.
 
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Memphis said:
Awesome, thanks for the help guys. Hopefully get a new disk sorted soon and give it a go. Helpfully the product ID sticker is on the bottom of the machine, not hidden away anywhere :).
Click to expand...
One other little problem you might want to pre-empt before it happens - when the COA sticker is on the bottom of a laptop, the product key sometimes has a nasty habit of gradually rubbing away so that it eventually becomes illegible.

If you write it down somewhere else and store it safely, it could save you a lot of hassle down the line when you eventually find yourself needing to reinstall again for whatever reason. :)
 
Memphis said:
Thanks mate. I presume you're meaning the file from the "7 OEM Sources" thread yeah?
Click to expand...

What I would do mate is download 'Windows 7 Ultimate OEM inc SP1' media and rip the config file out of it, which turns the disk into an 'all version' install disk... Comes in handy for re-installs.

A clue for your sir....
@The Official Windows 7 Repository@
@Windows 7 w/o SP1 and SP1 Media Refresh - Direct Download Links@
 
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