[Coco] OT: Recovery Disc set for Dell Inspiron 15 3520...

[Stephen H. Fischer]

Hi,

I never thought that you had a W10 computer.

You got me looking at the hard drive of my Sony W7 laptop.

There are two unusual partitions, one is just like the Windows 7 System Repair Disk I had sitting in my active HTPC and needed it to use often because I had messed up the booting between XP, W7 and W10. That computer's power supply failed and I had to swap in the backup HTPC. New PS to be installed tomorrow.

Reading the "decrypt.cmd" script I found http://wimlib.net/ and "oscdimg.exe", the latter is used by the script to build the ".iso" and the former to get the WIM files ready. Both are included in the download file.

It appears using these tools they can be used for Vista and above systems to create the ".iso" like you wish from the ".wim" files you have.

Understanding the exact options you need for wimlib and oscdimg was not part of my exercise.

The ".wim" files I saw being created as one step in the process have been deleted from the USB flash drive I used.

SHF

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Al Hartman" <alhartman6 at optonline.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] OT: Recovery Disc set for Dell Inspiron 15 3520...


> Didn't work.
> 
> This WIM file is not a Windows 10 installation file.
> 
> -[ Al ]-
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Stephen H. Fischer
> 
> Hi,
> 
> While this link appears to be way off target, the script (Which I just used) 
> may use a utility that will help you. I just took a quick look just before I 
> ran it.
> 
> How to: Create a bootable ISO file from your Windows 10 Download for 
> reinstallation
> 
> http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-win_upgrade/how-to-create-a-bootable-iso-file-from-your/07590098-90a9-4c7e-b6fe-5ce1632daf4b?tm=1438130195492
> 
> I ended up with a ".iso".
> 
> SHF
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Al Hartman" <alhartman6 at optonline.net>
> To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
> Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 10:54 AM
> Subject: Re: [Coco] OT: Recovery Disc set for Dell Inspiron 15 3520...
> 
> 
>> I've been able to access the partition, but the recovery program won't run
>> to make the discs or a CD key.
>>
>> The two files that make the discs are in a format called .WIM which are a
>> special Microsoft compressed format, and are not ISO files. There is not 
>> an
>> easy way to convert these to an ISO file to burn them. Every way I've 
>> tried
>> has failed. Dell has been rude and unhelpful. My only hope has been to 
>> find
>> someone else with the same model of laptop running the same version of
>> Windows to run the Recovery program to burn me a set of Discs.
>>
>> There are companies that claim to sell the discs, but I don't trust they 
>> are
>> free of malware.
>>
>> If something doesn't turn up in the next few days, I'll have to live with 
>> a
>> generic Windows install and not have all the apps that came with the 
>> laptop
>> when I bought it (DVD player, Roxio Burn software, etc...) I can replace
>> most of it shareware/freeware. But I paid for the registered stuff and I'd
>> like to have them back.
>>
>> -[ Al ]-
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message----- 
>> From: Bill Pierce via Coco
>>
>> Al, most (if not all) computer distributers now use the separate hidden
>> partition (can't remember what it's called) on the HD as the recovery disk
>> (which in the case of drive failure is useless), which is created on the 
>> fly
>> as the system is installed. This reduced the cost of adding (and keeping 
>> up
>> with) recovery disks as well as upped their profit margin.
>> If the drive will still spin and can be read (master boot sector 
>> trashed?),
>> then the recovery partition could be accessed. "EasyBCD" is a boot sector
>> recovery system and "PTEdit" will let you access the recovery disk (hidden
>> from windows and dos). I have had to do this a couple of times.
>> Of course, if the drive is mechanically disabled, you are out of luck :-(