Hi All, I have purchased a Dell desktop and this did not come with any windows 7 CDS so I have bought some RW DVDS to make a backup of the OS which is on my pc. I have googled for an hour now and cannot find any smooth process. The only thing found was making a system repair disk, however I want the full Windows 7 OS on a dvd so I can sleep safe knowing if my pc crashes or breaks I have the windows 7 DVD. Can any one point me to a step by step guide, or advise how I do this please. I dont really know much about ISO images but can follow instructions well!
Thanks alot for your help!
Russell
You have a few options, since this is a new machine a call to Dell tech support should help you with info about how to create
a restore DVD.
Actually I'm surprised your computer isn't bugging you to make a restore DVD.
My Acer had no OS disk etc. but it would nag me about creating a restore DVD until I finally gave in and created one.
Dell probably has a hidden partition containing restore files that you can access from a boot option or a builtin restore program.
Usually this will restore your system back to the condition it was in when it was new.
Your owners manual may help here.
This will restore your system to factory, including any "bloatware" Dell "thoughtfully" provided.
Any DVD you might make using the program provided by Dell would probably do the same.
Another option is to call Dell and insist that they provide you with a Win 7 (appropriate version) DVD as well as a driver disk if needed.
It may cost a few dollars but having the actual Win 7 DVD is preferable to any other option.
Another option is to image your C: drive\partition with a program like the free Clonezilla Live or the paid Acronis True Image.
If you choose that route I would wait until you have purged your system of any "bloatware" you don't want
and have customized your system to your satisfaction to include installing any additional software and performing all updates including the recently released Service Pack 1.
This approach creates an image of your system at the moment the image was created.
It can be stored on a DVD if the image is small enough or better yet on an external USB hard drive.
External drives are relatively inexpensive these days and are an excellent backup solution.
You can easily restore the image from a external drive using the programs I mentioned.
Below is a link to a guide I posted at another forum on using Clonezilla Live.
http://forums.scotsnewsletter.com/index.php?showtopic=38812&hl=frank+golden