Factory reset w/o an internet connection?

[ccvortex]

Can't seem to find a way to do a factory reset on a 7450 using a USB recovery stick I created using the DELL OS Recovery Tool w/o an internet connection.  There is an option for a simple reset but it is always greyed out, am assuming that that is because I do not have the recovery partition on the drive any longer.  Is there a fully offline USB stick method to reset these?  Seems weird to even have to ask this, wtf DELL?

[Aaron44126]

12 minutes ago, ccvortex said:

Can't seem to find a way to do a factory reset on a 7450 using a USB recovery stick I created using the DELL OS Recovery Tool w/o an internet connection.  There is an option for a simple reset but it is always greyed out, am assuming that that is because I do not have the recovery partition on the drive any longer.  Is there a fully offline USB stick method to reset these?  Seems weird to even have to ask this, wtf DELL?

 

I have actually never tried using Dell's reset tool...  I just do the Windows install directly.

• Use the tool here to make a bootable USB Windows installer.  (If you want Windows 10, it looks like they have taken the wizard tool away but you can download an ISO image and then flash it onto a USB drive with Rufus.)
• Also drop onto the USB drive any drivers you might immediately need after the install to get online (i.e. Wi-Fi).
• Boot the installer, delete existing partitions on the disk and install Windows.
• Get online and run Windows Update once, it should pull in the remaining drivers.
• Install any Dell tools that you might want (i.e. Dell Optimizer).

Alternatively, if your Windows install is working you can kick off a "reset" right from there which will erase all data and set up a fresh Windows install.  I think it is in Settings -> Windows Update -> Advanced options -> Recovery.

[ccvortex]

Appreciate it, I'll try the Rufus method.  Again, pretty weird DELL doesn't have a way to reset your computer w/o an internet connection.

[DirtJezus]

I recently bought a 7780 and the first thing I did was image the original disk before doing a clean windows 11 install. I ended up going back to the original image because I couldn't get the clean installation properly configured 100%. Everything seemed ok, all devices had the proper drivers installed that I got from the dell website using my service tag, but I just couldn't get this one application in a VirtualBox VM to work, the app only runs on Windows 7 with a USB dongle for security and it just wouldn't work until I restored the original Dell Windows 11 image. It was the weirdest thing, I've been running the VM and application for years using various PCs and the only time it wouldn't run was with a clean windows install on my Precision 7780. So you might want to install the Dell specific windows version to avoid any problems down the line.

[ccvortex]

Yeah, I ended up[ using a generic ISO and then the DELL software to add all of their apps, etc. Worked out great, super easy and was able to use the original DELL Win 10 OS product key.