Miscellaneous how-to's

In my valiant fight to put Windows 7 back on my computer, I have read a number of tutorials and tried many things. Many of the tutorials were leaving it up to the user to figure out the detailed steps. Not too big a problem for me, as I would consider myself an advanced user. I documented every step of the way also for myself for future reference.

So here is a grab back of tricks. The below applies to Windows 10 modern PC's. All of this is easier on older OS and computers.

How you know you have an original Dell recovery partition on your computer

In the search box at the bottom left of the screen, type "disk". Choices appear. Under "Settings", we are interested in "Create and format hard disk partitions". Click on that. The Disk Management utility appears.

My laptop has two hard drives. One 250 GB solid state hard drive with the operating systems on it and one 1000 GB regular hard drive for storing files.

The recovery partition is on the 250 GB solid state hard drive (Disk 1). If you have only one hard drive, then it will be simpler. If you have more than one hard drive, the OS hard drive is the one that is all broken up into different parts. You are looking for a partition that is about 10 GB in size and that says "Healthy (Recovery)".

You will not see "Healthy (Recovery)" because it's chopped off. What you will see is "Healthy (Rec)". If you hover over the partition block, it expands the name and you can see "Healthy (Recovery Partition).

How to create a Windows recovery USB

In the search box, type "recovery". Select "Create a recovery drive". Tell Windows that when you launch an action you mean it by clicking yes in the pop up window. For safety, in the next window, leave the "Back up system files to the recovery drive" checked.

Follow the instructions on the screen. It this fails, use the Windows recovery tool on the Microsoft website.

When it asks "What do you want to do", select "Create installation media for another PC" then follow the instructions on the screen. It will take a while, as the files get downloaded first and then the installation USB is created.

How to boot from recovery USB - take 1

This, like everything else in Windows 10 did not work for me (at first). Even though I most definitely did not want that, I got rebooted mercilessly from my hard drive into Windows over and over again. But maybe you will have more luck. It eventually worked, not sure why.

And like everything else in Windows 10, it involves a long series of steps. Click on the Start button, Settings, Update & Security, Recovery on the left menu, then Advanced startup. Do not let the "Restart now" button intimidate you. It will lead to a restart, but not right now. You will get to make a few choices first. So be brave and click the "Restart now" button.

Click on "Use a device".

Make sure your installation USB is in the USB port then click on "USB Storage Device".

If you have a solid state hard drive it registers as a USB device (leading to much grief, see my previous post). That's the first item in the picture below. My USB thumbdrive is called "Mint" and that's what I would click on to boot into my thumb drive.

Boot from recovery USB - take 2

This is the simplest way, if it works. Restart your computer and hit F12 when the Dell logo appears, until you see a message in orange letter in the upper right corner that says something about a one time boot menu.

From the boot menu, choose what you want to do (USB Storage Device).

This method may only work in legacy mode (see take 3 below).

Boot from recovery USB - take 3

This is the more advanced, risky way (it will momentarily prevent Windows from booting). But if the above methods failed, that's all you've got. Make careful note of all the settings you are changing so you can put them back if you want to boot back into Windows normally.

Reboot the computer. When the Dell logo appears, press F2 until you see "preparing to enter setup" in orange letters in the upper right corner. This will take you to the UEFI settings.

Expand the "General" settings, click on "General Boot Sequence". What we want is to select "Legacy" under "Boot List Option". You will not be able to select that option, because first we have to go to "Advanced Boot Options" and check the box "Enable Legacy Option ROMs". Click "Apply" (that's important).

Once the box is checked and you applied your changes, go back to the Boot List Option. You should now be able to select "Legacy". Do that, click "Apply", then click "Exit". The computer will reboot. Do the F2 dance again until you come back to the UEFI setup menu. This time, the boot sequence menu has more options (and some you may not have, such a diskette drive).

Click on "USB Storage Device" then on the up arrow repeatedly until the USB storage device is at the top of the list. Click "Apply". MAKE SURE YOUR USB IS INSERTED IN THE PORT then click exit.

Your computer will reboot and launch your installation USB thumb drive.