Step-By-Step Guide To Restoring your DV8P from a "Dell Backup and Recovery" Image

Step-By-Step Guide To Restoring your DV8P from a "Dell Backup and Recovery" Image

There has been some misleading information propagated by several places on the Internet regarding performing a backup of your DV8P using the built-in/downloadable "Dell Backup and Recovery" software.

Here is one description of how to perform this backup.

In short, Dell's software provides the ability to create a "full factory image backup" to either a microSD or a USB drive.

Unfortunately, it seems that those who chose to backup with this method and write about it, didn't actually try to do a restore from this image. If they did, they would find that they would not be able to.

The reasons are as follows:

1. The system cannot be rebooted from a microSD card created by Dell's Backup and Recovery Software.
2. If the system is booted from the USB drive, the Backup and Recovery software refuses to run, requesting to be connected to AC power. Therefore, Dell has created a Catch-22, since they require the restore to be booted from USB, but do not allow it to proceed unless the USB (with the image) is disconnected for AC power.

(NOTE: There are some methods that allow you to hack a solution that will provide AC power while also having a USB peripheral attached. If you have the equipment, and are capable of using these methods, you may be able to actually perform a restore from the original Dell Backup USB without further modification. These methods have only been tested/reported by a few and there are not a lot of step-by-steps. Unless you want to start hacking cables together, you likely need to restore using the methods shown here.)

Additionally, when booting the Backup and Recovery software it is clearly not formatted to run on the DV8P's screen. I do not believe that Dell has tested or verified their proposed recovery method as a reasonable method.

What you should have done, is follow my Step-By-Step Guide To Creating A Factory Backup Image For The Dell Venue 8 Pro to ensure that you have a true disk image that can be restored under ANY circumstance.

But, oops! Too late! You already backed up using Dell's software, deleted your recovery partition, and now are attempting to restore and running into the AC power issue!

Don't fret - this guide will tell you what you need to do to get the Windows backup restored to your DV8P.

Create a Backup/Restore USB drive

1. Follow my tutorial - Step-By-Step Guide To Creating A Factory Backup Image For The Dell Venue 8 Pro up to, and including the "Boot to Macrium" section.
2. Once you have successfully booted to Macrium, follow the steps below

Copy Recovery Image to USB (optional)

This step is only necessary if you made your backup using Dell's software to your microSD card. The backup must be on a USB drive in order to boot.
Follow the below steps to copy it to a USB drive:

1. Insert your USB drive into the staging computer (the USB drive will be deleted!)
2. Run "diskpart " (from your Administrative Command Prompt)
3. Run "list disk" to identify which disk is your USB (determine based on size)
4. Run "select disk x" where x is the number of your USB disk (e.g. "select disk 1")
5. Run the following commands:
   
   
   clean
   create part pri
   format fs=fat32 label="DV8PBR" quick
   active
   assign
   exit​
   
   
6. Copy the contents of the microSD to your prepared USB drive

Prepare Your Recovery Disk

1. Take your USB recovery drive you created with Dell's Backup and Recovery Software and place it in your PC
2. Copy the .bat file from this archive to the root of the USB drive - View attachment ApplyDellBRImage.zip
3. Unplug the drive

Restore you DV8P

1. Remove the Backup/Restore drive connected to your DV8P and connect the one containing the Dell Backup and Recovery image
2. Click on the Command Prompt icon on the taskbar
3. Type "diskpart" at the command prompt
4. In diskpart, type "rescan"
5. After scanning has finished, type "list volumes" to identify the drive letter of your connected USB drive
6. Type "exit"
7. Type "e:\ApplyDellBRImage.bat e:" (where e: is the drive letter of your USB drive.)
8. Wait while the script runs and applies the image. This may take 20-40 minutes.
9. Type "wpeutil reboot" to reboot your DV8P

Your system should now boot up to the Dell Windows install. Please note that this has restored only the basic EFI, MSR, and Windows partitions. There will be NO Recovery partition.
This is good news - as you will have the extra space, but remember to keep a hold of your recovery USB sticks in case you need to restore again!

Technically, this is not a restore to factory "stock" conditions since the original configuration had some additional partitions for OEM use. However, this will restore a fully functional Windows 8.1 with the Dell image while maximizing the available space on the drive.

 

Just out of curiosity, is there any way that I can get my tablet back to full OEM issued factory default condition? While using my Venue 8 Pro as my main laptop for a couple months, I set it up under a custom Wimbooted 8.1 deployment with Visual Studio and other engineering tools. Fast forward almost a year, now armed with a Surface Pro 2 and a WinBook TW802, I am trying to sell my Venue 8 Pro on eBay but a buyer will only make an offer under the premise that it has everything at factory default settings. I have the recovery partition but I cannot get everything as it was when I received it, so unless I can do that, no dice on the sale. Pointers? I can have you upload the files I need to my online cloud storage (will PM information) if at all possible.

 

UPDATE: "Dell backup and recovery" software still not working properly. Tried to restore a Dell Venue 8 (Z3740D 2gb RAM) back to "Factory Install" but was unable. After making all the selections in the program the computer reboots to complete the process. After the restart, half of a selection window appears which is not formatted to fit the screen. Since this window appears in a non-windows environment there is no way to move the window to view or click on the "next" button on the half you can see. Dell Tech support wanted me to send the Venue back then wait for it to be returned with a factory install. Lucky for me I was still within the 30 day return policy. So I sent it back for a full refund. Its sad they lost a sale over a minor software problem. Also note the Dell backup and recovery software on mine didn't recognize my 64gb microSD storage even after upgrading to the premium version of the software. I complained and I got back my money for the software also.