Recovering Dell Laptop Windows OS using factory image from Linux bootable USB drive
I used Linux booted from a USB drive to restore Dell Windows 7 factory image on Inspiron 1545 when Windows 7 stopped booting and F8 key stopped working. This was done using Linux equivalent of Imagex command and used dell factory.wim file. Credits goes to - https://www.dell.com/community/Windows-General/Restore-from-dell-recovery-partition-with-Imagex-Solved/td-p/4083636 Software used 1, PuppyLinux BionicPup32 8.0 (Ubuntu Bionic 32 bit) Downloaded as ISO image from their website. It is good to use any other popular distros like Ubuntu. 2, When using PuppyLinux, download Devx package which has GCC compiler for the corresponding PuppyLinux distribution. ( http://wikka.puppylinux.com/devx ). When using a full fledged distribution, this step may not be necessary. 3, USB pen drive or any flash storage. I used SD memory card because my laptop will not boot from a pendrive. 3, unetbootin-windows-661.exe 4, Wimlib 1.13.1 - downloaded source because a binary distributio...