The recovery drive is unrelated to a full install. The recovery drive just lets you boot up in a bare bones mode (safe mode) to make fixes. If you can make the fixes at that point, there’s no re-install of Windows anyway. If you can’t make the fixes, then there’s the issue of re-installing Windows, which means having the license. Assuming you have the license from the prior owner it would be Windows 7.
I would ask, why you want an older machine regardless of the cost. Before I did that, I would want to have a specific purpose for the machine versus buying it and then figuring it out.
Something I would consider, going from Win 7 to Win 10 or Win 11 which is now current is likely a rebuild versus an upgrade.
I would do a little googling and see what the minimum requirements are for Win 10 or 11, depending on what you decide.
Then I would see if the machine you are working has the memory and processor capable or running either OS. Memory is normally cheap and is the easiest to install and get immediate results.
Then I would serious consider what it would cost me to make the machine you are working on run either Win 10 or 11 and is it even worth it, compared to the cost of a new more modern machine.
Recovery drive is part of an OEM install aka custom windows version that large manufacturers create that includes hardware drivers specific to that machine + windows version, hence the factory reset aspect.
About all the individual has is a file backup for your docs and windows’ system restore to fix a broken system.
The Dell Recovery Disk, is exactly that, it is an image of what the machine was when it left the Dell factory; it will ONLY work on that specific disk.
Which means, that if you ghost that drive to another disk, the software will recognize that this is a different machine, and will not work. It will blow away the entirety of what was on the main partition (thereby fixing, or re-mapping the bad sectors by the reformat) any bad sectors. It will reload the image the disk had as it left he factory, so if you had a bunch of crapware (Earthlink, America Online, etc) when you first bought it, you will have it again.
Also, the free upgrade from Win7 to Win10 may or may not be currently available. I would hazard a GUESS that the base requirements for Win11 will be more than this Win7 hardware can manage.
My advice (take it or leave it, it’s your $$) is purchase an external USB SATA drive of ~1-2 TB and have Windows make a Restorable backup of your hard drive. That way, if your hard drive utterly dies on you (smoke, flames or simply refuses to spin up), you can restore your machine to the latest backup from that external drive, and not lose valuable data.
For what it’s worth, Sold State Hard Drives (SSD) are approximately 20+x faster than the old spinning drives, and far more reliable. Prices have dropped significantly.
There are others on this board more knowledgeable than I. Depending upon your level of skill, I would encourage considering some flavor of UNIX, the performance bump and similarities to Windows is remarkable.
sorry you have a dell
Make a recovery disk now, and make one right after you upgrade the OS. And then you should also make a backup “IMAGE” of the OS drive for the easiest and safest restore in case of disaster.
You'll need a destination drive, possibly a USB portable hard drive or even a very large (this will be slow) thumb drive. Plug it in.
1. Go to search window (lower left). Type in "Backup".
2. Under "looking for an older backup?" click on "Go To Backup And Restore (Windows 7)"
3. Upper left side, click on "Create a system image"
4. Select "Change Settings" and then click on destination drive.
5. Click on "Backup now".
6. This is an image of your hard drive but it is not bootable. When the backup finishes, click on "Create a System Repair Disk"
7. Send this to a DVD - this will be what you boot from when you wish to do a restore and the hard drive is too corrupted to boot.
8. Disconnect the destination drive and store both it and the recovery DVD in a safe place.
Do not be dissuaded by the mention of Windows 7 above - this will backup and restore an image of whatever hard drive installation it sees.
If you do need to restore the system image, plug the backup drive back in, the DVD into the DVD drive, and boot from the DVD drive. This will bootstrap enough of a stub OS to run the restore application and copy the image from the backup drive to your main drive. THIS IS A DESTRUCTIVE OVERWRITE. What you get should be a bootable copy of your old hard drive in the state in which you backed it up. Hope this helps.
Purchase a copy of NTI Backup or similar type backup software. Run a complete system backup to an external drive and make a boot thumb drive. You can recover your entire system with all your files. Should run a complete system backup every month or more often depending on need.
You should definitely have a recovery disk or drive, as well as regular, full image backups to be safe. Your question re: what version of 10 you’d end up with is a good one. I’m not sure. My experience is limited to a planned change from a 640 GB HDD to a 1 TB drive. I had 10 Home on the 640, and that’s what I ended up with on the 1 TB. I would think, if you’re creating the recovery tool with 10 Pro that’s what you’d get. I wouldn’t worry too much if you have a valid license for 10 Pro.
I recommend Macrium’s Reflect backup software, rather than any Microsoft product. It’s very robust and reliable, you can actually get support, and it will do either image or file/folder backups.
I went the refurbished Dell route recently, and have been very happy with it and 10 Pro. It’s borderline upgradeable, I’m told, with some “work arounds.” I’m in no hurry for 11, and am exploring Linux Mint on an older Toshiba laptop. So far I’m liking it a lot. I may jump the Windows ship entirely.
Perhaps some really good / complete / instructive You Tube vids that go through all this would be helpful...