In message , R.H. Breener
writes
I tried to burn a Recovery disk as per a popup. The DVD made one part
way, and stopped working - the tray opened. The program said to return
the disk to the drive and I did so. That was the end of the DVD drive.
I refused to open even with the Paperclip-in-hole move. I got several
errors so did a System Restore. That didn't help so decided to do a
System Recovery already, just to find MS (or Dell) removed that from W8
as well. There is no onboard image to do a System Recovery from. There
Recovery Image on this PC so I decided to return it for something else
or a refund if I can get it.

With no Backup Image - where was it trying to make a Recovery Disk to
do a System Recovery from? I will have to delete all the things on it
by hand now since there is no way to reinstall the OS and restore it to
box condition. Dell will get a free DVD disk in the locked drive.

My question is - why did MS remove the backup image or is that a Dell
decision? I really want to know.

Thanks again for all the help you all have been.

This, and the other threads, really does demonstrate why W8 has the
reputation it so richly deserves. Young Mr. Breener sounds exactly like
many of my friends.

I have 2 points to make:

1. If you know anyone you trust who does use the OS successfully,
install Teamviewer or one of the other, similar, programs and let them
guide you.

2. Invest in an external usb HD for backups and image files. Windows 8
does have the inbuilt program to make an image file of the whole
machine, just like Windows 7. It has just been hidden away more
rigorously in the bowels of File History. It also doesn't appear here on
a machine with no DVD drive until I plug in the external HD.
--
Bill