Recovery Drive isn't what it used to be.

[Saltgrass]

For General Info:

I just received a new Dell System with Windows 10 Home installed. The first thing I did was to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. After I did that, I checked the Reagentc /info listing and noticed there was not path to a Factory Recovery Image.

So, there is an App on the Start menu for a Recovery Drive. I used that and created a Recovery Drive which looked just like the prior version. It took a long time to write the drive and felt almost like I was making a System Image Backup.

Well, the resulting directory structure looked pretty much the same except I noticed instead of install.swm files there were Reconstruct.WIM files containing the image. So it appears DISM was utilized to image the current C: partition instead of using the original Factory Image.

I will not know for sure how this drive will recover my install but it appears it will recover the current install instead of the Factory install which is a change. So there may be some changes blowing in the wind for new Windows 10 OEM systems. Whether this is some type of modified Dell utility or just a new way of creating Recovery Drives, only time will tell.

 

[Saltgrass]

I have confirmed this is not a Dell situation. The file, RecoveryDrive.exe is located in the Windows\System32 folder. Starting that utility opens the window below. This system does not have an OEM Factory Image, but will still copy "System" files.