Can I get some help re-imaging my Dell Venue 8 Pro?

[c640180]

Need help re-imaging Dell Venue 8 Pro

This is a pretty long explanation, but I hope someone can help me!

I have a 32gb Venue 8 Pro, and when I got it 12 months ago, I immediately made a recovery "disk" onto a MicroSD card, and deleted the recovery partition to free up space. I put the MicroSD card into a desk drawer, and went on about my business...

This weekend, I decided that I want to sell the Venue 8 Pro, so I hauled out the MicroSD card, popped it into the Venue 8 Pro, and went into the Recovery menu inside Windows 8.1. I started the recovery, but it immediately told me that I didn't have valid recovery media inserted. I popped the card out and back in a couple of times, but it didn't matter.

I gave up on the Recovery app, and went into the Advanced Options where I could do a "reset." The device rebooted, and showed me a menu where I could pick a backup "image" to restore from. It showed me an image with a time/date stamp that corresponded to the recovery image I had made a year ago, so I thought that all was well. I picked that image, told it to start, and the system appeared to be restoring successfully. Part way through, it rebooted, and now I get "internal hard drive not found" errors.

I have downloaded other people's factory Recovery images from various online forums, and I have the ability to make a recovery USB drive. I did just that, using Rufus to turn an .img file into a bootable USB drive. However, the DV8P never attempts to boot from the drive (when I connect it via a USB OTG cable).

If I go into the BIOS, and look at the boot options menu, I notice that the "Boot Option Priorities" is greyed out. I can't click/tap on it and select any options for it. The other four menu options are available to me, just not "Boot Option Priorities." I assume I need to do something to get the DV8P to see a bootable USB drive, right?

At this point, I'm all for any option that allows me to make the device bootable again. I have an external USB CD-ROM drive so that I could install from a Windows 8.1 disc, or I could make a plain old Windows 8.1 USB drive and install from that.

What's my best strategy for restoring/reimaging when I'm stuck in the state I'm in -- can't boot, don't know how to enable the correct boot options in the BIOS?

Thanks everyone!

 

[tpapictures]

Re: Need help re-imaging Dell Venue 8 Pro

This is a pretty long explanation, but I hope someone can help me!...

I'm in the exact same boat as you and have no idea how to proceed. I'm stuck on the latest Windows 10 tech preview build which is nice but I'd really like to be able to go back to 8 or 8.1. I want to try to get a definitive listing of the what the Windows 8 partitions look like in their stock state so I can recreate them and then rebuild Windows 8, I've heard this is possible but don't know how.

 

[bigeduck]

Re: Need help re-imaging Dell Venue 8 Pro

The only way I was able to get it working again was with the official Dell OTG cable connected to a powered usb hub that had a keyboard, mouse, and installation usb drive attached. I've had to do this twice with two different builds, one time I just needed the keyboard to re-enter my bitlocker key, but yeah, there is no other way as the recovery media is pretty much useless when you install Windows 10 and I never had luck adding the touch screen driver to the installation disk.

 

[nasellok]

I had this exact same problem...........rolled back to 8.1 by completely re-imaging the device. First thing you need, is a USB Hub, and an OTG adapter. Once you have those, you need a working PC and a 8GB (or more) USB drive.

You need to create a UEFI Bootable USB drive, with whatever the most current version of W8.1 on it. To do this:
1. You need to create an .iso file first - see this link, and follow directions - http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media...........Make sure you select .iso file, do not make USB drive yet.
2. Create UEFI Bootable USB: UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows
3. Take another USB drive, and download all of the Dell Venue 8 Pro drivers from the support site - you will need these, and when it boots up the first time with Windows, there is no drivers, and therefore, no internet connectivitiy to get the drivers (follow Dell's recommended order of driver installation in link below)
4. Plug all of the peripherals into the Dell V8P, OTG adapter, USB hub, Keyboard, Mouse, and USB flashdrive
5. Boot it into Bios, enable UEFI boot mode.........see here: Imaging requirements and process for the Dell Venue 8 Pro 5830 Tablet | Dell Trinidad and Tobago
6. Install Windows 8.1..............if you don't have any files, or such on the PC, best thing to do is delete all the old partitions, except the ones labled as (reserved), or OEM, etc.

This got it working for me - my device was completely bricked, BSOD, and now it works great...........only thing, I didn't follow the recommended driver install, and my screen edges are not recognizing gestures (insanely annoying)......................my other problem now, I really miss W10, and am contemplating completely wiping the device, and installing a W10 .iso and starting fresh on 10.