Hello , i am unable to restore my Dell Optiplex 960 in any way after replacing the HDD. I can get to the Dell screen and F12 to start off a Win7 disc but the HDD is not seen as a usable partition although it has been formatted as simple disc . It has run from external HDD in the past ( i have been playing around to learn as i am an apple user MOSTLY and usually can get my way around problems but this has me stumped....probably something easy i have missed.....
BTW the old HDD is not useable.

HELP!?
L.Not exactly clear how you are trying to restore...the restore partition would be on the dead HDD.
You can contact Dell and order recovery DVD's for a minimal charge + shipping....

Windows will not run on an external without a sledgehammer and 2 days of monkeying with it...this is by design.Hello and thank you for prompt reply!

I do have the 2nd recovery disc and will search for the 1st but i think its more to do with the HDD not being seen as a partition that can be used by the Windows INSTALLATION disc so i will seek out another Win PC and format it again to see if thats the trouble , it is a brand new WD Caviar Black 1TB and does show on apple machine as a useable disc so it is fine....

I must be doing some things right as i got Win7 to work via external HDD on this Dell! Pity i cant figure out the easy stuff then.........

THANKS.

L.GOT IT !
I formatted in Disk Manager on a smaller partition an did the long slow format then W7 installed just fine....
Some time later i found the recovery discs as well , Murphy's LAW......
Now to get that Lenovo laptop sorted , it has the same issue , have to re-install the system on new HDD , ahh the fun we create for ourselves!

Thanks for the help!

L.