Trying to restore Dell Inspiron One 2320 to factory.wim image

I still have an old Inspiron All-In-One 2330 

https://www.dell.com/community/XPS-Desktops/XPS-One-2710-now-obsolete/m-p/8302964/highlight/true#M77123

These are like laptops built-into the back of a monitor. They are painfully slow without a bootable SSD installed.

Whether you restore the Dell USB Recovery Discs or from the Dell Recovery Partition ... it's about the same. OEM customization are minimal. AFAIK, you still had to re-install some apps. Remember, back then Windows didn't really have a proper imaging tool and that is why you had to use DBaR.

Not sure what you expect. Finally, no ... you should not be running Windows-7 if you are using the computer on the Internet. And since Windows-8 is depreciated, that leaves Windows-10.

As @Tesla1856 said, Is there any point to install Win 7, either from disc or by restoring the factory image?

Microsoft removed all Win 7 fixes, updates, and security patches from their web sites. So regardless of which way you get back to Win 7, it can't be updated beyond what's on the disc or in the factory image.

In other words, it will be full of bugs and unpatched security holes, especially if the disc and/or factory image are the original Win 7 release, and don't include Win 7 Service Pack 1 update.

It's also likely updating to Win 10 disabled access to the factory image, even if the partition is still on the drive...

Responding to both comments here,

I'm not sure if you think me as dumb for "wanting to use this computer on the internet," because I don't. I want to play around with the oem apps and also have a somewhat okay Windows 7 test bench, but even then I should really just use a VM with better specs. It's all for the novelty of an official Dell computer from 2011, that's what makes it cool for me.

I was actually able to access the recovery partition after I reinstalled windows 7 by using Disk Management to add a drive letter to the partition, and it popped right up!

I just want to restore this computer, from the factory.wim image, to its original state, as it shipped from the factory. That is what I want, not to use it on the internet every single day.

If you can access the recovery partition, isn't that going to restore the factory image?

If you enter the Service Tag on the Support site, it will only give you the most recent version of each Win 7 driver, virtually all of which are from 2011.

The recovery partition, from what ive tried, is NOT bootable, and even after installing Dell Backup and Recovery, it did not show up in my Windows 7 recovery environment. I should add that at one point the recovery environment was more like one from windows 10, with it still leading for windows 7, but DBAR was there, but after completing diagnostics, it just restarted and didn't let me restore.

No, just because i have access to the factory.wim file does not mean I can restore to it, unless I can actually use it in Dell Backup and Recovery, which I don't think I can.

I'm also aware that dell still hosts drivers for even some of their oldest computers, and ive used it before on other dells, but on the machines i dont plan on using daily or are too old and/or  for me, I would prefer to have a factory image, for the novelty, if you know what I mean.

I've seen videos on how to restore windows 7 from a wim image, and they seem to work for people, but I won't know until I try it.

Have you tried rebooting and  immediately pressing Ctrl + F11 (at same time) to see if that will launch a factory reset? 

NOTE: Might not work now that you've assigned a drive letter to that partition...

Well, I'll try that later, with the drive letter assigned and unassigned. Not sure how that would work since i believe the partition wasnt bootable in any way.

I've just tried it, and it doesnt seem to be working. I noticed that the drive letter was unassigned at some point and I could not assign one.

Not surprising. A clean install, like you did, typically disables a factory reset, even when the partition is still there...

I should say, I didn't do a full clean install, I just installed windows to the main partition without wiping it, thus creating the windows.old folder.

I also found this Dell article, do you think it would get the Inspiron up and running?

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/dell-imageassist/dia_dynamic_ug/restore-and-test-image?guid=guid-9996e0b2-d43e-45dd-8698-60080a512450&lang=en-us

You probably need a Dell vendor/partner account to be able to log in and use that, since I don't see any links to download software to create the necessary USB.

I think you're just beating a dead horse...

Well, only one way to find out. Maybe i could use a special boot cd or something instead, but i dont know.

Never used Dell Image Assist so have no idea what it needs to work...

I think the Win 7 install you have now is the best you're ever going to do...