Big problem after formatting Alienware M17x

Dear all,
I am a new user in this forum and I hope you guys can help me with a big problem: I bought an Alienware M17x (with the DUAL HD 5870) in June and everything worked fine until last week when suddenly several errors occurred.
I was so stupid to format the Harddrive (C and reinstalled windows 7 but then realized, that all the custom stuff and above all, the Dell DataSafe Backup Client was gone. Now I am unable to access the restore partition and the CDs that came with the machine only contain Win7 and a source DVD with the drivers. I would like to reset my machine to factory settings using the restore partition. Can anybody help me with this issue?

 

My hdd didnot had any factory installation backups as it used to when I had M1730s with 10GB partition.
So, I think you should contact AW support to get a factory image or something..

 

I have an R2 and there is a hidden partition with restore stuff in it.
You can try and use Acronis Disk Director and make a boot disk to boot the computer and make the hidden partition primary. If successful, the computer will boot with the hidden partition and you can restore the hard drive to manufacturer's default (like when you first got it). Now, use the boot disk again and this time, make the main part of the hard drive primary and you are all done.

 

Provided that you did not tamper with Recovery partition, you can perform the steps in my post to reinstall AlienRespawn and restore your computer back to factory state.

 

@ils: I don´t have Acronis Disc director and I think you have to buy it do you?

@alvinkhorfire: Thanks for your nice response: I tried to follow your procedure but when I downloaded the Alienware Respawn and tried to install it it told me that there is no windows recovery environment and stopped the installation. Is there anything I can do? You are my last resort! I already called Dell and they said they are not responsible for anything with Software :-(

 

Assuming that you have Windows insalled and you can boot into it.
Before trying my method, you need to check if the recovery partition is still intact by going into Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and click on Disk Management (under Storage on the left pane). You should see a small partition (around 14.65 GB with roughly around 5 GB used) named Recovery. If that's still there, reply and let me know and we can try and go further. If the Recovery partition is not there, there's no point pursuing because my method won't help as you don't have anything left to recover.
Good luck and let me know and I'll do the best I can because in all honesty, I haven't done this in quite a while.

 

Hi ils!
you are really kind and I hope we can fix this. I checked the partition and it´s still there and has the correct size. See attached figure:

 

You are really fast.
I need you to check one more thing:
1. Restart your computer and hit F8 to get to alternate boot option.
2. When the alternate boot option comes up which consists of a bunch of different boot alternatives including safe mode.
3. Is there an option: 'Repair Your Computer' which normally is the first option?
4. If there is, select it and allow it to boot into repair screen.
5. Now, is there an option: 'AlienRespawn Restore and Emergency Backup'?
6. If there is (and I hope it's there but somewhere in the back of my head, there's a voice saying no), select it and you are home free.

If the above steps yield nothing fruitful, I will see if I can create that boot disk for you.

 

Oh man, this really drives me crazy. I restarted the computer and hit F8 but there was no "Repair" option. I don´t understand. I downloaded the Dell DataSafe Backup and the AlienwarRespawn Software but I can´t install it because everytime I try, it says there is not Recovery Environment. Does this have to do with my Windows? Should I try another install disc?

 

One more long shot: when you reinstall Windows, did you use the disk that came with the computer? If not, try that and see if F8 give you the "Repair" option. If you did use the Windows CD that came with the computer and the "Repair" option is not there, let me know if you want to use the Acronis Disk Director boot disk.

 

If you still have Recovery Partition, you can recovery it easily.

1. Run cmd in administrator mode.
2. Type "diskpart" (without quote)
3. Type "list disk"
4. Type "select disk 0"
5. Type "list partition"
You can see 1 partition have label OEM (this is recovery partition)
6. Type "select partition X" ( X is number of OEM partition. It can is 3. You type "select partition 3")
7. Type "active"

Reboot laptop. It will boot by partition recovery.

Good luck

 

Which executable give you the "Windows Recovery Environment" error? is it DSLCheck.exe or AlienRespawn_Basic.exe?

If it is DSLCheck.exe, proceed on to Step 2, download and install AlienRespawn_Basic.exe. I too faced with this situation, but I have no problem installing AlienRespawn. Beware of risks I mention in Note 2.

If it is AlienRespawn_Basic.exe, I am sorry that I cannot help you. It appears that AlienRespawn_Basic.exe cannot sense the presence of your Recovery partition that is needed for its installation. Thus, you cannot install AlienRespawn at all.

Did you create AlienRespawn Recovery DVDs or USB stick before formating Windows ? The AlienRespawn Recovery Media is probably the only way to restore your computer to factory state. You do not have the functional Recovery partition, but AlienRespawn Recovery Media serves the same function.

 

@ils: I reinstalled windows using the Alienware Win7 DVD that came with the machine. As said, there is no repair option :-(
What can we do with Acronis Disk Director. I am ready to try everything!

@deathscythevn: I followed exactly your procedure and when the system rebooted, a diagnostic window opened where I can do different hardware tests. Albeit, there is no alienware respawn whatsoever. What can I do and how can I change back to "normal" booting?

@alvinkhorfire: No matter what I try to install (DSLcheck oder AlienwareRespawn or DataSafeBackup) it always tells me that I don´t have a Windows Recovery Environment and stops the installation. Unfortunately, I was stupid enough not to create a recovery media before formatting.

I really appreciate your help guys and I am sure with your help I will be able to fix it and then everybody having a same problem will profit from this thread Thanks agaiN!

 

hmmm no more response?

 

One more thing Palladium. You absolutely HAVE to open Disk Manager again and set the recovery partition to ACTIVE. This lets BIOS know where it can look for an OS.

 

well what do I need to do next? Since I followed the instructions of deathscythevn, my machine always boots into this weird hardware check mode. How can I redo this?!?

 

Try putting your Windows disk in and it should give you a Repair Windows or some such option. Even if you reinstall, it will leave your recovery partition alone unless you tell it otherwise.

EDIT: Try using Disk Management to set your recovery partition as Active, some think it's easier to use because it's a GUI. Once you get Windows up verify that your recovery partition is active. If not, set it active and restart.

EDIT: LOL, I just noticed I said the SAME thing others said, sorry guys!

 

Palladium,

When you boot by Recovery partition , you can reinstall all

 

Folks, you have to help me. Since I followed the instructions of deathscythevn
I can´t boot normally. It will always go into the diagnostics when startup. When I use the Windows CD, it will only give me the option to install windows. How can I undo all this and be able to boot normal windows?

 

Hello? Is there anybody who can help? I need the machine and it does not boot normally.

 

Sorry. It's been a little hectic here at my place. I'll be right back.

 

Here is the Acronis Boot Director boot disk image I made. Download and burn it to a CD. When you restart the computer, boot to CD. Wipe out your installed Windows. Make that 'Recovery' partition primary and active. If you have trouble booting into full version, boot into light version instead.

Boot Image

 

@ils: I made the CD and tried to boot from it, then I got the following message:
PXE-611 Media test failure, check cable
PXE-MOF:existing intel boot agent
Operating system not found

F...! I think this has to do with the s... that deathscythevn told me. Since I used his commands, I can´t boot into Windows! What can I do!

@deathscythevn: hey, you told me this command, please tell me how to reverse this whole thing! I need this machine!

 

Can you still boot into Windows?
If yes: in step number 6 (of deathscythevn's guide), type the number of your primary partition with the size of 14 GB. Reboot and see if that make any difference. If no, repeat step above but select the partition where Windows is installed.
If nothing work, might as well use the Windows CD that came with your computer and format your C: drive and reboot the computer using Acronis CD you just made to see if it works.

 

I think that this message is related to your RAID setup....i experienced similar messages....i would double check what Raid settings you have in BIOS and select accordingly. Its a shame you didnt create recovery media whislt you had respawn/datasafe....

 

@ils: I can´t boot into windows. That´s the biggest problem. Do I really have to format the windows now? I mean isn´t there an option to start DOS and reverse this thing? I made the Acronis CD, how can I set Windows back as the partition that shoud be booted?

 

@steviejones: what do I need to do in BIOS?

 

There are options you can use with CMD using Windows CD to boot.
In BIOS, check your raid setting for the hard drive. Or you can just revert to default in BIOS, save settings and see if it helps.
For my method, you will need to format C: clean. Make sure you format the correct drive (and not the RECOVERY partition; I did this by acccident way back and it was a mess). Boot that CD and make the RECOVERY partition primary and active. Reboot and see if the computer will boot using that partition.

 

Ok, I reinstalled Win7 from the Alienware CD. Now it finally booted to Win7. What is new now is that I have in the Explorer the Recovery partition listed as a drive (C: is the Windows partition and D: is the recovery partition). What do I need to do now (and please no advices where I have to install windows AGAIN)

 

Hi ils!
ok, I have no a clean Win7 installation. I restarted and booted from the CD (that I made from the image that you uploaded). I got the same error (see #23). So apparently this boot cd does not work? How can I set the recovery partition primary and active in Win7?

 

I tested the image (burned to disk and boot from it) before I uploaded it.
You have only one hard drive in your computer and no external hard drive attached to it, right?
Can you go into the BIOS and change boot order to only your primary hard drive? Disable anything that allows the computer to look in to boot other than the primary hard drive (like network).
The reason that I asked you to format your main part of the hard drive is because if you use the boot CD you made and make the RECOVERY partition primary and active without any other OS visible, the REVOVERY partition may boot and allow you to restore your computer.
To set RECOVERY partition primary and active in Win 7: You can follow the steps in post #11 but: in step number 6 (of deathscythevn's guide), type the number of your primary partition with the size of 14 GB. Reboot and see if that make any difference.
Sorry if I can't be of any better help. I am one of those person that work better with something I can see and touch.

 

Palladium: While I think you are doing (or attempting to do) something different than I probably would with recovery, if it fails and you end up just reinstalling Widows and reinstalling all of your drivers one-by-one, be sure NOT to use the Resource disk that came with your system. That disk would now be pretty badly out-of-date, so you should go to Dell's website and download each of your needed drivers there. It will take some time, but it's well worth it. In my own system, which is very new, the Resource disk is way behind.

 

you can download G parted. when downloaded burn ik to a disk.
Now you reboot and start up from the disk. let it load it takes a while. when in the menu you can change the drive where you wanna boot from, choose the recovery part. Reboot the pc and now it should boot up from that partition, Alienware recovery starts up and let it install the factory image. Everything will be like it came from the factory.
Hope this helps and sry for the bad english.

Greetings

 

@Tmilitairke: what do you mean with "download G parted"?

 

ok, I now downloaded Gparted Live and burned the .iso file to a CD (with Mac Roxio Toast). When I want to boot from this CD, i get the message:

PXE-611 Media test failure, check cable
PXE-MOF:existing intel boot agent
Operating system not found

 

ok, I figured the problem with booting from the CD. I downloaded Gparted live on another PC and burned a CD using CDBurner XP. I was able to boot GParted d and selected the Recovery partition as Boot partition. Then I booted from the Win7 CD and formatted the Win7 Partition. I then booted again but I only got an error message! No recovery menu whatsoever!?

 

What did the error say?

 

Any progress?

 

I found somebody in a German forum who will send me a recovery DVD. I will let you know if that works. Nevertheless, I really appreciate all your help and advice. It was really nice that so many of you guys tried to help!

 

That's great.

 

Aaarrgh! Now I am really going crazy with this s...! So today I received the Recovery DVDs that somebody burned for me. I boot from them with F12 and get the AlienRespawn Menu. When I now want to recover the system to factory settings, it tells me that my harddrive does not support this process and that I should use a harddrive with at least 596 GB?! WHAT THE F? I have a 500 GB harddrive?! Why the hell does AlienRespawn need a >596 GB Harddrive?

 

I can only guess that the DVDs were made with the computer with 640 GB hard drive DELL sells but I don't see how it's related.
The only suggestion I have now is to go ahead and re-install Windows, download the latest DELL drivers and start from scratch. You have spent a lot of times on this and a lot of frustration (I assume) trying to get this to work. After you have reinstalled everything and setup the system the way you like, save an image as backup for future restore. I did not do fresh install but did customize the system to my liking and saved an image.

 

DEATHSYTHEVN...just wanted to give you props.This worked AWESOMELY. Thanks for your help <3

 

Im not a pro at alieware laptops and need help. Friend gave me laptop which he got from a buddy, he got 2.

When I boot it up i get a black screen and says media test failure.
What do I do or need to do?

HELP!

 

Open your own topic, people will miss your question here.
On a sidenote, check your boot order, maybe it's booting something it shouldn't and hangs on it.
It could also be a defective cd/dvd drive (you can test this by putting the windows setup on a usb stick and try to boot from that, or an external hard drive and boot from that), a defective HD, or defective sATA slots on your motherboard.
Those are my first guesses.