Clean Installing Win 7...

Hey all,

I've recently been having a tremendous amount of problems with my laptop. Originally I ran AlienRespawn and my computer seemed fine. It encountered a problem where I could not install anything (after about 2 days). I then ran alienrespawn again, simply because of the ease and comfort, and it seemed as if the problem was gone, so I was happy. And then the previous problem arose (after, about, 2 days). I don't know if a program was causing it or not, but on the 2 seperate occasions I had installed different programs and tried to avoid what I felt was the culperet in the first place.

I've now decided to cave and simply reinstall windows 7 via the recovery disk provided by Alienware. What I would like to know is where I would be able to retrieve all of the alienware themes/backgrounds/avatars and the like, as I'm having trouble finding them in my Windows.Old folder.
I'd also like to know (if anyone's a veteran at doing this) what drivers and such I should install that would normally be given by alienrespawn (I've installed everything off the resource disk given by alienware, however I'm sure there's something else).

Sorry to bother you guys again but I've spent a good 30 hours over the past 8 days trying to restore my computer to working order, and the support I've tried contacting/have contacted seems to have no idea what they're on about.

As an aside - Has anyone ever encountered the installer failing after an AlienRespawn? Like I said, I ran the Respawn program twice now and both times it lead to the eventual error that I couldn't install an extremely wide variety of programs (including Microsoft FixIts that are supposed to fix installer errors). Generally I got a 2203 error or an error saying a temp. file could not be read. I went through multiple MS support tickets with them eventually telling me to clean reinstall Windows 7, but at the moment I'm nervous that within 2 days I'll have the installer error again...

Sorry to take up your time,
Thanks,
Sean

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...asafe-software-respawn-faq-discussion-10.html

can't really help u mate. u shud prolly post on this thread

 

Jingle,

The Resource disk (not the Win-7 install disk) is definitely NOT the thing to use for your system rebuild. The drivers there are out-of-date in some cases, and you should not use the Alienware Command Center on that disk. Go to Dell's support site and download all of the needed drivers there. As far as the rebuild procedure goes without Respawn or other recovery partitions, I have extensively researched this with help from others, and this post covers it in high detail:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-full-detailed-description.html#post6978195

You may not get the best of help from Dell phone support on this; I sure didn't! As far as some of your other questions, I'm not (yet) able to comment.

Edit: As you will find if you read the post referenced, I don't rebuild using Respawn. If you have a recovery partition on your hard drive that you want to keep, simply don't delete it when you do your rebuild. In fact, Steve just posted below me here (Hey Steve!) and he has used the rebuild I detail in the post with the change that he actually does have a recovery partition that he kept. He can probably take you step-by-step through a rebuild tailored EXACTLY to your machine and desires. My procedure in that post is a careful set of general instructions.

 

Damn...both you guys beat me to redirecting to both of those threads! lol - if we can help out tho, let us know!

The wallpapers etc can be found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...stomization-themes-wallpaper-collections.html and if you want to change the logon screen from default windows back to AW style, use this Windows 7 Logon Background Changer - Customize your Windows 7 welcome screen wallpaper

 

I bungled mine pretty bad trying to resolve Crossfire issues, but have done a clean install of Windows 7 and got my M17 back up and running. Do what others have reccomended and use the just Windows 7 disc to get the OS on, the use one of the install guides pointing you to the latest drivers on Dell's support site. It takes time, but you can do it and it will be just fine! And of course you have many helpful people here if you have any problems. Good luck!

 

Hiya Dave! - Yeah, I pretty much use your guide but instead of deleting all the HDD partitions as you do in your process, I simply keep the recovery partition and the OEM partition, delete the remaining and install my new Windows OS to the remaining free space (918gb in my case)

I do this simply because if I ever want to "reinstall" Alien Respawn, I can do so. If the HDD is wiped completely (inc. recovery partition) it just makes it a pain to reinstall it after a clean install. (it is probably possible but you would need to restore from the recovery media created by the owner at time of unboxing/1st set up, which would restore your HDD to the factory state - then do the whole nuking thing over again and DONT delete the recovery this time and you should be set to reinstall AWR if you want) You would need to have created recovery media at the very outset for you to do this tho, if you havent got this media and delete the recovery, its gone for good.

Personally, I quite like the safety of being able to restore to factory condition. Its not necessary but I prefer it so if you want to delete the recovery for more space, its not like you will NEVER be able to "reset" your system - just means you wont get it back to was when you unboxed it....you simply will just have windows OS and any programs on the resource media disc (cyberlink dvd, webcam software etc - i dont use 'em anyway)

I havent bothered re-installing Alien Respawn as yet on this "nuking" as now I have all the latest drivers on a USB drive, its probably quicker for me to just go and reinstall windows all over again should i need to. I have also left it be at the default windows logon and desktop background. These things obviously revert your Alien back to its original "look" and "feel", but im not that bothered about 'em at the moment. Down to preference I guess, but you can use the above links to get your Alien back to "looking" like one quite easily if you want to!

If you need more advice, obvioulsy, just post back or PM me (or Dave (Voice) - Im sure he wouldnt mind either!)