M17x R4 Install Windows 8, but keep Windows 7 Respawn partition

Greetings,

I will be the owner of a new M17x R4 once it ships in January and have been reading up on the threads regarding Alien Respawn. My M17x will have Windows 7 installed and what I want to do is:

- Install Windows 8 (fresh install)
- Keep Windows 7 Respawn partition

I've read the posts regarding a Windows 7 fresh install, driver installation order, and backing up Respawn on external media but what I am not clear on is how I can still access Respawn using the hidden recovery partition once Windows 8 is installed fresh. Wouldn't Windows 8 wipe the MBR needed to access the Respawn partition? What I am trying to do is still make Respawn functional from the hidden partition without the need for external media.

 

Yes, it would. Plus, Respawn won't function properly if the OS installed differs from the OS backed up to the recovery partition. I hate to say it, but if you install Windows 8, there's no way the existing recovery partition will work for Respawn. You would need to create a totally redone recovery partition for Windows 8. To date, I don't know if this has been done.

 

Okay, thanks Radji. I was under the false impression that the Respawn partition included a copy of Windows 7, which would freshly install itself over top of whatever OS was installed in the primary partition. Thanks for the clarification.

 

It does. It's basically a mirror backup of the image on your hard drive. But when the time comes, Alien Respawn may not work correctly if the OS installed is not the OS backed up on the recovery partition. I'm just not sure how Alien Respawn will behave when it has to flash a backup of Windows 7 over a faulty Windows 8 OS when the time comes.

 

Thanks Radji, I see what you mean. If it were the case that Respawn checks the OS installed on the primary partition before re-imaging, and denies the re-image due to the OS being a different version that the one contained in the Respawn image, perhaps I can fix this by wiping the primary partition clean of any OS? This way, it will be like running Respawn on a new hard drive (ex: I buy a new SSD for my M17x). Anyhow, guess I'll try it out when my M17x arrives mid-January. Given how new Windows 8 is, I suppose no one has tried this yet.

 

De Nada. But it all honesty, you may not want to keep Alien Respawn on your new SSD. I was recommended not to use it because it usually contains old and outdated drivers and system software ( Just wiped my HDD and accidentally erased AlienRespawn)
But, I can see the appeal of not having to go thru the entire clean install process when Windows crashes and burns. In order to avert that, I do a clean install every year just to get rid of any lingering problems on my OS drive. And all my user files are saved to my RAID volume so I don't have to worry about backing up my SSD. But that's just my process, you are free to keep Alien Respawn for it's intended use. You can always go to the Respawn site and follow the instructions there to try and get your recovery partition reset once you install your new SSD and Windows 8: http://alwchecker.alienrespawn.com/alwchecker-en.html.

 

You are probably best off just ensuring that you have Windows 7 Recovery media created with AlienRespawn before upgrading to Windows 8. That way, your "factory image" of how your machine was when you first got it is always there to fall back on. You can boot from this media at any time and it will restore the original drive back to when you turned it on for the first time - even if you delete the recovery partition whilst installing Windows 8 - which I would recommend doing. I say that as when you install Windows 8, it's probably best to do a clean install of it by creating install media (USB or disc) instead of doing an "in place" upgrade.

Once you have your Win 7 Recovery media stashed and are ready to take the plunge, clean install Windows 8 and when you get to the part of "where to install to", you can delete all existing partitions and install the OS to the freshly unallocated space. Install Win 8 and any Dell drivers that need updating manually. Win 8 does the majority automatically but there are some it misses, such as FreeFall Sensor, Command Center, OSD etc.....once you are up to date, you can re-download AlienRespawn and it will create a brand new recovery partition on your HDD that will be Windows 8 based. You can elect to create new recovery media for your Win 8 install at a time of your liking - eg. when you have the machine setup as "you like it" which may include some programs and apps that you want installed and do not want to have to re-install every time you may want to respawn from the new Win 8 Recovery media......basically, saves a whole lotta wasted time in the future and is pretty cool that you can create a "custom made" recovery USB that will put your right back to your Windows 8 install "just the way you liked it" without having to go updating drivers etc etc etc....

 

Yes I agree with the above, restore discs should also restore the HDD recovery partition if you ever run them too.

 

That's great, thanks for the replies! I will definitely create the initial Respawn media on the factory-customized Windows 7 installation so I can always restore the factory state if necessary, and then once again once I've clean-installed Windows 8 with the downloaded drivers.

 

Always good to be cautious and make sure you can go back to any point if needed if you run into something unexpected.

 

Windows 8 is terrible, why would you want that piece of garbage windows 8 on such a powerful beauty like M17x?