*Urgent* Need help with restoring m17R3 to factory settings

Hello everyone, i've had my M17X R3 for 2 years now and i attempted to freshly install windows 8 on my system. I normally run windows 7, i formated the recovery and primary partition allowing them to merge, just leaving me with 2 partitions one primary and another named OCD or something which was 32MB. I removed windows 8 due to problems and reinstalled windows 7 buti wanna restore my laptop to windows 7 alienware factory settings but i deleted the recovery partition. I have my alienware windows dvd and resource dvd... what can i do to restore it?

 

You could have a look through here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...re-look-feel-after-clean-install-windows.html

I reccomend you re-install alienautopsy and once you have a good working copy use it to create a backup USB. It should also prompt you to recreate the recovery partition. Should never have removed that until after you were happy with win 8 . The small OEM partition is used by dell to store utilities and may be just a 'hang over' from older installation methods? If pressing F12 and selecting diags at boot works then they are now inside the BIOS

 

Thanks MickyD, i fresh formated using windows 7 and manually installed all drivers, everything is smooth i just can't change my brightness when i'm on my 6990m using dells new drivers uploaded this summer. Would upgrading to windows 8 instead of formatting cause any issues? i'm running on a 6990m, i can post more details if requested.

Thanks in advance

 

NP

I have seen a few people with brightness issues. Usual fix I have seen it to use the dell published driver first before any update, but it sounds like you have done that so maybe try a later driver to see it it helps? I'm not familiar with AMD cards having stopped using them some years ago

I have not used the upgrade option or seen people use it but I believe it works well. I would only try it on a nice clean windows install myself though...

 

The problem with windows 8 is that you can't change brightness, switch graphics, close the lid (it will enable sleep mode even if you put the options on do nothing when the lid closes) and ofcourse no sleep mode (pc is just blank and you have to manually shut down using the button).

MickyD1234, if i reinstall Alien Autopsy will it recreate the recovery partition as it was thus allowing me to go back to factory settings like when i bought it? or did you mean it would create a new recovery partition based on my current windows 7. Thanks

 

Hmm, I can only think that the R3 firmware is not fully compatible with win 8? The R4 got a BIOS update for win8. Really needs an R3 user that has upgraded to win 8 to comment - sry

 

Thanks for the fast reply MickdyD1234, i know but that wasn't what i was asking My question is when you told me to install Alien Autopsy will that allow me to retrieve the recovery partition as it was when i was given the laptop with it's factory settings? if so that will allow me to restore to factory settings and by that i mean how it was sent to me by dell. Thanks again!

 

Sorry, didn't quite understand. Once you deleted the partition it is all gone for good

Respawn will recreate one but it will be a copy of the current windows setup, a snapshot if you like.

 

That's precisely what i asked : ], thanks for the answer MickyD1234 !

 

You did, I just missed it completely!!