[GUIDE] M11x - Creating a Recovery USB key

GUIDE: m11x - creating a recovery USB key


DISCLAIMER: The author is not responsible for any damages/loss of data using this guide. I don't see how you would do it since Windows pretty much locks down your boot drive from doing anything stupid, but there's always some wise-guy finding a way.


What you will need:

• a computer with DVD drive
• Windows DVD installation (or it's copy on the hard drive)
• 8GB+ USB drive (~$20)
• an ability to follow instructions

How to do it:


1. Backing up.

"Retreating? Hell, we're not retreating, we're advancing in a different direction!" -- Marine Corps General, O. P. Smith

If you need the contents of your USB drive, you will want to back them up -- copy all the contents somewhere else, like your hard drive. Because this procedure will re-partition and format your USB key, deleting all data that it contains in the process.


2. Preparing the USB drive.

"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new." -- A. Einstein

- Open the elevated command prompt. Click Start, type in "cmd", then "cmd.exe" will show up, don't press Enter, right click it, select "Run As Administrator". A dreaded UNIX-style command line should appear. Good. Each physical drive or a disk can be "partitioned" -- in other words can be split into different parts, called "logical drives", that is, sometimes you have only 1 hard disk, but in windows you see them labelled as an indepent drives: C:, D:, E:, etc.
- Program that manipulates with these things in windows is called "diskpart" [former "fdisk" for old school folks]. Run

diskpart

from the command line. Your prompt should change from "C:\Windows\System32\>" to "DISKPART>". Make sure the program can see all physical disks - type:

list disk

The screen should look something like this now:



These are all the disks on my desktop computer. I have 250GB HD (which is as you see in reality 232 GB) and I have a USB key which is 1 GB. Again in reality slightly less, don't worry -- it's supposed to be this way. Make sure you now note which Disk # is your USB! Mine is "Disk 1" (1 gig one). Now type

select disk 1

or whatever number was your USB key. It should say "Disk 1 is now the selected disk" (or w/e the number was). Again make sure you have the correct number, we're going to wipe everything off that drive.

This is your last chance to quit, we still haven't changed anything and simple "exit" command will take you out of "diskpart". Don't be a sissy and follow the next step...


3. Point of no return.

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself." -- F.D. Roosevelt

Now run this set of commands (this will recreate the entire structure on the USB key, convert the entire available space on it into the "primary partition", activate this partition, format it quickly to FAT32 file system [*], and assign first available drive letter to the selected partition):

clean
create partition primary
active
format fs=fat32 quick
assign

This is what it's supposed to look like: screenshot. Now it should say "DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point." If you open Windows Explorer you should see a drive called "Removable Disk" like here; this is your fresh-out-of-the-oven USB key. Feel free to rename it (right click, Rename); I call mine the "Defiant".


4. Customizing the recovery USB drive

Now simply copy the entire Alienware recovery DVD, which is basically just Windows installation into the root folder of your USB key. You might want to add basic drivers and useful programs, so here's what I added:

"Drivers" folder (screenshot): [ftp.us.dell.com]

The newest versions can be downloaded from Dell Support website (support.dell.com, then Drivers and downloads, enter your service tag etc.), but I give the current ones here for convenience.

• Alienware OnScreen Display driver
• Alienware Command Center
• Realtek Audio driver
• A01 BIOS (WARNING! This is BIOS flash utility! Don't install if you don't have BIOS issues! I put it on my drive just in case something goes wrong.)
• Intel Chipset driver
• JMicron SD Card reader and 1347 Firewire driver These didn't work for me, but the newest drivers from JMicron website did [driver.jmicron.com.tw].
• Synaptics TouchPad driver
• Atheros LAN network driver
• Bluetooth driver
• Dell WLAN 1520 WiFi card driver
• Intel matrix storage manager
• Free Fall sensor driver
• Intel+nVidia Hybrid Graphics Driver

Wallpapers and pics: [alienware.com]

• Alienware M17x Custom package

This is what I have in "drivers" folder. Also this is what I have in "Apps" folder, I won't link this, you better download all the latest versions of these things yourself + you may not need most.


5. Extras: Imageshack uploader

The only thing I would mention is a little program (18k) called InstantBackgroundUploader (posted with author's permission) is what I use to post pics to imageshack. Basically I just take a screenshot of the active window with Alt+PrintScreen, rightclick the little icon and select Upload. It automatically uploads it to imageshack and puts the URL in my clipboard so I can immediately paste it wherever.






6. The Ending

"But the tale of humanity will never come to a close, for the struggle of survival is a war without end, and war – war never changes." -- Fallout 3

Now you're ready for booting up from your USB drive:

• Restart the laptop.
• During the Alien logo boot screen, press (or spam) F12 key which will highlight if the computer registered your keypress and you will be presented with the boot menu.
• Select USB storage, press Enter. This will start booting the Win7 installation you copied onto USB.
• Windows installation starts: screen1, screen2, screen3.
• After the installation is complete. You will need to setup Alienware wallpapers/themes manually. Someone already had a guide in their sig how to do this so if you find it I can link, credit it here, and update this part.

* FOOTNOTE: You can go either FAT32 or NTFS, there are only minor differences. Most importantly on FAT32 you can't have any file greater than 4GB but the access will be a little bit faster. Read more here.

Other sources used: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd535816.aspx

 

Instead of using diskpart why didn't you just use windows explorer and right click the thumb drive?

Much easier to format that way instead of using command lines lol.

Also, does just copying the windows folder make the USB drive bootable? I didn't think so but I may be wrong.

 

Correct, this will not work.

You need to use diskpart (or other 3rd party apps) to assign that partition as active if you want to boot from it.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...ddocs/en-us/dm_active_partition.mspx?mfr=true

with the partition assigned as active it can be seen as bootable. Thus when you copy the entire DVD's contents onto this partition the computer will just see it as a bootable drive, with the DVD's contents.

 

Nope, setting a USB drive partition to "active" makes it bootable, at least in the case of FAT32. I think NTFS partition requires a special boot sector though. I don't remember if mine came as FAT32 or NTFS. My old USB wasn't bootable initially. The new 8GB came with a lot of crap so I thought the best way is just to clean up everything. (It still has some useless U3 partition that apparently requires special way to remove it.)

You can format it through Windows Explorer but you can't make a partition 'active' there. You'd have use command line then, and since you're already there might as well format it.

Maybe I could change some steps -- not deleting and creating any partitions, and add how to find a partition first and just set it to active? I don't know if that is any simpler... But I am open to any criticism and suggestions, of course. And will change it if we can make it better.

I just thought this way will work for everyone regardless what kind of funky USB they have.

 

I appreciate it and I wasn't thinking about activating the partition so that is why I thought using explorer would be easier.

And thanks for the guide.

+rep

 

Thank you too! BTW I've seen some HP app that I think does the same - recreates partitions and sets primary to 'active'. This way its pretty clear what we're doing.

 

hello there, new member here and new m11x owner. I have a question for you and forgive me if it sounds dumb. Is 8 gig the minimum size for creating a recovery disk? i noticed in your example you were using a 1 gig drive.. reason i asked is i have a spare 4 gig drive lying around..

 

Hey, it's not a dumb question at all. Before I bought the USB drive, I checked how many GB is the Alienware DVD Windows installation. It was just over 4GB. It can *probably* be reduced by deleting some extra stuff on that DVD but I didn't investigate what and how. Plus, I wanted to put all the drivers and extra stuff on USB so it wouldn't fit on 4GB. And the price was just slightly bigger anyway.

I had my other 1GB USB for the screenshots, since I didn't feel like deleting the 8GB one and copying all stuff again.

 

umm... "Root folder"... thats just the first folder you make in the USB drive correct?

 

Well... the "\" folder.

 

Ahh, so they VERY first "folder" you don't actually create it, it's just there, usually named "E" or "F" depending on how many drives you have running, and it's where you would normal "add new folder".

So basically, don't create any new folders on the drive, put all the info on the drive that you want to be bootable, if you want to add drivers you could create a new folder in the root folder/directory since those drivers don't need to be bootable... Is that right?

My noobishness even amazes me at times...

 

Is there a another driver for the binaryGFX feature? I reinstalled in a way similar to this, and it seems like everything else works (besides the facial recognition, but it's not too important to me.)

 

@adrock301

Yes, as you can see here, I added 3 more folders "Apps", "Drivers-m11x" and "mp3". That won't interfere with Windows installation files.

If you like to organize everything like me, you may think "Hey, why not put the entire Windows installation in say 'Win-install' folder?" to make it look tidier... well that will prevent booting.

@zackpete:

I installed the exact stuff I have listed here; everything but the BIOS that is. The graphics switch comes with Dell drivers - did you install those or just used nVidia drivers? At the moment, I'm using beta version of new drivers that I got off Dell website, they work fine so far.

 

another noob question here if i may..whats the difference between creating your own recovery drive vs the one offered by dell local backup? i noticed it offers the option to create a recovery drive via usb..

 

Not a noob question, but here's a noob answer: no idea!

I never noticed that since I uninstalled Dell backup as soon as I got the laptop.

 

Thanks unreal25 for the very very informative guide. Quick question, I'm about to reinstall my OS again (ugh!), will this just reformat the partition with Windows or will it do the whole disc and I'll loose the Recovery partition. Although, I think its pretty worthless since I'm having to go this route anyways.

 

This will only format the USB key and not the hard drive. But I did repartition the hard drive as well. I found Dell's recovery partition useless since you can't boot from it. And I thought it was pointless that if I have to to reinstall windows, I'll be uninstalling stuff like Dell Backup again.

 

Thanks for the reply. After much frustration with this, I found out that the HD died. Looking back at it though I should have guessed it since it was making strange noises Thanks for this guide though, I have a feeling it will come in very handy sometime!

 

An easier way is to use a program "Wintoflash" it basically formats the usb stick for you.

http://wintoflash.com/home/en/


I assume every1 has a computer that includes a DVD drive.
1.put alienware dvd in that computer
2.plug your 8gb usb stick
3.use "win to flash" and follow the easy instructions on the program, and you are done.

This is impossible to mess up because these are literally all the steps!

 

Even easier then is making someone else do it for you...

Yeah there are few more programs like that, but I just prefer not to install any more programs that I really don't need.

 

Nah, i would assume that a person reading this forum would be the most tech savy person in their household, so actually asking some1 to help you takes time to call, and you have to wait at least a day, schedule a meeting time and give them your usb stick+dvd and expect them to give it back to you where you would have to schedule another meeting time. that program takes like 1min to DL and if i **remember correctly** you dont even need to install it.

 

To be fair for people who just want to do this simply and put the alienrespawn on a usb drive you can use the Dell datasafe program which has an option "Create Recovery Disks" and in that option you can choose to make DVD's or put it on a USB drive

 

By far the easiest way would be using the intended tool by Microsoft they released to install windows from usb: Microsoft Store: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Help

Unfortunately after I've created an iso from the alienware recovery disk, the tool considers it an invalid image... anyone know how to bypass that? I've compared the contents of this iso and a valid win7 one, it appears the tool looks for image customizations (which alienware did obviously..).

 

Yeah, I heard that works as well with Dell's app. I just didn't like their original installation (I removed some software it came with).

I never used that MS tool + image customizations take literally 2 mins to setup. There's a login screen image. I don't see how is that easiest - you don't need ISO image. All you need is to make a USB bootable (most of the command line stuff I posted is about that) and then literally copy the files form the DVD to USB...

plus with my guide you may actually learn something. Scary!

 

Hey Unreal

I have a quick question... when i make the recovery usb using your guide. Will i be essentially installing a factory image on the drive? or will it be from the current point??

thank you in advance

 

Hey,

Nope, it's just a fresh Windows install. You'll have to add the drivers and customizations manually.

 

I followed this guide to create a USB recovery key but am getting an error when Windows Setup begins: "A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing." Has anyone seen this and knows how to get around it?

 

Thanks for the guide Unreal25,

Questions though:

Does this make the USB Drive boot-able?

IE I have an .iso file of Windows 7 64-bit I just mount the image in the USB drive like normal, and in the boot screen I just select USB Drive and it should be straight?

I can also create a folder in the USB file for my drivers correct, basically the one like you did on your screenshot? Reason I'm asking is because it wont affect the windows 7 fresh install right? Maybe more files can cause more errors?

Thanks boss

 

Thanks for the guide!

 

Hey, you welcome.

Yeah that makes USB bootable. It's pretty useful in the worst case scenario if your hard drive becomes unbootable, then this is like your filesafe - boot from USB then through Windows Install you can restore your hard drive.

You can't copy .ISO file directly. The Windows installation needs to be copied with all files extracted (think of ISO something like ZIP file) in the root folder of the USB drive. Afterwards you can create your own folders as you wish and add anything else. ADDING files won't cause any errors, but REMOVING files from Windows installation might.

@mario64,

Uh, no clue. At which point do you get that error? Are you sure you copied all the Windows Install files to the root folder of the USB drive? You may be tempted to create a separate folder "Windows install" like I did (don't ), and I remember in that case you will get some kind of an error. I used the Windows Install DVD that came with m11x (Alienware labeled disc).

 

Found the problem. It was the jump drive itself. I had purchased a new Sandisk Cruzer 8GB to use as my recovery key. After hours of searching I came across a post on sandisk's forum where a guy was having the same issue. Vendor response was that they don't officially support using their jump drives as boot disks.

Today I purchased a 8GB PNY Attache and it worked beautifully.

 

Is there anywhere I can download an M11xR1 restore disc. I screwed up my restore partition somehow by canceling the recovery disc creation half way through. I still have the windows install disc that came with it but i am thinking of selling my m11 and would like the buyer to have a from the factory install.

The m11x was purchased in Canada.

thanks

 

Does the M11X OEM disk still have all the dell crapware on it?

 

I only have a 4gb drive and I dont wanna buy a 8gb one since I probably have 5 of those little drives already. How and what can I delete from the recovery dvd in order to fit that into a 4gb drive?

 

For Windows 7 64bit, you need all the files. They are the core files that make up the OS - Unless someone knows different?

 

Thanks Nivaku. The image file of win 7 x64 on digital river is just 3gb, will that work?

 

Hi Unreal,

Just wondering if this has to be done with a flash drive? I have a USB powered laptop drive in a caddy. Was wondering if this would work in the same way?

Thanks

Trick

 

That'll work. I've done it myself. Find a guide online about installing from an external HD.

 

has anyone listed drivers for r2 version? This thread is very helpfull.

 

I assume it you could work it out. I haven't done that in a while. You'd need to make it bootable if your primary hard drive isn't and then probably Windows Install would run if you manually run setup.exe or something. That's how it worked last time I did it with Win98. Maybe it would also work if you just copy Win install into the root folder of the bootable primary partition on that hard drive?

I don't have a list for R2 drivers, just to be sure for now I would take the ones from Dell support website. I like to download all of them to one folder just to make it easier in case of a reinstall.

 

Sorry repeated post.

 

Sorry repeated post.

 

Thank you unreal 25 your post is great. I just did exactly what you said and it worked like charm.

What can I delete so the image would fit in a 4GB drive?

 

Hey you welcome!

I have no idea what can be deleted from Win Install DVD. I decided not to waste time finding it out, since I could just buy 8GB USB key for few dollars more.

 

Just a quick point, ideally you should be doing the format fs=ntfs quick rather than format fs=fat32. The reason for that is the 2gb file limit with fat32.

Another useful way of creating a bootable USB disk is actually to use the USB DVD tool directly from the MS Store. Doing a quick google for Windows 7 USB will bring up the direct store link as the first hit.

Oh and I use the same tool to install a number of OS's via USB (not limited to Windows 2008 R2 and WHS).

 

Can we please sticky this thread?
thanks man

 

I second this.

Now if only someone would make a guide in this style saying what to do when the M11x arrives (optimization thread, but filtered) and/or how to use Acronis True Image to back up and clone drives, things we be pretty awesome.

 

Here's my noob question, I think it was already kind of answered in this thread, but I didn't really understood. When you copy the files from the Windows CD, do you place them on a random folder, a folder with a specified name or no folder at all on the drive ?