Windows XP on Alienware M11x

Yerp, something like

AM5067: NetComm 56K USB Modem

I've been using Windows XP for over 8 years and I don't really miss it.

I just did the giant leap forward and installed Win7 on my systems.

Mainly cause I needed access to IE9 and IE10, but also no matter how good or bad it is, I needed exposure to DirectX 10.1(old ATI cards) and GPU acceleration.

Have dual boot Windows XP and Windows 7 on my desktop and that's enough. You don't need windows XP everywhere.

Still have access to IE6, IE7 and IE8 via VM on my M11x SU7300 Windows 7 Professional, where I created a separate VM for each Internet Browser. I love you Microsoft

You can always force games to run DX9 within Win7 as the benchmarks for Crysis 1.0 indicate it does perform better when not using DX10.1

Mind, it's interesting to see what's possible on an M11x using WinXP so don't let me stop you.

This thread may have some pointers.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/483496-m11x-xp-64-bit.html

 

How did you install Windows XP? Was it 32-bit or 64-bit XP? Was it via external CD or USB stick? If so, what storage drivers did you use? Does the Intel Matrix SATA drivers from Dell page work?

 

Natively, I really think you should reconsider XP on the M11x. There are other options. VirtualBox has hardware acceleration capabilities if you run a Windows VM and properly configured (whitelist the virtualbox exe seems logical) I am willing to bet it would work. This is not something I have tried on the M11x but I have done it on my desktop PC to run some of the older games I enjoy playing and it has worked well.

As far as XP being better for gaming, let me refer you to a post I made a few months ago. There is a very good reason.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/560539-m11xr2-xp-3.html#post7244070

If I had the spare time, I would load a VM with Windows XP, whitelist the exe to enable the nvidia GPU to run when you launched the VM. Make sure you allow the VM to directly access your hardware (PAE/NX for the CPU, VT-x and Nested paging boxes all checked), dump 128 MB of video memory on it, 2d and 3d acceleration enabled, and stop your Anti-virus from eating resources.

If anyone decides to do this, definitely let me know, as I have been curious but the combination of work and getting my degree has my time so limited, all the spare time I have I end up playing a game instead of testing configurations.

 

if you really want to use xp plus all the perks and latest drivers you can get 7 ultimate and use xp mode

 

lol xp on the m11x works fine in discrete mode.. just need to find the right drivers. there is no reason to not use xp if it works and its what you like.

 

No no no, I don't want to install XP. I like Windows 7. I just wanted to take images of the RECOVERY & OS partitions (BEFORE booting the OS partition & before activitating the out-of-box-experience) .... using BartPE (which is based off 32-bit XP) & DriveImage XML.

I did this successfully last night. What I learnt:

I googled Intel Matrix Storage Manager 8.9.4.1004
which was given in Dell driver download. I previously couldn't use Dell's download since it just installs the 64-bit drivers on top your current PC (my spare laptop is a Dell Vostro 1400 running 32-bit XP). The zip I found from google gave me both 32 and 64 bit versions (which interesting only differed in the inf file by a few words).

I created a BartPE with the storage drivers & DriveImage XML on it... onto a bootable USB. Upon switching on Alienware first time I immediately go into BIOS to change the boot order. Good thing my USB stick shows up.

NB: I also changed ACHI to ATA mode for the HDD.... which later made no difference for BartPE... BartPE can detect HDD in both modes..

I also have an external USB HDD (Western Digital MyBook)... to save the images (RECOVERY is 4GB.... OS is 26GB large).

Now I can restore the OS partition to before OOBE state.
I know there's a RECOVERY partition... but wasn't sure what this really contains (previous experience RECOVERY partition was just the Windows CD).

Am not sure how the RECOVERY partition works and what it really stores. Now I just found out about AlienRespawn, which utilitizes Win7's Recover/Restore imaging... so currently trying this out to see how OOBE it restores...

FUTHER PLAY:

I created a Parted Magic 5.1 boot USB (6.1 gives blank screen) and shrunk the OS partition down to 100GB. This will enable Win7 to create a 4th/last primary partition of 350GB or so used for documents/movies/etc. Plus makes it easier to image restore without losing the documents/movies.

PS: If the 4GB recovery partition is suppose to restore 26GB OS partition... how? that's quite a big hefty compression ratio... plus.... what's Win7 Home premium factory default install at 26GB all about? I just bought the lowest/cheapest basic setup for the m11x.... hmm...

 

actually andwan0, I was speaking to the OP.