AlienRespawn - Correct Option to Deploy Factory Settings to New SSD?

Hi all,

Currently using AlienRespawn 1.7.5.60 and I noticed that the interface is completely different with what is currently on Dell's support page. My purpose is to carry over the original settings (OS and AlphaUI...etc) that came preinstalled on my Alienware Alpha to a new SSD drive.

I am not sure which one of the two options (and what the difference is) I should be using to do this within AlienRespawn to create a bootable USB flash drive:

1) Create Your Rescue Disk

2) Factory Backup

For reference, this is what I'm looking at:

Thanks!
Note: I actually went with option 1, but noticed that option 2 specifies "USB Flash Drive" and option 1 specifies "External USB HDD", yet my backup was performed successfully using option 1 to a USB flash drive. Will this cause any issues?

 

Option 2 (Factory Backup) allows you to create a USB recovery image of the factory recovery partition on your hard drive. I would highly recommend creating one and stashing it safely. If you need to revert back to a "Factory State", booting from that USB will reset your machine to exactly how it was originally, in terms of drive/OS/Partitions/Recovery partition.

There is no harm in creating both factory and rescue images.

 

Great, thanks. But what is the difference between a recovery and factory image?

Because I did option 1 first and created something on my USB flash drive, and I will use option 2 on another flash drive, but I'm not sure what the difference is/which one I should boot from on my new SSD

 

Factory image is generally considered to be the brand-spanking new "out of box" image of your machine - a recovery can be an image of your machine in its current state at any point in time. You can create as many recovery disks as you like, as often as you like, to avoid losing any new data as you start using your machine more and more. Performing a clean OS installation from scratch with all freshly downloaded drivers is generally considered the best way, but if you are not okay with doing that, using either USB's should be fine....I'd probably use the factory image if you don't fancy clean installing to you new drive.

 

Alienware Respawn and Dell Backup and Recovery (DBAR) are now exactly the same application. During installation, the BIOS is identified and the setup program assigns the appropriate branding to the application UI.

Are you actually looking to clone the drive instead of doing a clean OS install? If so, Respawn is not made for that purpose. Migrating the drive to dissimilar hardware is something imaging/cloning software is best suited for. Respawn is intended to create recovery media, backup and restore operations using the original drive. Depending on what SSD you buy, many of the most popular OEMs include software for that purpose, or make it available for download from their web site. There are also free and paid versions of programs that can do that. Sometimes cloning from HDD to SSD isn't the best option. It can sometimes cause alignment problems or reduced performance, but there is certainly no harm in trying it. You've nothing to lose but time, and if it works out OK you'll be ready to roll with minimal effort. The best option when installing a new SSD is a clean OS install if you have the ability to do that.

 

I don't think I have a good understanding of the term "clone".
My current understanding of clone is copying exactly what is on my disk now to a new HDD.

What I want is simply the factory settings/software my original HDD shipped with and port that onto my new SSD (to be used in the same machine as the original HDD), so in this case, would AlienRespawn still be suitable?

 

LOL, so I don't understand what "clone" means. OK. Your understanding is correct, and that is exactly what I mentioned so we are on the same page with that. I thought you were wanting to clone the drive to a new SSD as I attempted to interpret your purpose... sorry if my response was not what you were looking for.

So, it sounds like you're going to do a clean OS installation on the SSD (which was not clear from your original post) and want to export/import only settings and factory installed software. As far as I know, no... I doubt Respawn will do that. It's a limited purpose utility and I can only vouch for what it does as I mentioned in the previous post.

If I am not mistaken (and I could be) the "Applications, Drivers & Utilities" option does not do that, but merely includes those in the recovery media when the option box above it is check. But, you can certainly try it and find out. They have been making changes to Respawn and maybe that is a new feature. I have not used it in a couple of years and I have never had a reason to do what you are wanting to do.

Does it allow you to choose only that option, without the box above it checked? The danger would be if it appears to work when you create it and you do a clean installation only to afterward discover that you cannot use that backup on the new OS.

The only way I know that you can keep all of that intact is by cloning the drive. I have never checked to see if the Alpha UI is available to download for reinstallation after a clean OS install. Do you have it on a disk that came with the Alpha?

I am not aware of a good program you can use to only export/import all of the factory settings, preinstalled software and customization. If you can find one that will do it, or successfully do it with Respawn, and the machine is still stable when the process is finished, please share that with us as there may be other people that would like to do the same thing at some point.

 

I've always recommended to go for a clean install when moving from HDD to SSD. However, you can use the factory image option. It'll install everything as it was from factory on the new SSD once you boot from it.

 

He doesn't want to do that. It's hard to tell from the original post, but he only wants to export the Alpha's special UI, factory settings and that kind of stuff. I'm guessing to make a clean OS install seem like a factory install. I'm not aware of Respawn having such a feature, or any other program having the ability to do that correctly, without making an unstable mess of everything.

 

Gotcha! The AlienRespawn software can't export only that as you mention. You can either copy the whole O.S or specific files (music, images, documents).