AlienRespawn Failing to Install - ATTENTION DELL/AW Reps please!

Hello fellow Aliens!

Firstly, I started this new thread because I think that this could do with some urgent attention from Dell to allow us to properly use the AlienRespawn software after a full clean operating system. I have been trying to successfully install AWR and create a user defined recovery image for some time now and each time, I end up with some kind of error or failure that I do not think is in relation to anything I have done wrong - I could be mistaken, but I don't see how. This software WAS working well to carry out this procedure not too long ago, so I'm not too sure about why it isn't working now. I have my suspicions, but other than that, it's a right royal pain in the proverbial.

I didn't want to post this in the current Respawn thread as indicated above - hopefully someone can chime in from Dell and explain or look into this in more detail. I'd love to be able to use the AlienResapwn software but it is so tempremental right now that I cannot even install it without it throwing a wobbler on me.

Okay, so here goes. I'll lay out the procedures that I have done and maybe it can be replicated or fathomed out.

Firstly, I grabbed the Respawn software from this link: http://alwdownload.alienrespawn.com/alwdownload-en.html - I'm currently running Windows 7 Ultimate and the software from this link: http://www.alienrespawn.com/en-us/Index.html won't even try and work on my OS - possibly would be a good idea to have one version that encompassed all OS's, right? - that was my first thought....

I then went on to clean install my OS. Booted from the Dell OS disk and at the "Install Now" screen, I Shift/F10'd to allow me to raise a CMD prompt. I did this to use the "clean" command before installing the new OS. I did that and also did a quick format in diskpart by running the command "format fs=ntfs quick". At this stage, I assumed that I have a nice clean drive to install afresh to. Exited the CMD prompt and hit install now. Great. Got to the "where do you want to install" screen, made sure that there was only one partition marked as totally unallocated and continued to install as usual.

Windows installed, as it normally does, just fine. I always then turn of disk defragging, windows updates and change device install setting to NOT update via Windows. That's my normal protocol.

Re-install ALL of the relevant system drivers for my machine and updated ALL important/recommended and Optional Updates prior to finally installing Command Center. Perfect. All good. Working 100%.

Re-install pre-loaded software which included:

• Home & Student Office 2010
• Cyberlink PowerDVD 9.6
• Roxio Creator Starte
• Webcam Central
• SoundBlaster X-Fi

Made sure that each of those programs was up-to-date via their built in updaters - again, no problems. Also installed any new Windows updates for installed programs. No problem.

Installed some programs and tools that I use regularly. These included:

• GPUz
• CPUz
• HWiNFO64
• ThrottleStop 5.00
• EVGA Precision X v 4.00
• CCleaner
• Driver Sweeper
• Wireless Controller for XBOX
• NVFlash for Windows
• Origin & Steam
• Two games - Crysis 3 and Skyrim as I play them most often.

All this time, I have been checking the event viewer for any warnings/errors that I wanted resolved before running the AWR install and got event viewer down to zero errors or warnings. At this time, I felt it good to go and ran the AWR installer and BAM - error city. This is where the fun started!

Okay, so initially, AWR looks llike it is installing just fine, creates a base image etc and prompts for a reboot. Upon reboot you get greeted with a "not enough space" error and consequently prompted to uninstall AWR. Funny thing is that for me, it DID create a recovery partition on my first attempt. I could clearly see it and the size was around 24gb marked as Y: - Ive tried several times after several clean installs but this initial attempt has been the same - recovery partition gets created but no software is installed. I have actually elected to NOT uninstall AWR when prompted and I can access AWR but options to create backup/recovery images are greyed out and nothing is available - consequently, a complete waste of time.

So, as this was failing, I deleted the recovery partition that WAS created and extended the volume to take up the unallocated space. Try again I thought.....BAM. AWR is now telling me that my disk is full when I try and run the installer!

Below are the timeline of screenshots that I got when trying to run the installer I'll put the pictures in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

I also get a notepad file placed in my root called RPSetup.exe and it's contents seem to point to various failures - not for me to fathom out what's going wrong but I'll again pop the copied text into a spoiler below for the attention of any engineer!:

Spoiler

________________________________________________________________________________
Log started Thursday 2013-04-04 at 12:48:49
Using st_log.ini: 1
Log level: 63
Forced flush: 0
Compressed: 0
Encrypted: 0
________________________________________________________________________________
[2013-04-04 12:48:49] INFORMATION : Command Line: /uninstall
[2013-04-04 12:48:49] strRes=0409
[2013-04-04 12:48:49] strRes=English
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] m_strDialogMain=Dialog800600
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Version major=6 - minor=1 - Build=7601
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Check OS version : Vista or higher
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Check OS version : Windows 7 or higher
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : RP=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Factory=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : CRC=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Silent=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : IsoPart=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : KeepImagesLST=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Uninstall process...
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Step 91
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : MountIsoPart()
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER BOOL CSTDisk::Open : BOOL CSTDisk::Open()
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Disk: 0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Not use VDS
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : DiskSize: 512116129792 - MinPart: 8225280 - StartPart: 32256
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT BOOL CSTDisk::Open. RETURNED 1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER BOOL CSTDisk::Enumerate : BOOL CSTDisk::Enumerate()
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER BOOL CSTVolume::Init : BOOL CSTVolume::Init(DWORD dwDisk=0,DWORD dwPart=1)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER TCHAR CSTVolume::MountVolume : TCHAR CSTVolume::MountVolume(DWORD dwDisk=0, DWORD dwPartitionNumber=1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER TCHAR CSTVolume::GetFreeVolume : TCHAR CSTVolume::GetFreeVolume()
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT TCHAR CSTVolume::GetFreeVolume. RETURNED 69
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT TCHAR CSTVolume::MountVolume. RETURNED 69
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT BOOL CSTVolume::Init. RETURNED 1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Partition 1 (0) - Start: 1048576 - Size: 104857600 - Type: 07 - Active: 1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER BOOL CSTVolume::Init : BOOL CSTVolume::Init(DWORD dwDisk=0,DWORD dwPart=2)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Volume Name: \\?\Volume{d526c6ad-9af7-11e2-891d-806e6f6e6963}\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Real Volume Mount Point: C:\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT BOOL CSTVolume::Init. RETURNED 1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Partition 2 (1) - Start: 105906176 - Size: 512007117312 - Type: 07 - Active: 0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT BOOL CSTDisk::Enumerate. RETURNED 1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Part#0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : WinRE.wim : \\?\Volume{d526c6ac-9af7-11e2-891d-806e6f6e6963}\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim [0]
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Part#1
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : WinRE.wim : \\?\Volume{d526c6ad-9af7-11e2-891d-806e6f6e6963}\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim [0]
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : MountIsoPart Disk close.
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : MountIsoPart OK
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER CDisk::GetDiskNumber : CDisk::GetDiskNumber(LPCTSTR pszDrive=C:\))
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : CreateFile succeeded on \\.\C:
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : dwRetVal after IOCTL_VOLUME_GET_VOLUME_DISK_EXTENTS: 0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT CDisk::GetDiskNumber. RETURNED 0(0x4851974d)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER CDisk::OpenDiskInformation : CDisk::OpenDiskInformation() - m_dwDisk=0
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Free volume found: Z:\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Mount partition 1 on Disk 0 as Z:\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT CDisk::OpenDiskInformation. RETURNED \\?\Volume{d526c6ac-9af7-11e2-891d-806e6f6e6963}\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Free volume found: Z:\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Mount partition 2 on Disk 0 as Z:\
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER CDisk::CloseDiskInformation : CDisk::CloseDiskInformation()
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT CDisk::CloseDiskInformation with no return value(void)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : No Recovery Partition
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Recovery Partition is
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER CDisk::CloseDiskInformation : CDisk::CloseDiskInformation()
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT CDisk::CloseDiskInformation with no return value(void)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Delete dir emergency
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] ENTER CGen::Execute : CGen::Execute(CString strCmdLine=C:\Program Files (x86)\AlienRespawn\DISK.BAT, int nCmdShow=0,BOOL bAtt=1,BOOL bCurDir=0)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] EXIT CGen::Execute. RETURNED 2(0x485181c1)
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : GetProcAddress on RegDeleteKeyEx failed 127
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Cannot clean RunOnce registry for DSUpdateLauncher 2
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Cannot clean RunOnce registry for STToasterLauncher 2
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Cannot clean RunOnce registry for Launcher 2
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Cannot clean Run registry for DSUpdateLauncher 2
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : GetProcAddress on RegDeleteKeyEx failed 127
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Cannot clean RunOnceX64 registry for DSUpdateLauncher 2
[2013-04-04 12:48:50] INFORMATION : Cannot clean RunX64 registry for DSUpdateLauncher 2

Now, I know that my disk cannot possibly be full as indicated by this pic - again, in the spoiler below:

Spoiler

I'm hoping that someone can assist with this problem, it's driving me nuts - all I wanted to do was to create a recovery USB and "possibly" upgrade to the full version of AWR - as it stands right now, I cannot do either! - I know that Mr. Fox is experiencing problems with AWR too: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...uestions-discussions-here-24.html#post9136126 so there is more to this than meets the eye. It's a problem with both versions, it seems to me. Fox was trying to use the newer version and I the older one. Both will not work.

I should say that quite oddly enough, I tried installing AWR right after the OS with no drivers or Windows updates and it did create a recovery partition and it did allow/prompt me to make a recovery image but there is little to no value in doing so on a bare OS without drivers and Updates. My suspicions about it's failure to do so on a machine that has drivers and updates installed is that one or the other is fouling up the process big time - my money would be possibly Windows Updates. I haven't tried a OS/Driver only install yet as I have wasted far too much time on this already - I just hope it can be resolved.

Anyway, thanks to anyone who bothered to take the time to read, if you did. Comments are more than welcome!

 

Are we talking about Alienrespawn Premium or Basic?

 

Just the basic version currently - with a view to upgrading....

 

Don't quote me on this but I'm almost certain that AlienRespawn basic will only backup something like 3-DVD's (around 12-15gb).

 

Hmmm. That might be a possibility. I'm sure I recall Foxy setting up a 32gb backup flash drive before he upgraded to the premium version. I do seem to recall on one of my attempts, it did offer me the option of creating an 11gb disk or USB image. I was thinking that I could replicate Mr. Fox's success and create a larger one as indicated below:

 

Is there anywhere that states that as the case, Luis? - Could well be my problem. Also, anywhere on the "paid for" version that mentions maximum recovery disk/USB size? - I was hoping to at least get an image with a few games on it, along with most used stuff - was one of the reasons for grabbing a 32gb USB drive.

I don't know if this is conflicting or incorrect information, but on the link about upgrading here: How can I upgrade my AlienRespawn from Basic to Premium? it mentions (quoted):

Obviously, I have Dell raided SSD's, but this info suggests that AWR Premium will not work for me, so would I be wasting my money by trying it out? - the basic version has worked/installed fine for me in the past on my Dell raided SSD's so I can't say I'd be best part pleased if dropped £30+ on the premium version and it didn't work. - seems quite odd to me if this is true - Dell must sell a lot of machines with raided drives that cant (according to that quote, anyway) actually use AWR/DDS.

 

The trouble is, now I cannot even replicate what I did before using the same version of AlienRespawn. It refuses to install correctly, will not let me use my retail product key to upgrade and will no longer create a recovery partition during the installation process. The previous success was before I converted my system to an M18x R2.

Any news on this yet? I wonder why it used to work great and now doesn't?

After a clean install of Windows 8, I am now back to getting this stupid error message. I finally gave up on trying to use my purchased version of Respawn and used Macrium Reflect for creating my recovery image. I hope this gets fixed, as I would prefer to use AlienRespawn.

 

Well, just an update. I've re-installed from scratch and elected to try a smaller OS installation with less stuff so technically, I should be within the "safe zone" for allowing the basic version of AWR to do it's thing. Grabbed myself a 16gb USB flash drive in readiness and will try it out later and post back. Just to note, I am using the older version/link for AWR as the Windows 8 looking one doesn't even install at all on my Win 7 machine - period.

One thing I am wondering about is this. Assuming all goes okay and I get to create my USB image and AWR installs a new recovery partition, what happens then if I upgrade and want to create a larger image? - does the premium version "re-write" a new partition or just an image that can go direct to USB? - only wondering because after each failed install thus far I have deleted the recovery and extended into the unallocated space but AWR will refuse totally to re-install after doing so.......

If only it were less of a minefield to get running, I'd be well made up. As it is now, if it fails again, I'd probably just use a 3rd party software to do it - like Mr. Fox - which is a shame as I imagine it's a good product when it works correctly.

 

Update:

FINALLY got this sucker to work!!! - allowed me to create a user defined Recovery USB on a 16gb stick, file size around 12 gigs.

I think you were possibly right, Luis - scaling back the size of my initial OS install so that AWR Basic could create a USB Recovery Drive within it's size tolerance has done the trick. I think just prior to running the downloaded AWR Basic installer, my drive capacity was 476gb with about 436gb free. As you can see, AWR created a similar sized recovery partition at the end of my drive and available space/capacity were reduced accordingly:

Spoiler

After a successful installation, I opened up AWR, as I was prompted to create recovery media as usual upon initial launch, and managed to successfully create the USB Recovery Media that I had been trying to get done for some time - see below:

Spoiler

So, although I am now set with regards to my "user defined" recovery media, I'm left puzzled why it won't work for Brother Fox. Fox - does the older AWR Basic installer also fail on a Win 7 clean install? - I see above that the newer style GUI is for the newer version of AWR.....

I think my next step is to weigh up wether or not to upgrade to the Premium version. I guess it will allow me to create more "user defined" full backups, and as such, I could go about getting a larger USB (32gb was my intention at the outset) with some games installed on it OR backed up to an external. What options are available for backups if I drop the cash on the premium version?

 

Just a quick FYI/Update - I wanted to try out respawning my "user defined" recovery and happy to say that it worked flawlessly. Actually, it worked BETTER than flawlessly - ran a quick bench of my SSD's to compare with how they were "brand new" and I was mighty impressed. CDM bench on the left is from when I first got the machine (factory install) and the one on the right is after my "clean" user defined/custom respawn install:



Pretty sweet!! - I imagine my 4k's reads took a slight hit because of the rewriting to the drive - I'll see if they pick up a little. These drives never ever had the best 4k performance anyways, so it is what I was kinda expecting. The 4k writes were low on the original bench because write back cache was not turned on - after turning it on, they went up to the kind of 4k writes I see now.

Brother Luis - how did you get on with your testing? - any news on things, buddy?

 

Hey guys… good news! I finally got AlienRespawn installed in Windows 8. I discovered the problem was I had to install the Windows 8 Assessment and Deployment Kit, which includes the Windows PE. It can be downloaded here: Download Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK) for Windows® 8 from Official Microsoft Download Center.

My activation code still does not work, so I have reached out to our AW reps for help with that issue. It used to work with Windows 8, as I was able to make recovery media for Windows 8 with the full version before. So, I am not sure why it does not work now. Doesn't make any sense that it will not accept the activation code now.

I am making USB recovery media as I type this. Will see how that goes... it is 17.9GB.

 

SWEET!! - I did think that it wouldn't be long before you cracked it, Bro - well done!

 

I appreciate the vote of confidence. The image completed and I tested it to confirm it would restore without failure. That was with a full installation... MS Office 2013, Adobe CS3 and Nero Platinum. (All my games are on the 1TB data HDD.)

 

I've got some weird happenings going on with mine. Respawned fine and everything "feels" snappy. I have noticed though that upon boot, the animated Windows 7 boot screen is missing and has been replaced with the older style green process bar ?? ??

Also, some very odd SSD behaviour - those figures I posted before were fine for the first run - I found that after a little while (with hardly any writes/activity) the drives write performance took a HUGE nosedive. I ran AS SSD to check and when comparing the results to my original AS SSD score (around 1580) I am now getting around 600 - again, ??

I have tried a clean install and the oddness continued. Some strange things like events in the event viewer were still showing events that happened ages ago - windows were opening in odd positions, when I had previously dragged one off the screen and closed it, it now opens in that location.....after a clean install....

I'm wondering if maybe I have a SSD issue going on....

EDIT: Found my original AS SSD bench and added one I just did for comparison - note that the recent one is AFTER 10 hours left idle at the log on screen to initiate GC. Pretty lame:

And here's what I'm getting now:

Spoiler

 

I think the different OS loading menu could be indicative of the Windows PE (Recovery/Pre-install Environment) being installed, but I am not 100% sure of that. I don't remember if I ever had that with Windows 7 and the latest version of AlienRespawn.

It is odd that your read/write performance dropped so much. Your Samsung SSD performance numbers are normally much better than my crappy Agility 3 SSD setup (which normally excels only with compressible data). Perhaps it has something to do with available free space. How does your free space compare now to the basic recovery installation size?

Your offset/alignment is significantly different than mine. I used a 128K stripe size. What did you use when you set up the RAID0? Is your write-back cache enabled in RST? Are both SSD humming along at 6GB/s?

Spoiler

​

 

Maybe you're correct about the boot screen - just noticed that the Win 7 animation had gone and thought it odd.

It's quite odd that on some benches, I get high figures, then if I leave it a while doing nothing and re-run, they can turn out much worse than previously. Some tools give better results than others, too. As for the free space, I'm basically running on my custom respawn without anything else installed since. Free space is as per previous benches - 422gb of 462gb free.

I broke the raid array that was set up from factory, created a new array with a 64k stripe as opposed to 128k. Even though our offsets are different, mine's still correctly aligned as per the green text on AS SSD showing OK

Write back cache is enabled and write back buffer flushing is turned off, too. Both drives consistently showing 6gbps in RST also.

I just downloaded CrystalDiskInfo and below is what it shows - along with my RST setup - although the drives are reported as "good", I'm not too happy with the status - also, not too sure what to be looking for as bad signs...any ideas?

Spoiler

​

 

Steve, do you know what the stripe size was before? Was it 64K? Different drives seem to react differently to stripe size. I don't know that it would have such a remarkable impact on performance, but it might. Did you do the LPM fix also? Neither OCZ SSD drives nor my M4 SSD drives perform as well without it. If not, I am wondering if that explains the fluctuations. The LMP fix should prevent the drives from entering a power-saving mode. Leaving the machine idle might explain the drop in SSD performance if Windows is letting them drop to save power.

My product activation code not working has been resolved thanks to Mark and Luis.

 

The default factory setting - 128k - was the stripe size before. I thought I would see if changing it would offer any performance increase, and like you, I certainly didn't think it would affect performance that much! I have the LPM fix to try - on various clean installs of late, I have not used it and haven't noticed such a difference in results. I'm only leaving the machine idle at logon to let GC do it's supposed job and maintain my drives - I do have power options set to never turn off the HDD on AC and Battery though, so letting the machine idle at login shouldn't really put them into power saving mode, right? - it should initiate garbage collection. I've left it overnight again for another 10hrs and I will re-run a few tests soon to see if there is any improvement. Overall, within the last 48 hours, my machine has been idle at login for around 36 hours, so technically, I would have thought that this was plenty of time for effective GC to restore drive performance - but it hasn't.

What I did for my current OS install was the following:

• Boot from AWR USB
• CTRL & I at boot to delete raid array/membership
• Re-create new raid with 64k stripe

The one thing I had thought of, but am doubtful would make ANY difference is that my AWR image was made on a 128k stripe and I created a 64k stripe and THEN installed from USB. My thinking is that the stripe size shouldnt make a difference as the data from the USB is just data until it's written to a drive. Having the stripe size set prior to installation should just mean that the data is then written to the drives across the corresponding stripe size. What d'ya reckon? - on a side note, even without changing stripe size and clean installing from the OS disk does not improve performance anyway, so that kinda rules out stripe sizing having much of an impact.

EDIT: Just re-ran AS SSD - some improvement on the reads but the writes still suck big time in comparison and have actually gone down

Spoiler

Looks like my read access time is WAYYY off, almost 3 times slower than my original test, thus bringing down my overall read score, and well, it's obvious whats bringing down my overall write score.....

EDIT 2: Okay, applied the LPM fix - scores went down even more...... - 4k reads went down by around 25% and write performance did not improve by a massive amount - still nowhere near my original tests......I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my drives that cannot be fixed.

Spoiler

 

It is possible, but I suspect your drives are OK. Seeing you have an AlienRespawn recovery with 128K stripe size, I would go ahead and break the array, recreate it for 128K and Respawn... got nothing to lose but time at this point and it would answer the question on SSD health and/or stripe size.

You could play with CDM bench and test different data sizes and see if read/write speeds swing widely based on the size of the test file.

Speaking of SSD problems, I think one of my Agility 3 is dying on me. I keep getting a BSOD "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" and dump files are not being saved. I moved with Windows page file to the mSATA to see if they will save for further analysis. There is not much detail on the web about that STOP error. Here's why I think one of them is going out...

• Several times in the last week at POST one of them (SSD on Port 0) is marked as having an error in the Intel RST OROM utility
• RST shows the error in Windows without any technical data... I mark it normal to clear the error in RST
• Windows dump files are not being written to disk after the "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" STOP error occurs
• After the "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" my RAID0 array is not found on the first boot attempt, but it is on the second attempt it does load
• On the second attempt Windows does not load, but Windows 8 gives me an option to "Press Enter to try again" and it does
• System behaves normally until the next "CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" and the above scenario repeats itself

This has happened twice this morning while posting in this thread. Will see if the dump files get saved to my mSATA. If they do, they might shed some light on the issue. If the dump does get written to mSATA, I believe that is further indication of an issue with one of the Agility 3 not being writable for the dump file.

 

Yeah - I think I will do that right now, reset to 128k and respawn and see what gives. I'm not holding my breath for much difference but we shall see. I've kept the benches pretty much stock for comparative purposes but playing with them might yield some different, crazy figures LOL.

As for your problem, I recall a very similar, if not maybe "kinda" identical, that another member was having: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ical_process_died-after-resuming-sleep-3.html and no real solution was found. From what I can tell, it seems a more prevalent error on Windows 8 - pretty much all of the hits I got from Google seemed to have good ol' Windows 8 as the OS. Does it occur on a Win 7 install?

 

Okay, well .... changing back to a 128k stripe and rebooting my AWR image does nothing to change things....I've ensured that writeback cache is enabled, buffer flushing off etc etc......far cry (no gaming pun intended LOL) from my original figures on the right below....

Spoiler

 

Mine is definitely not a sleep problem... as you know from our years of hanging out here, I have that disabled and never use it. Shortly after posting that explanation of the error I am getting, I got the same BSOD and had a difficult time getting Windows to start. I marked the error as normal in RST and from that point forward I could not keep Windows going. It would last about 2 minutes between BSOD.

I'm 99% sure my Agility 3 SSD on Port 0 is no bueno. I just broke the RAID0 array and restored Windows to the drive on Port 1. I am going to swap bays with the two SSD and recreate the RAID0 membership in Windows. It is working fine now using a single SSD on Port 1. If the problem returns in RAID0 and follows the drive to Port 1 after I swap places with them, it will be confirmation the SSD is crapping out. I just flashed their firmware from OCZ 2.22 to 2.25, so that might fix something, too.

 

Looks like a controller problem with that drive, huh? - RMA time? - ain't got a clue what's going on with my drives. As you can see, a lot of the figures are pretty close to original but others are WAY out.....oh, and yeah - I forgot that you never sleep.....one, two, Freddie's coming for you....

 

Maybe... I called OCZ Support and they essentially said, "Sure, RMA is no problem, but please swap ports with the two SSD and confirm the problem follows the SSD and does not stay with the same port. If the problem follows the SSD, call us back to RMA. If it does not, call Alienware." (paraphrased)

That logic makes perfectly good sense to me. Little did they know that was already in my troubleshooting plan. So, I have flashed the latest firmware to both SSD, (v2.22 to v2.25,) swapped ports, installed Windows 8 to the one drive that I moved from Port 1 to Port 0. Everything has been running perfectly fine with that one SSD, so I am now in the process of converting it to RAID0 with RST within Windows... waiting for that process to complete. Will see how it goes. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that 1% chance the SSD is OK was cured by simply flashing the newer OCZ firmware. I am hope that is going to correct whatever was goofing up so I don't need to fix anything.

 

I got my fingers crossed for you, buddy. Let's both hope it goes according to plan! :thumbsup:

As for my drives, I'm gonna do a total fresh install tomorrow - not a respawn - and see what gives. Hopefully, things will perk up a bit.....

 

Seems to have helped quite a bit. The CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED BSOD was happening in alarmingly rapid frequency and has not happened even once yet. Will know more in the next 24 to 48 hours, but it's seeming real solid now.

It's a real shame the Agility 3 incompressible data transfer speeds are so low. Their compressible data performance is excellent.

 

That's more like it! - I agree, your compressible performance is pretty damn good. Sham that the Agility drops fair bit on the incompressible test. Still, looking back on your performance before the FW update, you've got better figures now than you did previously, which is some consolation. Did the FW release notes indicate anything about addressing incompressible performance? - I'm glad the errors seemed to have stopped as well, as that was the main priority. Let's hope she stays that way!!

 

The release notes are pretty vague and overly brief. But, if there's nothing more to say, maybe nothing else should be said.

 

True. If it ain't broke......

 

Well, after another clean install, things have not improved. Installed Win 7 Pro this time around after a diskpart/clean command (not clean all) and install to unallocated space etc.

One thing I find that is weird to me is that after the clean install, various Windows settings are as I made them on the previous OS install - I mean, "change device installtion settings" is ON by default - I always turn it off. Went to do this after my latest clean install and it was already off - ??? - also, Windows seems to be remembering other things too - like where I had various windows open....I had RST open before, virtually off the screen. Did my clean install and when I opened RST again, BAM.....it popped up in the same geographical screen location, which was dragged virtually off the display....

If it's remembering things like this after a clean install, what other things might it be "holding on" to.....various registry values, settings etc etc......

Anyone else had this kind of "shadowing" effect - I am thinking it could be part of the problem and that every time I do a clean install, it is, in effect, not doing so.....

 

This is a common error that is on tens of threads on different forums. For whatever reason, Windows 8/8.1 isn't set to create the WinRE environment after a clean install. You will need to verify you have the WinRE.wim in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery.... if not, you will need to copy it from the Windows install DVD. If this is the case, the paragraph below will apply:

If I recall right, you're going to have to mount the install.wim, however Windows 8 marked a changed to a better compression system, changing from wim to esd. You will have to convert the install.esd to an install.wim file by using DISM and exporting the esd file to a wim file. Once that's done, you will need to mount the newly created install.wim using DISM, copy the winre.wim file out, then dismount the install wim and discard changes.

Once you have the WinRE.wim in the correct folder on the C drive, you will need to enter the following commands in an admin command prompt:

Reagentc /disable
Reagentc /setreimage /path C:\Recovery\WindowsRE /target C:\Windows
Reagentc /enable

I may be missing a step in there, as I'm doing this from memory and could very well have missed listing a step. Either way, I would still recommend googling "Windows 8 enable winRE" and checking out the reagentc commands on TechNet

You SHOULD NOT have read or write privileges for the Recovery or WindowsRE folders. Do NOT touch the security settings for the folders or files therein. Windows is designed that way to protect the WinRE.wim image from malware.


If you need to access the Windows Recovery Environment, you have a few ways to do so:

1. The Microsoft preferred way: Change PC Settings - Update and Recovery - Startup Options - Restart - Troubleshooting

2. If Windows fails to load twice at boot, the third time booting will automatically launch WinRE. Holding down the power button until the computer shuts off AFTER the blue Windows logo appears is the easiest way to force entry into WinRE if you're having problems.

3. You can use bcdedit to turn on the legacy boot options of Windows 7, where pressing F8 will get you into the recovery menu.