AlienRespawn V2.0 question

I'm confused about the alienrespawn-

I received my system over the weekend. In my binder, there were 4 cd sleeves, all of which were empty. In the back of the binder, I found two of the cd upside down not in their sleeves. They were the nero CD and the alienware support cd. I was expecting a respawn cd as well as a vista cd, but they were nowhere to be found.

I e-mailed CS and they got back to me very quickly, informing me that an order was in to send me a Vista CD. I replied "but what about my alienrespawn?" They wrote back and informed me that unfortunately, the respawn dvd is a custom image of my computer, and it cannot be created after the fact, and they will refund me the money for the disk.

I thought to myself "do all systems come with a respawn disk, or did it have to be ordered separately?" so i checked the m15x order page. I realized that the respawn cost additional money and I had not selected it.

One thing that is confusing me is when I start up my m15x, it gives me an option to press F10 (I think) to run respawn 2.0. I haven't pressed it just because I don't want to screw anything up, but can respawn be run without the CD?

Additionally, I checked my invoice and it actually does have me down for a respawn, as shown below.

1. AlienRespawn V2.0 Factory Install

My question is, is the respawn shown above the same as the alienrespawn DVD? I'm positive I did not order the DVD that cost additional money, but I thought all systems come with a respawn. Can anoyone clarify this for me?

 

can you post the spec form that you ordered, I want to see the part where it says about the respawn.

 

1 | AREA-51 M15X


1 | AREA-51 M15X 15" WXGA+ W/CAM SIL-RIP-PNT


1 | CPEN,INTEL T9300 CPU,2500/800,6M,FCPGA6 SCREENED


2 | Y9525 QIMONDA 512 MB PC2-5300 SO-DIMM REV. EDL


1 | M15X PRIMARY 6 CELL BATTERY-ACCESS


1 | M15X PRIMARY 120WATT AC ADAPTER-ACCESS


1 | M15X ODD SMARTBAY KIT-SILVER-PNT


1 | M15X NVIDIA 8800M-GTX 512MB


1 | M15X THERMAL MODULE 8800 GTX


1 | SEAGATE 200GB 7200RPM 16MB FREE FALL SENSOR HD


1 | 8X DVD+/-RW SAMSUNG LIGHTSCRIBE DRIVE Rev.1


1 | M15X ALIENFX KEYBOARD US


1 | INTEL PRO WIRELESS 4965 A/B/G DRAFT-N MINI-CARD


1 | INTEL MOBILE INTEGRATED HIGH-DEFINITION AUDIO


1 | VISTA PREMIUM COA 32 BIT


1 | ALIENRESPAWN V2.0 FACTORY INSTALL


1 | ALIENWARE COMMAND CENTER MOBILE


1 | CYBERLINK YOUCAM WEBCAM APPLICATION


1 | WINDOWS LIVE TOOLBAR


1 | NERO 7 R5.9 W/LITESCRIBE


1 | CYBERLINK POWERDVD BD 7.3 8CH BUILD


1 | ALIENWARE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD STORE


1 | M15X PRIMARY AC ADAPTER POWER CORD (US)-ACCESS


1 | OWNER IDENTIFICATION CARD


1 | ELC WHITE MOBILES


1 | 1-YR 24/7 WARRANTY (NO CHARGE)


1 | ON-SITE WARRANTY


1 | SYSTEM PERSONALIZATION


1 | AVATAR: ALIEN SCHEMATIC


1 | WINDOW STYLE: GRAPHITE


1 | MOUSE POINTERS: STANDARD


1 | WALLPAPER: ALIENHEAD 3D (WIDESCREEN)


1 | WALLPAPER: ALIEN CYBORG (WIDESCREEN)


1 | POWER PLAN: DEFAULT


1 | AUTOMATIC UPDATES: ON


1 | SIDEBAR GADGET: CALENDAR


1 | TIME ZONE: EASTERN


1 | PERIPHERALS


1 | ALIENWARE USB 2.0 THUMBDRIVE 4GB


1 | ALIENWARE MOUSEPAD


1 | WINDOWS VISTA HOME PREMIUM RECOVERY DVD 1.1


1 | MADDOG 2.5- AREA-51 M15X SUPPORT CD


1 | NERO 7 R5.9


1 | ALIENWARE MOBILE BINDER VISTA


1 | AW NAME PLATE FOR NOTE BOOKS


1 | ALIENWARE PROTECTIVE CLOTH SLEEVE M15X


1 | AREA-51 M15X C PANEL OVERLAY - QUICK GUIDE


1 | M1X SERIES MOBILE TOUCH PAD


1 | ALIENWARE MESH CAP


2 | ALIENWARE STICKER


1 | GCBD Discounts

 

The respawn you have is loaded on a hidden partition on your hard drive and yes, it does the same thing that the respawn DVD will do. If your hard drive goes bad and you replace it you will no longer be able to respawn. That's where the respawn DVD has its advantage.

 

AlienRespawn v2.0 is the one you pay an additional $50 or so for. It is a factory image of your system, which also includes the exact vista settings you chose when configuring your system, as well as the benchmark info.

I believe however that each system also comes standard with a hidden hard drive partition, which contains the image you can use to restore. I'm not sure whether this is just a stock barebones restore or the point where they finished your system's configuration.

edit: doh! linuxguy beat me to it! but yea, i ended up ordering it because i knew i was going to be swapping out the 120GB HDD with a 320GB one. pretty cool how after running the respawn cd...it also recreated the hidden partition on my new HDD so i can restore from there if needed.

 

LOL, i ordered it for the same reason you did.

 

Alright, that clarifies everything. Thanks for the help you guys.

 

the dvd image is waist of money in my opinion I just use clone software that does the samething. I will give it up to AW though their respawn (thats loaded on the HDD) is actually the best I've seen it allows you to back up your files before the factory restore.