Need information on the Hard Disk used for the M15x

Hi Guys,

I just seem to be having endless problems with my m15x...First out of the box it shook and made a queer noise and that was resolved by checking out the fans. There was a piece of paper jammed in the fans. Dont ask me how that happened? (It was straight out of the box). Then I had the downclock issues that everyone else has been experiencing but that kinda got resolved with the new 32 BIOS update from AW. (It still shows some random downclocking from time to time but definitely less frequent than before). And now to add to the list my HDD crashed!!! I am really having second thoughts about this purchase. Well that is my story. The reason I am here is that though AW is sending out a replacement HDD I want one ASAP. This is my only computer and I cant afford any more lost time to it being non-usable. I am planning to get a HDD by myself sometime later and was wondering if there was anything specific about the hdd that AW uses. Will any 2.5" SATA Internal Laptop HDD suffice? Thanks for the time.

Oh! - Also my whole HDD is out - meaning that the AlienRespawn program that came with it also got wiped out. I talked to tech support and they said that they wouldnt replace that for me saying that I had to buy the respawn kit separately. I dont remember paying for the first copy on my HDD and it was NOT listed on the sales invoice. Is this true? Have any of you experienced anything like this?

 

well they do offer the respawn package seperately....... i feel bad for you. hope it all works out well.

 

They should be the ones to send you a new HDD. I wouldn't take that man. Even if you don't have the respawn thats no big deal they should have sent you a windows disk. So do a clean install and then install ur drivers from the cd that they also provided.

Edit: That is true that you have to buy the respawn separately they do have one on your HDD that comes with the system. The one that you purchase is the one in case your HDD crashes.

 

Yeah! - They are sending me a new replacement HDD but refused to overnight it. They said there was no option but for me to wait 5-6 days to get it (OPTIMISTIC EST. DATE -Since I received my system nearly 2 weeks from the sch. date). I use this computer for pretty much everything and now its gone (Boy! - I miss the reliability of my prev. Sony and DELL). Thats why I wanted to go out and get myself one!

Also - If they could "GIVE" you respawn with the computer - why not put it on the HDD again?? - Isnt this a fair request? - This isnt a delayed event. The computer is not even 2 months old and already the HDD is down. Doing the vista installation and all the drivers is pain. Paying $3600+ and having to do all this by myself makes me feel that I have just been suckered! Sorry for all the complaints Just really disappointed.

 

Hi Sabapathy and welcome to the "not happy" club.
i actually purchased the respawn dvd and when i first booted up i saw it there by pressing f10. why put it on there and then charge for it as well.
your original purchase came with respawn so really they should replace like for like. its not your fault your HD packed up after only two months.
good luck and i hope they repent and put it on your new HD.

 

the whole respawn thingy is stupid. i wonder, would it be possible to just burn the respawn folder from the HDD onto a CD or DVD and then use that in case of a major crash? would that work?

 

I totally agree with you. The Alien Respawn thing is stupid but it can save you some time and some manual labour. You wont have to go about installing all the drivers yourself and thus saving a lot of time and no headaches!

Mr.DJ - point exact. Why do they want you to buy something that they should give away as a necessary add-on to the machine. Considering that they do give it to you on the machine when it is out of the shop why not reload it on the new HDD bfore sending it out? Thats all I am asking. Tech support however were not willing to talk to me about this and refused point blank. I thought that $3600 was enough to buy me a nice laptop and some great customer service - Obviously I was wrong.

 

I too am curious about this. Anyone know? I went with the SDD drive so space is at a premium and I'd love to have the gigs freed up and the restore moved off the drive and onto a DVD,

 

It would work but it will very tricky. You would have to save the partition to a dvd or separate drive. If your hardrive crashes you would have to rebuild the new HDD to almost the exact config. One partition for C:\ and then one hidden about 4.7gigs. Then you would need a tool that would allow you to boot to the hidden partition (gparted live works great). So it is a lot of work but it can be done.

 

Yeah! - This will work but it is a lot to do as mentioned. I was infact about to image my HDD just to avoid this kind of fiasco..But laziness got the better of me and here I am! Should have done it when I thought of it! Just proves that it hurts to procrastinate.

Also- I was also curious to know how many of you are OK with the tech support way of handling things at AW. What I am talking about is "HAVING THE CUSTOMER OPEN UP THE COMPUTER BY HIM/HER SELF" and have them diagnose the issue. I find this kind of dangerous because not many people may know what they are doing. Just yesterday, I was on call with Tech Support when they asked me to open my computer and remove the HDD. Agreed the M15x is very neatly built with minimal wiring and stuff but things can still go wrong. Just in note, the tech forgot to tell me to remove the motherboard battery before disconnecting the HDD. I have known this to cause serious problems later on! - So just curious to know how many of you share this opinion.

 

Well here is the thing when i've delt with TS they have always asked do you feel comfortable working on your system. I think thats the right approach for the simple fact that some company will void your warranty if you as much as open any part of the PC it upsets me sometimes when I know that I can fix the problem and they won't let me. Also just some advice to everyone when I received my system i did i full disk image (with acronis true image) just in case things like this happen.

 

sorry, but what's a disk image?

 

A disk image is an exact snapshot of your entire hard drive. Every setting, every file, everything. If there is ever a problem you can go back to your drive image and it's just like going back in time. If you've ever heard of Norton "Ghost" or "Ghosting" a drive, that is what they are referring to.

I do one once all the software is installed on a new system and before the user has a chance to screw it all up. That way you can always go back to a clean system and OS with no problems.

Restoring a drive image is a 1-2 hour process depending on drive speed and file sizes. Most all drive image software uses compression to store the image.

There is GREAT information on Drive imaging at PC Magazine at the following link:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2259168,00.asp

 

I'm sorry to hear about that. How did you find out that the fans were blocked? And how did you remove the paper?