New Hard Drive. How do I get Respawn?

So I just bought a new HDD (old one kinda died). Is there any way to return the computer to factory (out of the box) state? I dont have the alienware respawn disc. Does anyone know where I might download one from?

 

if the old hdd isn't faulty, then you can still retrieve the factory.wim from the recovery drive in the old hdd and restore to the factory = )

 

I dont believe anyone, here, is a proponent of respawn.
You should do a clean reinstall using the windows disk and support.dell.com for all your drivers.
The single best thread, updated 5 days ago, and advise is by Wattos: http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m15x/488201-new-m15x-owner-information-32.html

 

Actually, I don't mind respawn or Dell DataSafe Local. Very useful freeware in the sense you can create rescue media which will restore the system to an out of box state.

To the OP, if you can salvage your factory.wim and then replicate the partitions on the new drive, you can use this ( http://alwchecker.alienrespawn.com/alwchecker.html) to download and reinstall AlienRespawn.

For DataSafe Local, see:
http://dslbchecker.datasafelocalbackup.com/dslchecker.html

Again, I'm not sure how you actually would work it with a new drive, but my guess would be to replicate the partitions of the first drive, copy over the factory.wim to the correct partition and then install the OS to the OS partition. Once done, use the above tool to reinstall AlienRespawn. Once that is done, create the rescue media and then restore.

there may be a simpler way of course...

NOTE: The above tools I linked to will be successful only if the Factory.WIM file is intact.

 

Why couldn't he just clone the recovery partition from his old drive to his new drive? What exactly is the .WIM is it separate from the Recovery Partition?

 

He could clone it but he stated:

So, if he can salvage the .wim he might be ok. If the HDD dead my post wont help at all. He wont be able to restore AlienRespawn/DataSafe Local.

This is the main reason why I suggest every new owner create the rescue media before performing a clean install/reformat of the drive. Its ok if you wipe and reinstall to the C: partition - just dont kill the others. Its nice to keep the option to restore to an 'out of box' state.

.WIM =
Windows Imaging Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, it would reside on the hidden partition.