Possible to create a Respawn restore point of my M11X set up just as I like it?

I just used Alienware Respawn to restore my M11X to its factory-shipped condition. So far, so good.

It's now taken me ~2 hours to re-install all of my programs, bookmarks, email client settings, scripts, etc, not to mention W7 running all of its own security and misc updates.

In short, I've got a clean install of W7 with the 15 or so trusted programs freshly-installed. Is it possible to create a restore-point RIGHT HERE such that if I want to re-install W7 at a future point, I can restore to THIS point in time (with all my crap installed), rather than in its factory-shipped state? Basically, that will save me 2 hours of time every time I want to reinstall the OS.

(It doesn't have to necessarily make use of Alienware's 'Respawn' thing...perfectly happy to just make a bootable USB with the image -- the take-home point is simply that I want to return to precisely THIS state, should something go wrong in the future.)

 

I use acronis true image. It's a image backup, but works great and can do incremental images. Frys electronics always has deals on this software.

 

Does Acronis True Image do something that, say, Alienware Respawn doesn't do? Is any "image backup" software (if that's indeed what it is I'm looking for...?) do the same job?

Sorry for the noob-ness, but will this accomplish what I'm looking for, which is creating a re-install disk (or USB flash drive) where I can 'reinstall' W7, but it will take me to a point in time AFTER I've set everything up?

 

I believe if you buy the premium version you can make a Complete System Recovery backup simular to the default factory one that you used to restore to its factory-shipped condition.

I don't have my Alienware with me at the moment, but AlienRespawn should tell you what you get with the premium version.

 

Actually, the latest version of Respawn does actually allow you to create an image other than the factory one. I know this as Mr. Fox (AW Moderator) has recently done this and created a user image on a 16gb USB drive.....

 

I have an alienware m18xr1 and i upgraded my hard drive from a SATA 750, to a samsung 256 ssd/6gps and when i'm trying to recover my windows with the alienrespawn i receive and error that i need to have a minimum hard drive of 750 as my first hard drive(750), also when i made the recovery disc and usb flash disk i didn't upgrade it to the full back up version recovery, is this an issue?if i will but the full recovery premium, i will get the same error when i am trying to instal the image from the factory using alienrespawn? any answer will be appreciated, thank you

 

Using the basic version should not cause any problems - the thing with respawning from an image made with a larger drive is that sometimes it doesnt work when you go to a much smaller drive. I very much doubt that buying the full version will make much difference.

 

steviejones133, thank you for your answering, i have read all your answers all the night (i appreciate your answers very much) and i had the hope you will answer at my post.
What can i do in this case? I still have the old hard drive.
Is there a possibility to instal the factory image on the 256 ssd?

 

How are you trying to respawn? - are you trying to boot to the ssd from the recovery media you made or have you installed windows on the ssd along with drivers and alien respawn software and are then trying to restore from within windows??

The only way that I know of to get the factory image onto the ssd would be to use respawn / recovery media or disk cloning software such as Acronis True Image, which would copy your HDD contents to your SSD. The problem with Respawn is that your factory image was made based on your 750gb HDD and "sometimes" respawn gets a little "picky" about how or when or if it will respawn to a smaller drive. I've seen others do it successfully and seen others have problems.

If you cant successfully boot to the SSD from the recovery media you made using Respawn, chances are that it wont work, end of story. That would leave you the option of cloning with software. There may well be some free disk cloning utilities if you google 'em.

The only other thing that I can think of that *might work* (I have not tried it myself) would be to use disk management within windows to reduce the size of the partitions on your HDD so that it matches the size of your SSD and you leave the rest of your HDD as "unallocated space" - you could then try and create a new set of recovery media and see if that works - no idea if it will, was just a thought that by reducing the size of the image, it might mean AWR would work.....but no promises it would.

 

steviejones133, thank you very much for your answer!
I am trying to instal the alienrespawn from an usb flash drive and also i made 2 dvd's and i receive the same erorr at both usb flash and dvd.
I will try to reallocate the entire partition from ssd and try it to respawn after that, to see if i would have any success.
I didn't saw or heard of any software problem, is very strange that you need to make an recovery of 8 GB USB flash driver and when you would like to change your hard for any reason that can happen all the time, you cannot use that recovery USB flsah, is very sad

I appreciate your attention.

THANK YOU

 

Sounds like respawning directly to the SSD using the recovery media isnt going to work for you, due to the difference in drive sizes. As I mentioned before, some people report success and some dont. It's hit and miss unfortunately.

I see you posted over here too: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...rive-aftermarket-drive-alienrespawn-q-21.html - you may have read that it works for some but not others when going from a large drive to a smaller drive. If you read from around page 15/16, there is some info there that might help.

 

steviejones133, can i extract the drivers from the system if i already have it installed on my old hard drive? because i have check with dell and they don't have the entire drivers as it come with the factory image.

 

If you are installing the OS freshly to the SSD, you would need to download all the latest drivers for your machine from Dell Drivers & Downloads support page and then install them after the OS install......if you are doing a clean install onto your SSD. If you cant get the respawn to work, then that would be the best option.

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

Personally, I would recommend a clean install - you can easily restore the factory feel of your machine, which basically is the only reason to opt for a respawn in the first place, right? - You can have a look at these threads for info/advice on doing a clean install.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...er-install-order-guide-alienware-systems.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...ook-feel-after-clean-install-windows-7-a.html

 

Looks like Acronis True Image is your best bet, because it will allow you to image from your 750 drive to your 256, provided your data will fit.

EaseUS has a free version my also do what your need. Free Disk Copy, Drive Clone, Disk Image freeware - EaseUS Disk Copy Home Edition.

 

You are spot on. If the respawn image wont actually restore to a smaller SSD, there is unfortunately not much that can be done to transfer the recovery/factory image onto said SSD...other than cloning. Acronis is a great suite but does cost. Not sure about how good the freewares are but definetly worth a shot if you dont wanna shell out for Acronis.

Personally, I would just go with a clean install as it will ensure that the drive is correctly aligned and will also give a nice clean operating system install. The "look and feel" can easily be regained with the link I posted above.

If none of those options are viable/wanted, I guess you could look at reducing the size of the partitions on the HDD (leave the recovery and OEM and OS partitions alone and create an unallocated partition for any space above 256gb, for example) and see if a freshly created Respawn media would actually work.....the thinking behind that would be that if your partitions on the HDD are equal to that of the SSD size, it may well allow a respawn....if not, nothing really lost.

 

Stevie: is the "latest version of Respawn" the PREMIUM version that harolds also made reference to? i.e. it costs $ as opposed to the basic version that shipped with my M11X?

 

You dont have to pay for it. You only have to pay for the premium version if you choose to. It's just the latest version of the software which you can still have with no cost as a basic version to create recovery media etc.....if you want the premium features like full system backup etc, then you have to upgrade and pay for it.

 

OK thanks. Not trying to be obtuse here, I guess I still just don't understand why "recovery media" refers to something different than a "full system backup".

I mean: if using Respawn's recovery-media functionality I'm able to create a disk image to restore my computer to how it appears at this very moment in time, then why doesn't that effectively function as a 'full system backup'?
e.g. why would anyone buy the premium version when they can create a disk image with the free one that seems to accomplish the same thing?

 

The upgrade version just has added flexibility to making backups. See below for the additional features that are available with the "paid for" Full Version:

http://alwchecker.alienrespawn.com/alwchecker-en.html