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Alienware Respawn CD
Charles Kinbote
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So my compy is mad fuxx0red, yo. Space issues, don't want Vista, odd behavior...it's not a lost cause, but it's not the whirring whiz-machine it was even a month ago. Now I don't actually have the XP discs or anything like that, but what I do have is this likkle Alienware "Respawn" CD that came with my machine, which supposedly sets the machine back to the way it came out of the factory.
Now I was wondering if any of you had any experience with this, because I'd hate to learn it was just a C: format for people who don't know what a hard drive is, or something like that. Does it install XP? Does it effectively wipe out all the data? How long abouts does it take? I have an 80 gig 7200 RPM hard drive, if that affects anything.
Thanks in advance.
Now I was wondering if any of you had any experience with this, because I'd hate to learn it was just a C: format for people who don't know what a hard drive is, or something like that. Does it install XP? Does it effectively wipe out all the data? How long abouts does it take? I have an 80 gig 7200 RPM hard drive, if that affects anything.
Thanks in advance.
Charles Kinbote on
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Have you tried e-mailing Alienware?
Regarding what it does?
Yes. Though I suspect they may just copy/paste the relevant section of their website and send it to you.
EDIT: It sounds like a disc-based version of the recovery partitions that a lot of manufacturers put on their machines.
Well as long as it really does restore Compy 9000 to the way it was when I popped it out of the box back in October, that's exactly what I need. I'm just a little wary, because if it turned out to be a complete format or something (some manufacturers have different idea of "factory standard") I'd be OS-less.
Well, yeah, that's what I'm expecting. I just don't want it to erase everything...at all.
But that kinda confuses me, too. If it's CD, can't it only hold 600 mb? I'm very sure my compy came with more than 600mb of disc space taken.
Meh, whatever. I'm popping it in.
EDIT: Woop, nvm. A cd and a dvd. I see.
Seriously, pop it in, and it'll probaby explain what it's going to do before it does anything.
And yeah, I used to work for an Alienware-authorized service center. Simply boot from the CD and it will run through a factory restore, which will *basically* bring your machine back to exactly the way it was when you first pulled it out of the box. For a couple of models, the restore disc is actually an XP cd, in which case you may have a separate drivers/apps disc to reinstall your hardware drivers and original factory-installed applications (such as your DVD codec.)
When the OS gets corrupted this is basically the quickest way to get it back up and running, rather than registry-spelunking. Just remember to back up your data before doing any of this because it will be lost.