Respawn Kit and AlienAutopsy - Worth Purchasing?

System Restore doesn't always work, so it's likely at some time you'll need to either reformat and do clean installs of windows, or use the respawn disc.

I myself used a program called image drive to make my own. Norton Ghost will work also, but these programs are expensive.

As for AlienAutopsy, I've never purchased it with any of my AW systems. I've seen on AW's forums where it's worked out for some, allowing Alienware to diagnose and resolve issues over the phone fairly easily.

hammerhead-

can you use image drive to make a bootable recovery disk? I tried using ghost, but it didn't work right. I'm looking for something that'll let me get rid of that floppy with the sata drivers on it. I tried slipstreaming them into the xp install disk, but that didn't work either.

I use Norton Ghost. never had a problem with it. ladron, when you created your image, did you also let the program check the image to verify it was a good image. Its a good step that shouldnt be skipped.

AlienRespawn. I would definately get the Alienware factory image of your system. as time goes on and new drivers come out it might seem like an obsolete image but its faster than doing a full Windows restoration with a dated Windows recovery disc. and all you need to do is update your drivers and do a Windows update. System Restore is a life saver but it can only go back so far.

AlienAutopsy. If Alienware offers the warranty bundle that includes this then its a great deal. If your system has to go in for repair, this program will give a tech more info about your machine. and if you call in for support, a tech will have access to your systems error information. It doesnt protect your system from bad things, it collects information about the bad things and reports this info to your systems account at Alienware. If you can put the money on a better component, like a vid card, then thats what I would do.

I've had problems with two machines that had Autopsy installed. I'd get weird errors and the system would hang alot. Removing Autopsy cleared up both systems. Personally I'd skip Autopsy and get the Respawn only.

aurora-

I tried to image my C; drive. I got the image, went to do the reinstall, and a password box blocked me at the "log in to windows" screen and I couldn't get past it.
my problem is the respwn cd is .gho and the new versions of ghost save an image as .v21. If I could somehow get a ghost version to save an image as .gho, my problems would be solved. Assuming I could iamge the main hard drive while it's running.
Basically, I just hate having to have a floppy drive on hand in case I need to do a reinstall.

I use PowerQuest Disk Image.

I've used my Respawn, glad I bought it. The way I figured it, I just spent a couple thousand on a high end laptop, what's another 35$?

I'm not sure, I'll have to check. I believe you can. It lets you burn an image to cd, but I'm not sure if it's bootable.

I keep the image of my windows partition on another hard drive, so I haven't tried the cd route.

I have tried to rewrite from the image on my second drive through windows (it says you can) but half way through I get a message that tells me to use the rescue disc to rewrite the volume. I made a set of floppies that it prompted me to make when I first used the program. It boots to a wizard that walks you through the process of rewriting the disk. So if you're trying to eliminate the floppies, the way I do it won't be helpful.

I have a 10G partition on my main drive for windows, the remaining partition I use for programs, I change the directory while installing to D, then I can rebuild windows without having to reload all my games and such. Then I have a second physical drive that I use for storage and back ups. I keep the image of just the windows partition on the second drive.

The first time I used it, I did a clean install of windows, got the latest drivers for everything, and updated windows fully. Then I burned the image. Then when I need to fresh install, I install that image, and update the drivers and windows, and burn an updated image. I routinely format and reinstall my windows drive about every six months. Keeps the machine running very fast all the time.

I don't have the program on this machine, so I'll have to check and get back to you...

I'd double check on that if you want it. It's available for download, but you need to get a key from AW to enable it I believe. They may not give that to you later unless you bought the program when ordering.

Me too. Works very well with Raid 0 and you can create a bootable disk as well.

I tend to make a new image whenever updating any major drivers; for example the ATI .11 drivers weren't too good for some reason so I simply reinstalled the image I'd made before installing them. Takes about 20 mins but you know your system is back to exactly the state before you started screwing with it - uninstall / roll back can leave odd things sometimes.

I'm not sure what Autopsy does but the Respawn CD is highly recommended if you are a casual computer user.

I created an image for one of my desktop PCs after I installed Windows, Office, Photoshop and it's really wonderful that I can just have my PC go back to that snappy, pristine state without much work.

see, that's exactly what I've been trying to do. Ideally, just throw on a (cd) boot disk, then an image disk, and be back to a system with everything installed and configured as I like. No floppy disk, no reinstalling everything one at a time, etc. I didn't care when I had a desktop, I would reinstall that thing weekly almost. But I REALLY hate having to use a floppy drive on my laptop. PITA.

Looks like I will have to check out disk image.

What you need then is Disk Image like you say. You can have images of whatever state you want. From what I gather respawn puts it back to factory settings - not a lot more use than reinstalling windows afresh IMHO, just you get to add in video and sound drivers as well.

If you want flexibility to reinstate the system to your specs, use disk imaging software.