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No respawn CD, Alienware M5500I R3

post #1 of 7
4/28/12 at 3:06pm
Thread Starter 

I just bought this laptop from a friend. I have always been able to just boot recovery from the menu when the computer restarts. I guess with the Alienware laptops, this is not the case. My friend bought this laptop from his previous friend, and I haven't asked - so he may have the disk, but he's over 1 1/2 hours away, and I doubt he has it.

 

Is there any way to get the computer back to 'original factory settings'? I don't know what things these last two people have put on the computer, and I just want a fresh restart.

 

I tried booting from Gparted, but I don't really know whats going on with that, I have a 100MB partition, which I am assuming is the recovery partition - but Gparted informs me that it's already booting from the 100MB partition.

 

Not too sure what to do here... can anyone give any advice?

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post #2 of 7
4/28/12 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by redwall View Post

I just bought this laptop from a friend. I have always been able to just boot recovery from the menu when the computer restarts. I guess with the Alienware laptops, this is not the case. My friend bought this laptop from his previous friend, and I haven't asked - so he may have the disk, but he's over 1 1/2 hours away, and I doubt he has it.

Is there any way to get the computer back to 'original factory settings'? I don't know what things these last two people have put on the computer, and I just want a fresh restart.

I tried booting from Gparted, but I don't really know whats going on with that, I have a 100MB partition, which I am assuming is the recovery partition - but Gparted informs me that it's already booting from the 100MB partition.

Not too sure what to do here... can anyone give any advice?

Grab an OS installation disk that matches your COA key at the bottom, set things up and try picking up drivers and apps from Dell-Alienware support site

cheers ...
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post #3 of 7
4/28/12 at 3:23pm
Thread Starter 

 

Quote:
Grab an OS installation disk that matches your COA key at the bottom, set things up and try picking up drivers and apps from Dell-Alienware support site

cheers ..

You mean just re-install windows?

 

How would I go about getting an installation disk that matches my COA key?

 

Thanks a bunch for the quick reply.

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post #4 of 7
4/28/12 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by redwall View Post


You mean just re-install windows?

How would I go about getting an installation disk that matches my COA key?

Thanks a bunch for the quick reply.

Yep.

Borrow it from a friend/relative, or search on the net - plenty of legitimate download sites for "Windows Installation ISO" files. Download and then burn it to a disk

cheers ...
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post #5 of 7
5/2/12 at 6:23pm
Thread Starter 

THANK YOU! After getting some DVDs and burning the iso to the disk, I have now reinstalled windows 7.

 

There's only one problem. I'm trying to load the drivers from the alienware website... they're only compatible with windows xp.

 

I guess xp was originally installed on the machine.

 

I couldn't find any isos for xp, so I'm assuming there aren't any?

 

Do you have any advice for me?


Again, thank you very much.

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post #6 of 7
5/2/12 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by redwall View Post

THANK YOU! After getting some DVDs and burning the iso to the disk, I have now reinstalled windows 7.

There's only one problem. I'm trying to load the drivers from the alienware website... they're only compatible with windows xp.

I guess xp was originally installed on the machine.

I couldn't find any isos for xp, so I'm assuming there aren't any?

Do you have any advice for me?


Again, thank you very much.

Do you happen to have a list of all the devices (audio, wireless, LAN ...)? You might have to hunt each of them individually for Windows 7 (or Vista) compatible drivers on the net.

You could also try running Windows 7 updates and let Microsoft picking up the appropriate driver for your devices

cheers ...
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post #7 of 7
11/18/12 at 2:02am

yeah, i think so, You could also try running Windows 7 updates and let Microsoft picking up the appropriate driver for your devices  mellow.gif

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