Alienware 17 R3 Windows 10 Factory Recovery USB - How?

Thank you for the reply.

I read that this is just a Windows 10 image and does not include any of the Alienware drivers/settings specific to my system.

I have started the download but it notes it will take ~20 hours to download the 6 GB , so wish me luck.

:-(

Well it took a day to download and this is what I get when I try to copy across the iso as per

www.dell.com/.../SLN299044

"Invalid MS-DOS function." bootsect.exe.mui

Any suggestions?

Hi AEFZulu,

I have a new AW15R2 with Windows 10 Pro pre-installed that I received on 12/23.  When I first turned it on, I noticed in the start menu that there was a Create USB system image.  Did you see that in your start up menu?

All you'll need is a 30GB USB drive and create the system image yourself.

You can make a backup image of your system using Windows or with a 3rd party program like Macrium Reflect. That way you'll have a pristine copy in case of catastrophic failure.

ACE,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I did note the "creat USB recovery" option. Unfortunately I only have a 16 GB USB, so I couldn't get it to work with the system files, only the stand alone Windows 10 files. Dell have taken pity upon me and are sourcing one of their Dell USB recovery images for my system, so hopefully I should be sorted now. Thank you.

Here is a screenshot that may help you out.

Go to your Start Menu

-> All Apps

->  Windows System

-> Create USB Recovery

The Dell USB recovery is nothing more than a stock copy of Windows without any ALienware drivers. It won't even create the restore partition that comes with your system by default!

I've created a backup image with Clonezilla. Clonezilla allows the user to create a backup outside Windows (just boot from a USB stick with Clonezilla) and I created my first image before WIndows was started for the first time. Clonezilla is free software.

To the OP.... you are correct. There are literally hundreds of posts on the Windows forums describing the failure to create USB recovery disk that INCLUDES the system files. I have he same problem. It is my understanding that the partitions are created at factory automatically with each new system regardless of the well known fact that alienrespawn does NOT work with win 10. That being said, I was told that a newer version of alienrespawn should be available by end of jan. However, even though this should allow for you to recover that factory partition created by Dell, this does little good for someone if they have a total C drive failure. That is the reason the Win 10 USB recovery drive WITH system files is so important. I too have a recovery drive with the utilities but was unable to create one with system files no matter what drive or how many times i have attempted. At least they are looking into finding your personal systems recovery drive. I have talked to 3 different reps who refuse to send my something like that. I have a backed up image of my most current system on an external HDD as well. Unfortunately, at this time, i have no way of accessing it in the event that i have a total drive failure.      Thanks MS, Thanks Dell.

This is the way I create backups (complete images) with all the drivers:

1) Create USB Recovery disk without the system files on a USB stick (8Gb is sufficient)

2) In Windows 10: Create System Image on an external USB drive

You can always boot your system from the USB stick created in (a) and restore the disk (2). It even restores the partition format.

Other solution is to use a USB Stick with Clonezilla (free software). Clonezilla enables you to create images from outside Windows.

Hey, atlast I found a person who did a backup image before windows started.

Would you be kind enough to upload it on an FTP site so that anyone who wants the factory image can use it?

P.S. - I destroyed every partition that came with the laptop and now I'm stuck with vanilla Windows from MS media creation tool. Would be helpful if I can factory restore my laptop using your backup image

Thank you

I can, but I guess it is of no use for you. Alienware desktops/notebooks are delivered in Europe with Windows 10 Home ONLY with the language of their country. So, because I live in the Netherlands, I have a Dutch Windows 10 Home version delivered with my Alienware. It is not multi-language.   Furthermore, in Europe we have some other hardware I think. The Killer network card is not available here. Alienware uses the Intel WiFi card for their systems here.   But Clonezilla is the way to go if you want to create a backup BEFORE Windows is started the 1st. time.

Hey YNNOZ,

I found a person in my locality who has AW 15 R2 (It has same configuration as mine - GTX 970M, i7-6700hq and 256GB SSD). He offered me to have a clone of his System.

So, would you please guide me as to what all I require to clone his system? I have 1TB external HDD, 32GB pen drive. So, how can I make use of this and clone his SSD using clonezilla?

Thanks

Hi guys

Did Dell solve offers a solution to this problem?