3 Posts
0
1978
May 19th, 2022 14:00
X17 R2, reinstall, SupportAssist cannot reinstall
Brand new X17 R2. I'm swapping out factory RAM and storage for (verified compatible) 3rd party kit.
I have downloaded the Automated Support image and written to a 32Gb USB key with SupportAssist, Win 11 Pro, and supposedly all of the drivers needed to get started with an OS reinstall.
SA runs fine. It detects the RAM and both drives. All looks good. System test is 100% good for everything.
It wants a network connection, which is odd as I have supposedly downloaded a full ISO image, but ok whatever. Network confirms it can reach internet.
After I confirm I don't want to back anything up (brand new drive, empty and unformatted) it starts "Downloading Recovery Contents". (Why? Didn't I do that already when I downloaded the Automated Recovery ISO? But ok whatever.)
It dies instantly at 0.20%. No details, just "Download verification was unsuccessful. Please restart the download process."
- Why is it trying to download anything?
- How can it fail instantly, it's less than a second?
- What did I download as part of the SA image to the USB if not the Win 11 Pro image?
I chatted with Support who told me that SA is not meant for actual installation of Windows. Um. Why does the Support site tell me to use it to reinstall the OS then?
That's OK, I also have a full Win 11 Pro ISO on another USB. That boots just fine. But then hits a bottleneck early on when it says it doesn't have necessary drivers. No kidding! This is why I used the Automated Recovery ISO with SA because it said it would inject all the required drivers.
So... what do I need to put a factory image on brand new unformatted storage?
If SA - why is it dying instantly and what should I be doing instead to make it work?
If not SA - that's OK, I can do a manual reinstall... but what drivers do I need to be able to have the Windows install complete to the point where I can start manually installing other drivers?
If I have to, I can put the old drive back in, clone it or take some backup, swap the new drive in, and restore from that backup, but that seems remarkably slow and dumb especially when Dell have a tool that is supposed to be able to reinstall the factory image.
What am I doing wrong?
_JoeW_
3 Posts
0
May 20th, 2022 03:00
I seem to have solved my own problem.
Step one (essential): ignore the Dell-supplied tools, they don't work.
Step two (essential): flip the SATA Operation setting in BIOS until I find one that works.
Step three (high recommended): Manually download the Dell drivers, choose extract operation rather than install (on another machine), then copy all those folders onto the standard Win 11 ISO image on USB.
Step four (essential): Manually (re)install OS using OS-supplied tools.
This has got me moving again.
crimsom
9 Technologist
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6.1K Posts
0
May 19th, 2022 17:00
Hi @_JoeW_ welcome to this free user to user Alienware laptop discussion forum. This is not Dell Support.
My Alienware 17 R5 also has a problem trying to install SupportAssist and I have started conversation on SupportAssist for PCs - Dell Community
Which version of SupportAssist is having problem installing on your Alienware x17 R2?
Please click on @DELL-Cares to send Private Message requesting assistance.
_JoeW_
3 Posts
0
May 19th, 2022 23:00
I am having a conversation in parallel with Support, which has not yet reached the stage of them reading from the correct decision tree. I understand the Community isn't Support - my expectations are higher here since Support have to know something about everything, while my hope is that Community members of an Alienware community know quite a lot about Alienware.
This isn't an obscure scenario - presumably many of you have done an OS reinstall and have some tips. I'm hoping for something like "Oh the automated recovery image never works, don't bother, here's what you need to use instead", or "If like many Alienware owners you are a tinkerer with some skills, you're better off attempting a manual OS reinstall in which case you'll need to have these drivers on hand to be able to complete it - BTW do you know about the NLite tool where you can inject drivers, add service packs, and prune the ISO, i.e. exactly like what the Automated Recovery image claims to do for you? Inject these drivers: [list]".
I'm not sure this is really an issue of SA failing to install as I'm not trying to install it. I'm trying to use it to reinstall OS on a brand new unformatted drive. It's whatever version is produced by the Dell OS Recovery Tool v2.3.7012/Build 7012. Note that the image placed on my USB passed all validations by the Dell OS Recovery Tool, and was good enough to boot to, run tests, and launch the OS Recovery at boot time.
Support's response so far has been "the file(s) produced must have been corrupt" but cannot give me anything to try other than irrelevant backup/restore scenarios. I mean yes I could swap back in the factory drive, produce some kind of backup image, restore from that backup image, but the disk won't be the correct size and that can't always be increased in a tidy way.
So maybe I'm not asking the correct question. How have people here implemented the common task of OS reinstall on a brand new drive?