Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

Dear Pirx,

When I say "Restore" or "auto restore" I meant Restore points or images that are created when you are about make chages or install software or drives! By default the "Auto restore" for OS drive i.e. C: (most often) is enabled. is this clear or you want me to simplify this further?!

I did not erase the drives! or I did not restore the system just because I did have anything else to do! The tech support guys remotely accessed my system and they themselves were convinced that restore was only option. FYI.. I had tried changing the group policy (gpedit.msc), also tried "control userpassword2" option and even checked the registry entries relevant to this problem and nothing helped. I was aware that this was a GROUP POLICY Problem but nothing helped.I DID NOT "WIPE" the system intentionally. I was left with no other option but to restore it and to restore it afresh.

Also, the reason why is restore the system is beause the system was not able to detect any image in the Recovery partition. What I would like to know is that is a "factory default restoration image" available by default or should it be ordered separately? let say I did not order the "factory default restoration image", will they then create a seperate recovery partition anyways? Mine had a recovery partition and a recovery folder as well but with nothing inside it.

Can I get the system replaced, with a proper recovery partition and "factory default restoration image"? within a span 30 days from purchase? Kindly elaborate more on this.

I am sorry for the confusion and the very brief explaination that I provided could have been the culprit for the misunderstanding.

I hope I was more "CLEAR" this time..!

Regards

K09

 

Ah, you mean System Restore. Note that this does not create any images, and it will only save certain changes, at certain times. And, yes, by default, System Restore is enabled for all images that Dell ships with their computers. If this was indeed disabled, then somebody/something must have disabled it. A virus is not out of the question in a case like this.

Sure you did. The drives did not erase themselves. The point is moot, of course, now...

Ugh, the tech support guy... Well, in my and many others' experience, tech support personnel is not typically all that knowledgeable, least of all when you are dealing with consumer tech support. In that case, the "tech support guy"'s opinion is worth just about nothing. Just FYI...

I still doubt that this was the only option, but again, that point is moot now.

As Mike has told you already, there never was a functional recovery partition, and there is no option to get one.

You can return your current system, and then re-order a new one, but as I said, you cannot get it with a "restoration image". However, you can make your own image, either using Windows 7's built-in backup program, or using third-party software, such as Acronis TrueImage. When I get a new system, the first thing I do is boot it from a USB stick that has Acronis on it, and copy an image of the entire hard drive to an external drive. This way I can always go back to the exact factory image Dell shipped the system with.

 

My M4500 has now been delayed until the end of July. I can't wait that long. What's a comparable laptop from another manufacturer?

I'm really sad because I liked the M4500 a lot.

 

Mine, ordered today, is also scheduled to ship on July 26. Ship!

BTW, I got a 620m instead of 820qm for fear of overheating.

Also, how does the 9-cell battery protruding from the back fit into the e-plus docking station?

 

The docking station has a "filler" that slides in and out to adjust to either the 6 or 9 cell battery.
Seems hokey at first but it works fine.

I don't like the button arrangement though, the older D series docks seemed sturdier.

-Mike

 

Hi people,

After spending the better part of the afternoon sifting through this entire thread, i can only say 'thank you' to all the people that have contributed so fat. Very informative en welcome advise.

There was one question i wasn't able to get a difinitive asnwer on:

Could somebody explain to me short and clear wich steps i could best take when:
- I order a m4500 from dell with only a 500gb 7200rpm HDD installed.
- subsequently i buy and install my own SSD (for example an Intel g2. dells options are too expensive).
- Subsequently want to use the SSD as my primary disk (Win7/adobe Creative suite) and the Dell 500GB HDD as secondary data storage disk?

It Maybe a lot to ask, but installing my own SSD sounds pretty daunting to me on my brand new m4500 without proper advise

Many many many thanks in advance!

p.s. Like the quote above mentions, is there any special plug or tray or adapter needed when adding your own SSD without specifying this to Dell?

 

Why does the m4500 weigh so much more than the latitude e6510 if they are basically the same except for the graphics card? Dell lists the starting weight of the m4500 as 6 lbs and the e6510 as 5.6 lbs.

 

Be careful here. There is only one HDD bay on the M4500, unless you go the route of trying to put a second in where the DVD drive normally lives. If you order the dual drive configuration from Dell with a 64 Gb SSD and a 500 Gb HDD the SSD you get is a Samsung 64Gb Mini PCIE SSD. This does NOT fit in the normal HDD bay, it goes inside where the WWAN minicard would go. On mine, the spot was labelled "SSD".

I know this because we actually bought M4500's with only the 500 Gb drive and separately got Dell to sell us the 64 Gb SSD's because they wouldn't sell us a dual drive system with XP. Don't ask. It's a long and gruesome story.

In the end we switched to Win 7 anyway, installing it on the 64 Gb SSD and then turning the 500 Gb HDD into a "D" data drive, and moved User directories over there.

Works great!

Now, if I could only get changing from IRRT to AHCI to work. So far everything I have read to try hasn't worked.

-Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your reaction.
So what kind of proporties/specs does my self-bought SSD (non Dell/samsung) has to have to be able to fit in the WWAN/SSD minicard Slot?

The other question still remains:
- is there any special plug or tray or adapter needed when adding your own SSD after you bought a '1 spinning HDD-only' configuration from Dell?

Thanks in advance

 

I as well would very much like to have an answer to mottie's first question! Can those Mini PCI-E SSD cards be bought from another manufacturer and still work with the M4500?

Thanks!