New to forums, please help.

Hi I just bought a used Alienware Area-51 M15x off eBay and would like to do a factory restore but the disc wasn't included.

Is it possible for me to do it without the recovery disc?

 

Why on earth would you buy that?

 

Unlike this guy let me try to help you. If the computer has a Vista key on the bottom, you can use any non-upgrade regular vista disc that matches your key's version (Home Premium, Ultimate...). If you do not have a way of getting a vista disc, such as even borrowing one, you can try pressing F8 when booting, go into the recovery menu, and look if there are any recovery tools in there.

Here are some other steps I found too that are not my steps:

1. Reboot, and press Ctrl + F11 together, at the Dell logo.
2. The Dell PC Restore by Symantec screen will come up.
3. Select "Restore" or use the Tab key to highlight it and press Enter.
4. if you wish to continue, click "Confirm", or use the Tab key to highlight it and press Enter.
5. When the utility is finished, click "Finish", or use the Tab key to highlight it and press Enter.

Lastly, look for any alienware respawn programs on the pc and see if you can find recovery options there.

 

Another option is to Google and download a copy of windows vista and burn it to a DVD or a USB stick. (Don't have a link handy cause I'm on my phone). This also isn't illegal since you have a valid product key. Its always handy to have a backup disk in case something goes wrong. Hope this helps.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 running Resurrection Remix

 

Sort of where I was going with the "even borrowing a disc" haha. ANY regular vista disc that is the correct version, and not an upgrade edition should work.

 

Yeah I was going to try that but I still wouldn't have the command center I need and that's my biggest problem. I can't find it anywhere and since I got my computer used, I can't make a Hive account to get it. I ended up ordering the disc online though so I'm good now.

 

Because it's the cheapest thing I can find to play WoW on the highest settings. I'm not a gamer except for WoW and it's not that demanding.

 

Did you try searching through this forum? Many including myself have uploaded the drivers & software that you need for your m15x over this past year.

 

Yeah I've been all over this site and just can't find the drivers for the Vista 64 version of the m15x CC.

 

The Win 7 drivers I posted should contain the command center. Vista and 7 are built on the same kernel and since the original m15x was never supported officially for Win 7, the drivers I posted are simply vista ones that worked in 7.