The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.

Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

AW M11xR1 and Win7 custom DVD with purchase.

Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by DrGoodvibes, Oct 4, 2014.

DrGoodvibes Notebook Deity

Reputations:

389

Messages:

973

Likes Received:

1

Trophy Points:

31

I trashed my M11xR1 Win7 OS as I got to 'smart'(yer right) for my own good attempting to change partitions.

So I've rebuilt my M11xR1.

BUT is it the case you'll NOT be able to create an unattended install using the custom AW Win7 restore DVD that comes with the Notebook?
I note there is no repair component on the DVD and the install seems very much as if it's installing Win7 on 'rails'.

I wanted to move Users and ProgramData onto another partition and thus the unattended install.
This then provides the most robust build as the secondary drive links are pre-built at install time.

Is an unattended build out of scope when using the in-purchase custom AW Win7 restore DVD?
Answer: No, it is possible.

Thanks for any advice

Update

Got a full Win7 64-bit Professional iso and using that was able to create a successful unattend.xml.
I was then able to use the same unattend.xml with the Alienware Win7 64-bit restore DVD and create a successful build.

Oddly, even using Win7 AIK I still had problems creating a successful unattend.xml.

Anyway, the upshot is that I now have both D:\Users and D:\ProgramData which dedicates the C:\ drive to the system only.

I also have a few extra partitions on my 500GB HDD and will see how far I can go with Windows 10.

DrGoodvibes, Oct 4, 2014

#1
Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

Reputations:

3,658

Messages:

6,874

Likes Received:

969

Trophy Points:

281

DrGoodvibes said: ↑

I trashed my M11xR1 Win7 OS as I got to 'smart'(yer right) for my own good attempting to change partitions.

So I've rebuilt my M11xR1.

BUT is it the case you'll NOT be able to create an unattended install using the custom AW Win7 restore DVD that comes with the Notebook?
I note there is no repair component on the DVD and the install seems very much as if it's installing Win7 on 'rails'.

I wanted to move Users and ProgramData onto another partition and thus the unattended install.
This then provides the most robust build as the secondary drive links are pre-built at install time.

Is an unattended build out of scope when using the in-purchase custom AW Win7 restore DVD?
Answer: No, it is possible.

Thanks for any advice

Update

Got a full Win7 64-bit Professional iso and using that was able to create a successful unattend.xml.
I was then able to use the same unattend.xml with the Alienware Win7 64-bit restore DVD and create a successful build.

Oddly, even using Win7 AIK I still had problems creating a successful unattend.xml.

Anyway, the upshot is that I now have both D:\Users and D:\ProgramData which dedicates the C:\ drive to the system only.

I also have a few extra partitions on my 500GB HDD and will see how far I can go with Windows 10.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your findings. +1Rep.

Alienware-L_Porras, Oct 6, 2014

#2