Factory restoring an M11x: How?

I made a backup when I bought it but it shouldn't be needed if there is still a 15GB recovery partition on my drive. How am I supposed to launch a factory restore/recovery from the recovery partition? I see no OEM software utility and no option on the POST screen.

No, I haven't lost my backup but I do want to know what the heck that 15GB is there for if there is no way to use it.

 

Start menu -> All Programs -> AlienRespawn.

Cheers.

 

I don't have that. It's kind of annoying that they would waste so much space and not even include the software. All I uninstalled was the online backup software that Dell preinstalled which kept interfering with switchable graphics. Well, later I uninstalled the face sensor thing that got worse and worse at recognizing me until it simply didn't work at all and the remote Alienware/Dell tech uninstalled my HDD drop sensor driver thinking that it would fix my "freezes when bumped" problem.

I think it's possible that the early M11xR1 notebooks sold at Best Buy didn't have the software for licensing reasons (same reasons you can't DL it).

 

You can do it when you launch Windows Startup Repair. It's Dell DataSafe Recovery and it works.

 

Yep. I stumbled across that last night. Thanks though! How could I have known that they had customized Microsoft's own system recovery tools? I mean, there was no mention of it when I made a system image using Microsoft's imaging tools and I already know that it was where you go to restore Microsoft's images if you could not boot the system. Also, I gave the recovery partition a drive letter and the Restore from an Image option within Windows did not recognize the image on the recovery partition, so there was no reason to suspect that Microsoft's utility was the place to go for Dell's restoration software. Unlike Microsoft's utility, I can't do it from within Windows on a functional machine. Why they'd limit their utility's functions to a method that's really only meant for unbootable systems, I can't understand. And it's not just their lack of Windows-environment software or referenced to the existence of a recovery mode tool that confuses me: I also wonder why they didn't just have a custom boot loader or hotkey during BIOS/POST like they have in the past, especially considering how their software is tacked on and functionally redundant with no reason to expect it to be there.

 

Instead of using the buggy dell software, i would use windows 7 backup on an external harddisk.

 

I recently received an M11x r3 and noted that Alien Respwan, now included, was just a re-skinned "Dell Data Safe" application (what it was called on my r1). I bought my r1 the first day it was available at retail in SoCal so I probably have an earlier software load than most r1 users.

Since this thread I used the Recovery Mode portion of Dell's custom restore software a few times and it works well. It makes me wonder why the Windows software didn't just work like the software that I've seen on Acer PCs and delete itself after making the initial backup. I guess I know the answer to that: so that they can sell you the "Premium" version.