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Alpha, Factory Reset
We would be very grateful for any help as this is outside the scope of what we normally do.
The son of one of our customers has an Alienware Alpha which he has upgraded to Windows 10 and is now having some problems. Our customer has asked us to carryout a factory reset on the system which we believe came with Windows 8. While we can see that there is a factory image on the disk the required software "AlienRespawn" does not appear to on the device any longer?
Is there some other way to reset this PC back to factory while maintaining all the Alienware stuff that was originally included (looks like a Kodi skin to us).
It's out of warranty hence posting here.
Thanks
In advance
Gegg
Gegg
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July 2nd, 2018 09:00
Really appreciate your help but not to worried about reinstalling the OS its all the Alienware stuff like the fact that the system boots to kodi and you can then go to the desktop if you want.
gegg
speedstep
9 Legend
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July 2nd, 2018 09:00
Upgrading to 10 destroys the win8 recovery partition. There is no way back now.
speedstep
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July 2nd, 2018 09:00
Yes.
You need to download and Run Showkeyplus for windows 8 machine.
If it has a 7 COA you don't need to do that.
https://github.com/Superfly-Inc/ShowKeyPlus/releases/tag/ShowKeyPlus6594
You can then Download Windows 10 1803 and burn to 16 gig or larger USB flash Drive.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO
Get your Drivers
Drivers Needed are Usually Video and Audio with everything else Native to 10.
When you install you tell it "I do not have a key"
Once online you re activate. If it does not activate immediately you change the windows Key to the one from the COA or the Key in Bios that showkey plus shows you.
Gegg
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July 2nd, 2018 09:00
Thanks for the prompt response.
Is there some way we could clean install it?
Gegg
Tesla1856
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July 2nd, 2018 10:00
See this:
https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/M-2-NVMe-bootable-options/m-p/6073081/highlight/true#M3401
and this:
https://dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Need-help-factory-reinstalling-Windows-10-on-new-Alienware-R7/m-p/6065386/highlight/true#M3167
Alien-Respawn was dropped a while back.
Obviously, he want's Windows-10 on it. Do that, AW-CC (Alpha might have special version), latest Kodi and call it done?
speedstep
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July 2nd, 2018 11:00
https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=136798
Ubuntu boot to Kodi: is something entirely different from WINDOWS or Alienware Respawn. Dell does not support UBUNTU on the Alpha.
This was never the default for the Alpha.
To have Ubuntu boot to Kodi, you must either use a Kodi standalone service or autostart Kodi.
Tesla1856
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July 2nd, 2018 12:00
Not on an Alpha, but I use Kodi for Windows (on an old Intel quad-core system).
I think someone made a 3rd-Party Addin Util (Process or Service) but I just stick a copy of the Kodi shortcut in the Windows-Startup folder.
Kodi is a very nice Open-Source Media Player. I also dabble with Plex.