for gpu upgrade, i think you can talk to putochip123.

Hi guys. Got some question about Alienware 14
Is it normal if have multiple recovery partitions (like below)? Which partition got the actual recovery files?

seriously? that many recovery partitions?

my best guess is still the one in green based on the partition size (the rest are too small to store the recovery image)

I also confused why there are more than one recovery. Is it safe to delete the other recovery partitions (without breaking the recovery function)?

This post has been edited by faisal_smks03: Apr 17 2014, 11:57 PM

i suggest you don't do that. usually it will break the recovery (unless you already created a working recovery disk set).

sorry but i never used the recovery function or any of the recovery media before. to me it's fresh install all the way.

The laptop originally include W8 SL. I ald update to W8.1. Now I want to make system image backup (so that I can restore to W8.1 whenever got problems later on). Can I do it on 100gb external hdd?

faisal_smks03 The partitions are like this is bcos ur HDD is using GPT and it cannot be erased just from formatting the drive. It needs to be cleared using CMD instead.

If u r using AlienRespawn, then I can say nope. U cannot create an image backup using a smaller drive. The only way is to clone ur drive into another drive.

Thank you for your response.

Oh, that means both the 490mb & the 450mb can be removed by cmd commands?
Can u teach me (or provide links) how to do it?
Is it possible to move the 9.95gb recovery partition in before the drive C: (without breaking the recovery function)?

Just google how to remove GPT partitions.

As for moving ur current data, I did mention about cloning ur drive right?

all the above can be done if you are familiar with the windows recovery stuff (diskpart, dism, recimg, wbadmin, etc.). it's a long process. what you want to achieve is to reorganize your hdd partitions at the same time you wanna make recovery partition to work after that (which is unlikely because moving stuff at that level definitely will break things; and you need to reassign the pointer to the correct recovery partition)

do you really wanna go through all these, with your stock drive? other ways like cloning will make your life much more easier. (but again, recovery partition might not run properly unless you fix the pointer to it)

by the way it's supposed to be super easy to create a system image backup in w8.1. (google is really your friend) fire up windows powershell as administrator and run

wbAdmin start backup -backupTarget:<target.drive.letter>: -include:C: -allCritical -quiet

where you replace the <target.drive.letter> with your backup drive letter.

Noted, I'll keep that in mind. thanks bro

Cool, Do i have to change anything else if i were to upgrade my graphic cards?

read this.

should solve most of your FAQs.

now, time its my time to save up money and buy a M17x R4 for research and gaming purposes.

This post has been edited by raymondtong94: Apr 18 2014, 11:57 AM

notes: i have tested the command line i mentioned above to create system image backup for my OS drive only, and it works well for me. (maybe it's because of my simple drive setup)

my laptop has 4 physical ssd drives: OS drive, apps drive, data drive, and then games drive. the OS drive contains only OS and everything that make it work (e.g. latest drivers), plus junctions that link to other folders in other drives (apps and data drives).

before i did the system image backup, i upgraded the whole OS, drivers, and apps in it, cleaned up (disk cleanup, system optimization, etc.), then issued trim command via disk optimization, and finally rebooted the system.

i formatted my games drive (after backup), and used the command to generate the system image backup consisting of c: only and saved it into that newly formatted drive. it backed up the OS partition, and relevant EFI system partitions also (i.e. everything in the OS drive).

finally i used windows install usb to format and restore the drive. (choose repair at the windows installation dialog)

everything i need is restored properly (in a few minutes only).

one caveat of this system image backup is that it will restore everything (including partition tables) if you chose to reformat via the restore dialog. so a better way to use it is to plan and create your partition layouts first, install windows freshly, install everything else, clean up and optimize the system, and finally create the system image backup.

this way you have created yourself a recovery option with everything in it that can be restored in a few minutes

In the end, I decided to do clean install after messing all the partitions real bad
For others, I strongly suggest not to touch the partitions if you don't want to lose the recovery functions

oh. well, it's a good thing to have a clean install you know.. you can set the system the way you want.

you can always call dell to help if you really need that recovery thing. (however everything will come back, including those partitions)

Ald call Dell rep a few hours ago, they say can still recover from factory image, but need to create USB from another exact model of AW (that has fully working of Alienware Respawn). At this stage, I ald pasrah...

Btw, how do I know that SSD cache is working after clean install? It is configured automatically? Coz I cannot see it in the Device Manager

you must install intel rapid storage app in order to check it out.

I always choose to clean install! No headache, no wasting time. Just get the Alienware Initial Driver Installation correctly! Can refer here for this --> Pre-drivers install orders for AW

By the way this is just my suggestion. Every person has a different view.

haha yeah clean install is more straight forward, with minimal efforts to trouble shoot this and that.

the list of driver orders is a nice find normally i just start with intel drivers, gpu, sound, and network. to me intel chipset driver should always be the first, and motion sensor is always the last (apparently it is not the the case based on that guide lol!). still, everything works fine.