Formatting m17x r3

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19 Mar 2011
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Had my m17x for about 6 months now, and am itching to format it however i am reluctant to go ahead as am not 100% about how easy it will be ie getting the right drivers, i want to delete all dell partitions and everything else that is irrelevant to windows.

when i had my tower gaming rig i had no problems with formatting and re-installing windows, however i am nervous with this as it will be the first time i have done a laptop.

my other option i was considering buying an ssd drive and installing that, but keep the original drive to 1 side, then do a clean install on a new drive and if it goes **** up i still have the original drive to hand.
 
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Should format your life for purchasing an alienware :/

Nowt wrong with Alienware laptops dude ;)

Maybe a touch of envy going on there eh?

Well i have an M18x and its an excellent bit of kit :D


Right OT

You can get all the drivers from the dell site without issue and also there are some excellent guides out there for carrying out a clean install on the m17x r3

If you google for the notebookreview forums (sorry if this isnt allowed dons) they have an excellent Alienware subforum.

Also make sure you create the recovery media, a clean install will not have the alienware branding and such installed but a visit to the above mentioned forums will point you in the right direction to putting it all back on
 
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just done this myself 20 minutes ago
its simple, as stated service tag in then download drivers
chipset first remember though on the m17 r3 when installing the WLAN 1501 driver
you need to go to device manager and tell the wireless card to look for the driver as theres no .exe in the driver pack. finds it no probs though :)
 
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They're superbly over-priced for the components they supply you with.

&The flashy LEDs stuck in every available space are supposed to make up for that ;p


People generally only buy them with the massive discount vouchers.
 
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yeah i would agree, looking back i would maybe look for something slightly cheaper, however i cannot complain about the machine i recieved the build quality is excellent and the machine has behaved perfectly. the 7yr old starving chinese boy that put mine together done a really good job, he must have just been fed :)

now which ssd is considered the most reliable to go for? am drawn towards this one
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive
 
Associate
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Location
Edinburgh
They're superbly over-priced for the components they supply you with.

&The flashy LEDs stuck in every available space are supposed to make up for that ;p


People generally only buy them with the massive discount vouchers.

dont fancy one then? :)
I got a m17xr3 and i dont think its overpriced, Ive spent 4 times as much on my desktop plus they hold there value better. people will always buy an alienware laptop when its time to upgrade
 
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yeah i would agree, looking back i would maybe look for something slightly cheaper, however i cannot complain about the machine i recieved the build quality is excellent and the machine has behaved perfectly. the 7yr old starving chinese boy that put mine together done a really good job, he must have just been fed :)

now which ssd is considered the most reliable to go for? am drawn towards this one
Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive

Just got one of those myself for my Alienware, brilliant performance and I couldn't be happier (except with maybe a bigger drive!) If you buy the M4 they do offer it with a cloneing kit in some places, works out cheaper than buying Norton Ghost software if you're going to Ghost the O/S over to the new SSD. It's really simple to use.
 
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