I wouldn't bet on it. Might be true. Might not.
If nothing else, you should be able to download a legit Windows ISO, burn it, and install. But that would leave you without any special wonderfulness that Alienware may have included.
As Seavixen says, maybe you should contact your school IT dept and hope they don't snicker at you.
Also might want to check the BIOS to make sure the HD is still set to use AHCI rather than IDE.
How do I get to diskpart? And the disks are- m17x r4 resource dvd, dell webcam resource media, cyberlink power dvd, and windows 7 HP service pack 1. How do I access the recovery partition?
I still think you should spill the beans and hope your school IT Amin will get you out of trouble.
However, if you are adamant you want to get into Diskpart you need either Windows 7 DVD or a Windows 7 repair disc and a read through this tutorial.
DISKPART : At PC Startup
Last edited by seavixen32; 25 May 2012 at 15:11. Reason: spelling correction
Okay thanks. And fyi, I'm now running the alienware ePSA preboot system assessment (diagnostics) to see if everythings fine internallt
Okay thanks, and fyi I'm running the alienware preboot diagnostics to see if everythings ok inside
You obviously didn't wipe your HD if after install it came up with multiple boot selections of previous Win7 installations and attempts. The correct way to wipe your HD is to boot the DVD, press Shift + F10 at first screen, then type in Diskpart Clean Command.
Then follow these steps exactly to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7.
If you have a Professional license key, you could have simply inputted it into Anytime Upgrade and would have had the extra features unlocked in minutes. Too bad you didn't ask until it was too late. Windows Anytime Upgrade - How to - Windows 7 Forums
But now you'll be getting a superior Clean Reinstall anyway, and if you follow the steps in the blue link above for getting and maintaining the install it will be perfect.
Thank you so much gregrocker, ill try that now. Will report back on progress
Hmm, when I did the diskpart clean command into the terminal box thing, it came up DiskPart was unable to process the parameters. Use 'diskpart /?' For more information. Wwhat do I do now?
Make sure you are doing this exactly:
Boot from Windows disk
Hit shift F10 at the language screen
Type diskpart at the prompt that appears
then enter these commands, in order
list disk, which should return a list of disks in your PC, probably "disc 0".
select disk 0, if that is what list disk returned.
clean
Clean should then clean the disk of ALL partitions and info. IF that is what you want to do.
I'm not sure I'd do it rather than contact your IT department. The clean command should enable you to install from your Alienware Home Premium disk, but you won't have a recovery partition or any special software Alienware may have included. The clean command will wipe that out.
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