25. System Restore And Recovery Is Not For Wimps

The system restore process for the Alienware Aurora M7700 is definitely not for beginners. For one thing, the process doesn't fire off automatically as promised (at least that's what we read on the label affixed to the recovery CD included with the unit). Instead, system restore involves a complete Windows XP Home reinstall "from scratch." Likewise, the drivers don't reside on the Master CD as described in the documentation. Rather, they're located on the Utility CD. During the driver installation phase, it's irritating to get no progress report on individual drivers, perhaps by way of a simple progress bar. Also irksome, the system reboots automatically after the installation of each individual driver. Finally, those who want to succeed at restoring the M7700 back to full operability better know what a disk partition is and understand that the RAID driver must be installed from a diskette.

An offsetting positive is Alienware's free support hotline, which all Aurora M7700 owners can access 24/7 for one year after purchase. With the help of the company's competent support team most installation problems can be beaten into submission. The download area also offers pleasingly fast data transfer rates in excess of 230 kB/s.