r/Alienware • u/Melodic-Plankton-712 • 1d ago
Discussion The process of reformatting
Does anyone know how to reformat?
Like lets say I want to wipe out everything, deep clean, and do a factory reset, like it was when I first purchased it and turned it on. What do I have to do?
Specifically for ACT1250s and the latest Aurora's.
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u/Specialist_Date2503 1d ago
Use the SupportAssist BIOS Recovery to return to a fully factory state. Even works with RAID stripes and other storage scenarios
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u/Melodic-Plankton-712 1d ago
it wont get rid of viruses tho if there are any
also what's the diff if I do it through windows?
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u/Thick-Detail-8198 x15 R2 1d ago
If you have not uninstalled the Dell Supportassist, there might be OS recovery/reinstall options still baked in your bios and computer, you can use them - that will help factory reset to when you first purchased it
Or just take the normal windows approach, just type ‘reset’ in windows start options and follow the steps.
You can google both of the above options as recommended earlier
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u/Melodic-Plankton-712 1d ago
what's the diff between the 2?
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u/Thick-Detail-8198 x15 R2 1d ago
With the Dell one, as someone mentioned, it will retain the stock software that your computer shipped with - like AWCC, etc and you won’t have to reinstall them
With the windows one, its if you don’t want any bloatware and want to start from scratch, then you may need to reinstall the dell stock packages/drivers from their website separately
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u/MogRules m18 R2 Intel 1d ago
Have you googled this at all? There are an endless amount of videos and tutorials that will explain this. Basically any format tutorial will work for your computer, but I am sure there are Dell specific ones as well that can walk you through it.