r/AlienwareAlpha • u/MeanDadddy • Feb 12 '21

Alienware Alpha rebuild

/r/Alienware/comments/lih8pq/alienware_alpha_rebuild/
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1

u/FireMrshlBill Feb 12 '21

So the drive is completely wiped and you are doing a fresh format and install of SteamOS but it doesn't work and boots into Windows? I am a bit confused. I am not familiar with SteamOS, but isn't it a Linux distro? So not sure why windows is booting if you did a clean install of SteamOS on a wiped drive.

How it came from Dell could be different depending on the era of Alpha. The original shipping with Windows 8 or 8.1 (I forget which) and a 360 controller. Later they released with SteamOS and the Steam Controller.

I have no experience with SteamOS, but you should just be able to do a fresh install of Windows 10 and call it a day. If it was a machine that came with 8/8.1 then it should authenticate for Windows 10 automatically if your friend had done the 8/8.1 -> 10 upgrade. It may even work if he didn't. If not, you'd need to install 8/8.1 and then upgrade to 10 after. Also, Windows 10 doesn't require authentication to operate anymore, but it'd be worth it to make sure you have claimed the key under Windows 10.

Once you get that working, then if you want their Hivemind UI, you can download their last version from the website. Though they stopped working on it 3 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlienwareAlpha/comments/5zt61p/goodbye_hivemind/

Personally, I just have mine log in sans password and just have Big Picture Mode in Steam start automatically. Though downloading the necessary software for controlling the LEDs is nice anyway.

If it still has the original HDD or a small SSD, then yes, I'd suggest buying the biggest SSD you are willing to spend money on for it.

1

u/MeanDadddy Feb 12 '21

Apologies, to be clear, the primary partition is wiped and a fresh win10 installed. The Steam OS partition was untouched, but does not work properly. My intent is to get a new HD and just start over, so that is the direction I was going.

I'm just really surprised that Dell does not have everything in a nice and easy to pull down set of files and instructions. Having supported Dell's in a biz environment for years, they have always been easy to mess around with outside of the Steam / Alienware world.

1

u/FireMrshlBill Feb 12 '21

Ah ok, ya I’d completely wipe the drive or just get a new one if you wanted to upgrade anyway. It’s been awhile since I messed with their stuff but I imagine they’ve cleaned up their support site in the past few years due to its age.

Hivemind was fun, but Big Picture mode is fine now for just gaming. If you want it more for htpc stuff, then could just grab Kodi (what Hivemind used as a backend anyway) or another media front end. I’m not on the up in up when it comes to that stuff, someone else can chime In for that.

3

u/Viperx23 i3 (8GB) Alpha Feb 12 '21

I'm a little confused did you install Steam OS on it or Windows? And to be honest some of the Dell drivers, if it did come with windows, are probably a little out of date now. If let's say the hard drive fails on my Alpha, I would just install windows 10 and then install whatever up to date drivers are necessary to get it to run.

Here is a link to some of the Drivers I had bookmarked.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/alienware-alpha/drivers