Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

[Les]

Im going to fix this up in a day or two...in the thread.

[Pudsey]

I just thought that even a link to the relevant page might be helpful, It's a very daunting problem that is so easily fixed.

I found the answer on page 109 in one of les's posts, i read to abut page 20 last night before i attempted this, i didn't think this would apply to me, so i basically ignored it...silly mistake.

Anyway, it's a great guide once i got past that little hiccup, i now have a nice clean(er) windows vista running on my laptop and i am very grateful.

[beanboy89]

Hello,

I just got an Inspiron 1525, and it came with MediaDirect 3.5 software. Since the first thing I do on pretty much all new computers I get is reformat to remove the bloat, I'd like to do it with the 1525. This has probably been asked a bunch of times already, but do I need a Vista DVD to do this?

The system came with an operating system DVD. It says "Already installed on your computer" "reinstallation DVD" "Windows Vista Home Premium 32BIT". Is this just a stock Vista Home Premium OEM DVD?

[Les]

Yes thats the disk...

[beanboy89]

Thanks Les. So when I boot off the Media Direct disc, and get to the partition options, I want Vista on the C:\ partition, then I want all my documents on the D:\ partition. Would it advisable to go with option 2 and say allocate 30 GB for Vista, then the remaining space would go to my documents, etc.?

edit: I got the partitioning sorted out and installed Vista. I got Media Direct installed, then I installed most of the drivers from the Driver DVD. There were a few drivers not installed, but after stopping by the Device Manager, I got the graphics adapter driver installed (currently running Aero without any problems), but while in the device manager, I got a BSOD. I'm not sure what it was from. A check in the Event Logs didn't seem to tell me anything about it.

[darthsat]

Beanboy, if the last driver you installed prior to the BSOD was the video drivers...it may be due to a driver issue from that. If you get another BSOD, then try to install a variant of the Nvidia driver.

[stjric (m1530)]

I have just followed the guide on my new m1530 and it worked a dream - nice one les!

Gonna do it again tho cos i installed Comodo firewall and it keeps coming up with bugs and won't let me install anything!

When I do it this time... I got a few games (COD4 and Crysis) and will prob get more in time. Also got a fair few mp3's and vids. Would it be best to put all these on the same one big Vista partition (ie option 1 when choosing the partitions) or:

- Games on same partition with Vista and mp3's separate?; or
- Vista on it's own, games with mp3's on separate partition?

which would help run Vista and games the smoothest?

And what about all other progs (firewall, anti vir, MS Office, etc.) with Vista or with MP3's, or no diff?

If I'm going to separate them out, what would be the optimal size for the partitions?

I got the 320GB HDD (so no issues with space), 4GB RAM, and the 256MB 8600M nNvida card.

(By the by: was going to use the free version of Zone Alarm instead of Comodo. What do you guys reckon works most flexibly for online gaming and surfing? and is it worth getting the full commercial ZA Pro?)

[Les]

POST FIXED!!!! I have now completed the AHCI process right in the thread. Apologies for not having done this originally.

stjric:

The free version of AVG from www.download.com is a great free antivirus which updates almost daily, uses little resources and is very user friendly.

As for thepartitions, with a HD that size I would move it to two partitions leaving my OS on one and everything on the other...just a personal pref.

4Gb Ram...Go x64!!!

As for running Vista the smoothest...check out my tweaking thread below.

[bding93]

I have finally mustered the courage and installed the 'anytime upgrade' to Ultimate disc, doing a "non-destructive" clean install. After alot of driver searches and installs, a few restarts, etc...it seems to work well. I did not go the full distance and undo the restore partition...yet. I may do it again and see how that goes.

I have a question. Since I did not do a true clean install (or did I?), where did my Dell Media Direct go? It is not in the programs list, and the button does nothing when pressed, except light up shortly. Have I screwed up something? I hope I do not have to start over. If I put in the MediaDirect disk, it says all settings will be lost. Is that wiping the whole harddrive, or just the MediaDirect part? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Randy / Painthouse

[Les]

This is the give and take of doing it by just deleting and reinstalln the OS and not the entire drive.

For mediaDirect to work, you must start the new installation with the mediadirect disk and then complete the reinstallation once Vista is installed.

You have, in turn, deleted the required mediadirect information from the C: drive.

You could install the disk ad run DellKit and hopr for the best but many have not had success this way.