Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

[crash]

Thanks to Les and all others for sharing this "How To". I just did a fresh install after waiting 12 months. My Dell was nearly unusable yesterday as I was too afraid to try this earlier. I know f/all about computers and my 1520 is now running great. Thanks again.
Regards Mick.

Glad to here everything worked out Mick!

And welcome to the forums.

[placek]

Yes buzz you are absoutely correct. The Recovery drive restores the comp back to Dell's orriginal state, which contains all the bloatware on it. I'm not really sure myself why people want to make a copy of that, I even say that in one of my posts a few pages ago, but to each his own. If you trying to get rid bloatware and recover disk space, i say forget about the recovery partition all together and start fresh and clean.

Monk Buzz
The only argument for backing up the whole system is to keep it for the future - when i sell the laptop. Than someone may ask for orginal configuration (ex. because ho wants to have everyting as in the beggining).
The other reason is that after celaning system i want to install my own Vista in Polish language which i've already cleaned with vlite.
Going this way i have one system extra (this delivered with Dell which is on my backup).

[Monk]

hey brother, to each his own. I'm not here to pursuade one way or the other, i'm only here to help people get to where they want to, and to help answer questions. Obviously you know what you want to do, so i say do it, and i'll help you any way i can. Good luck, we are all here for you if you run into any problems.

[placek]

Thanks
Without this forum and all helpfull posts i wouldn't manage to have so much fun from my XPS !

[buzz_cii]

I want to remove bloatware on my Inspiron Desktop 530. Do I follow these same instructions???

If not, what do i do different?

Thanks!

Buzz

[Monk]

I want to remove bloatware on my Inspiron Desktop 530. Do I follow these same instructions???

If not, what do i do different?

Thanks!

Buzz

if your reformatting your 530, and it uses Vista, then yes all steps are the same except that i dont think the 530 uses MD, so skip that, insert Vista and follow directions.

If you use XP or anything else with your 530, let me know, i'll give you those steps. Its been a while sense i did an XP reformatt, but hey...its like riding a bike

[robbesser]

Les,

I know this might be in here somewhere in this thread but it's a total monster now

What is the procedure for reinstalling Dell datasafe? Do you do anything before you reformat?

Thanks

[buzz_cii]

Removed bloat successful on new Inspiron 530 Desktop.

Notes:
1. ILO AHCI, I Changed single HDD to RAID in Setup before re-install of Vista. I did this because I could not find info/drivers for AHCI. Not sure if HDD is faster but all is working. I read this tip on Dell Forum.

2. Vista Home Premium had partition, format, and delete tools at install. This was nice.

Question: I have an older 250gb/7200rpm/8M/PATA 3 1/2" internal from my Dimension 4600. I thought I could install on the new 530, but no-go because connections are not the same. What is the best way for me to get the data off the old drive?

Working on vista tweaks.

Thanks.

[Monk]

Removed bloat successful on new Inspiron 530 Desktop.

Notes:
1. ILO AHCI, I Changed single HDD to RAID in Setup before re-install of Vista. I did this because I could not find info/drivers for AHCI. Not sure if HDD is faster but all is working. I read this tip on Dell Forum.

2. Vista Home Premium had partition, format, and delete tools at install. This was nice.

Question: I have an older 250gb/7200rpm/8M/PATA 3 1/2" internal from my Dimension 4600. I thought I could install on the new 530, but no-go because connections are not the same. What is the best way for me to get the data off the old drive?

Working on vista tweaks.

Thanks.

What I personally do with my old drives is search online and find a 2.5 external case, with power supply. Slap that internal HD into an external HD case, retrieve the wanted info off it, and you now have a 250gig external HD to store info on take with you...or maybe even just back-up (with acronis) your new Studio to it. Enjoy

[Monk]

Les,

I know this might be in here somewhere in this thread but it's a total monster now

What is the procedure for reinstalling Dell datasafe? Do you do anything before you reformat?

Thanks

You have to first activate datsafe. Once you activate it, they will give you a name and password, just use that after the reinstall when it asks you for that info. The key here is ACTIVATE everything before the reformat, or it will be hell trying to get dell to give you the keys again. This includes McAfee, Lowjack for laptops, etc.