Clean Vista install WITH NO ACTIVATION

[Saya Lho]

Sounds like you fall into the "It feels so much faster" group of users. I've done many tests with XP and Win 98 over the years and never found this to be the case except in older systems that just suffered from too many install/uninstalls. And I am not trying to be a pain here, it's just that I have never seen this mentioned in the technical articles and discussions I have read.

Anyone have links to actual performance tests or perhaps credible sources that say this a preferred installation?

Even the OP mentioned that HP’s are remarkably clean, and I did not notice an answer to my question concerning performance tests/credible sources.
And it sure seems that we forgot some things in this process
· Download some software that may or may not work
· Purchase a USB flash drive or external disk, then install software on it
· Get a Vista Anytime Upgrade CD
· Burn recovery disks
· Burn backup dvd of c:\swsetup
· Fiddle with the partitions
· Do an “activation_restore” hoping everything was successful
· Update, by a quick count, about two dozen drivers

Hmmm . . . quicker than uninstall, deletions and a good reg cleaner?
Just not convinced, unless you’re crashing/freezing and can’t locate the cause.

With that said, I can see an advantage of a clean install, modifying & perhaps expanding the second partition in the process, installing most of the software you will use, testing for stability and then imaging your new setup to the second partition as an excellent restore point.

because norton is a good software to ruin your PC and there's no other way to clean it if you not perform a clean install . Deleting the registry won't help . It may be no proof or a credible source for what we do here , but you'll know and see the difference when norton installed in your pc.

[deputy963]

Even the OP mentioned that HP’s are remarkably clean, and I did not notice an answer to my question concerning performance tests/credible sources.
And it sure seems that we forgot some things in this process
· Download some software that may or may not work
· Purchase a USB flash drive or external disk, then install software on it
· Get a Vista Anytime Upgrade CD
· Burn recovery disks
· Burn backup dvd of c:\swsetup
· Fiddle with the partitions
· Do an “activation_restore” hoping everything was successful
· Update, by a quick count, about two dozen drivers

Hmmm . . . quicker than uninstall, deletions and a good reg cleaner?
Just not convinced, unless you’re crashing/freezing and can’t locate the cause.

simply? Yes! I've done this now with 4 HP laptops. 2 - DV6000's and 2- DV9500's. Manually removing everything takes 3hrs. Clean install takes 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Time well spent, especially if you make a drive image when you're done.

[Castello]

simply? Yes! I've done this now with 4 HP laptops. 2 - DV6000's and 2- DV9500's. Manually removing everything takes 3hrs. Clean install takes 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. Time well spent, especially if you make a drive image when you're done.

Although I question what you are doing that it would make for a 3 hour cleanup, I think you are correct, that you have the best of both worlds with a clean system and a clean image to work with, and I plan to purchase a flash drive this week and will clean install on my dv9000.

[Castello]

because norton is a good software to ruin your PC and there's no other way to clean it if you not perform a clean install . Deleting the registry won't help . It may be no proof or a credible source for what we do here , but you'll know and see the difference when norton installed in your pc.

I've uninstalled Norton many times on family and friends PC's because their license had expired and they did not want to renew. It's not hard if you know what you are doing and are willing to read. However I've also seen kiddies who just assumed they knew what they were doing botch up their systems.

[Castello]

I would like to do a clean Vista install but want to enlarge or extend the recovery partition a little bit to hold system images. Plan to burn the images to DVD's afterwards for backup purposes.

Has anyone performed this maneuver during the install, and do you have any tips? Did you encounter any problems?

[orev]

I would like to do a clean Vista install but want to enlarge or extend the recovery partition a little bit to hold system images. Plan to burn the images to DVD's afterwards for backup purposes.

Has anyone performed this maneuver during the install, and do you have any tips? Did you encounter any problems?

It depends on how you plan on holding the system images. If you are going to use ISO files, I think it's better to have only 1 big partition, then store the images on there. Use an external USB disk for backup purposes.

IMO, the concept of partitions really has no place on a home system anymore. Even on servers, the benefit is debatable. All it does is waste disk space in one place while possible not giving you enough on another.

[Castello]

It depends on how you plan on holding the system images. If you are going to use ISO files, I think it's better to have only 1 big partition, then store the images on there. Use an external USB disk for backup purposes.

IMO, the concept of partitions really has no place on a home system anymore. Even on servers, the benefit is debatable. All it does is waste disk space in one place while possible not giving you enough on another.

Costs are a factor here as I prefer not to spend more money than I already have on the notebook. I wanted to Ghost (2003) the image (split into dvd sized portions) and burn them, and then for an additional backup move them for storage onto my desktop computer via my network. My present desktop has 3 hard drives and the main hd, where all my programs and main files are located, is only using 35 gb at present so I don't think I will need huge amounts of space on the lappy.

[orev]

I'm not really sure what your question is then. Here's what I would do:

• Backup everything on the laptop
• Burn the Recovery Discs using the software installed on the system
• Test the recovery discs by doing a full recovery from them
• Do a clean install. During the clean install, delete all partitions and make 1 big one
• While that's going on, make ISO images of the recovery discs and store them on your other hard drive somewhere.

You mention ghosting an image. Can ghost save to a network drive? If so, just do that once you've got the system setup.

BTW: If you have Vista Ultimate, the Complete PC Backup seems to work pretty well for this.

[Castello]

I'm not really sure what your question is then. Here's what I would do:

• Backup everything on the laptop
• Burn the Recovery Discs using the software installed on the system
• Test the recovery discs by doing a full recovery from them
• Do a clean install. During the clean install, delete all partitions and make 1 big one
• While that's going on, make ISO images of the recovery discs and store them on your other hard drive somewhere.

You mention ghosting an image. Can ghost save to a network drive? If so, just do that once you've got the system setup.

BTW: If you have Vista Ultimate, the Complete PC Backup seems to work pretty well for this.

No my version of Ghost can't image to a network drive, and I have Vista Premium.
Since my Ghost can only image to a partition or separate hard drive, my question is "can I extend the recovery partition that is already there (during this clean install) to hold potentially larger images, and does anyone have experience with that"?
I will move the images over the network to a desktop hard drive and have an empty partition for the next image (restore point).

[orev]

OK, I guess in that case, I would shrink the vista partition, then expand the recovery partition (maybe delete it and make a new one). Run the ghost image to the 2nd partition, then once that's all done, then copy those images over the network. I found this page on extending and shrinking partitions in vista.