Re: Fresh Install went Wonderfully
- From: "woody" <woody@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 7 May 2006 07:32:49 -0300
What DVD software are you planning to use in place of Sonic? You will not
be able to burn DVD's or use DLA for drag and drop to your DVD multidrive
without approriate software.
Dell diagnostics can be accessed from your Dell utilities CD if you need to
run it.
Woody
"journey" <rainbow@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1u7r525e5a9gek62a3l874299dnmmfk0n2@xxxxxxxxxx
I did a fresh install on my 630m tonight. It was a piece of cake. My
system is lean and mean and it feels SO GOOD to be rid of Dell
bloatware, even that which remained after uninstalls.
Dell makes doing a clean refresh so easy. For any beginners out there
I will list my general approach. Disclaimer: I make no guarantee
that these instructions are good or complete so use at your own risk,
and there are probably better ways to do what I did.
1. Got current system info. by checking various areas (Control Panel
| System | Hardware), initial invoice, etc. I wrote this in a Word
document on another computer.
2. If you have another computer you don't need to download much in
advance. If you don't, then you need at least enough to get your
Internet connection working so you can download additional drivers.
3. Of course you are going to be wiping out your main partition so do
any backups of important data. The hardest thing of my reinstall was
backing up my AOL filing cabinet. I am in the process of replacing my
AOL and Charter e-mail addresses with Gmail ones so I can be ISP
provider-independent.
4. Boot from CD. You may need to change your boot order in the Bios
in order to do this.
5. Chose the main partition to install Windows on. I was able to
install a different OS on my 630m than what it came with (an upgrade
-- if anyone remembers that I said I had Windows MCE on my laptop, I
was actually looking at a remote session from my 630m that had MCE
which is why I thought that; my 630m actually had Windows Home). I
did a complete format, not a quick one.
Note: at this point more sophisticated users may create different
partitions, e.g. one containing only the OS. Also, some may wipe out
the factory-restore partition. I decided to keep it so that when I
sell my system on Ebay in a few years (after bugs have been worked out
of Vista and if there is really a reason to upgrade) I will be able to
restor to factory condition easily.
6. Used the Drivers and Utilities software CD as a guide and to
double check drivers. I didn't install from that though, it was a
double-check. I got all drivers from the Dell support site for my
Service Tag.
Another advantage of doing a fresh install is to get more current
drivers. At least 3 out of 4 drivers were newer than what came with
my system. Dell probably has to test a "driver build" ensuring that
all the drivers work together, something I didn't have to do. I also
got an upgraded Bios.
Now I plan on doing fresh install on my other laptop.
Total time was about 3 hours, with maybe an hour on that getting my
AOL mail from one computer to another.
I didn't install:
- Cyberlink Dell MediaDirect
- Dell MediaDirect Repair Utility
- Sonic Solutions DLA 5.x
- Sonic Solutions Record Now 7 Dual Layer
- Dell 32-bit diagnostics
I don't know if Cyberlink Dell MediaDirect works with Windows MCE or
in place of it. I don't intend to use MCE on this laptop or use it
for watching DVD's or using the DVD +/- RW so I thought maybe I'd save
some processes by not installing the above, especially the DLA stuff.
If I need the diagnostics I know where to find it.
I was surprised that I didn't have to download and install a driver
for my DVD RW: NEC DVD+-RW ND-6650A.
I have far fewer processes running on the laptop now than before, but
I haven't installed Avast or AVG anti-virus, Zone Alarm, or a Spyware
program yet.
Because I have other computers to rely on, I am going to:
- Look at all currently running processes on this laptop and get to
know them by doing a Google search and finding a good site where I can
look them up. I might do a screen print showing the current processes
now or if I get really motivated create a simple Access database to
record details -- I will probably do that because I can modify it over
time to increase what it can record.
- Go back to the thread in which I asked about ways to image my
system for restore, decide on a method, do an image, and then do a
restore so I know it is working. If it doesn't work then this is the
best point at which I can start over.
- Do some Google searches to determine if it would be advantageous to
partition my system to have the OS on one partition or some other
scheme. I don't think I will end up doing that but this is the time
to find out.
- Pay more attention to the freeware anti-virus / firewall / spyware
removal alternatives, such as AVG vs Avast.
I won't take up this newsgroup with questions about how to do any of
that, but if people want to respond in this thread any pointers are
certainly welcome.
Because I have another laptop I can take my time with this one and use
it as a learning tool.
So, for any of you newbies with a taste for adventure, you can have a
much cleaner machine if you do a fresh install, and get updated
drivers.
Journey
.
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