Dell :: Inspiron Clean Vista Reinstall
Jun 8, 2009I have been told that Dell laptops have a hidden partition to do a factory re install of the OS.
View 3 RepliesI have been told that Dell laptops have a hidden partition to do a factory re install of the OS.
View 3 RepliesI have replaced the hard drives with new blank ones, but I cannot now reinstall Vista from the Reinstallation DVD because no drives are seen.
I have updated the BIOS to the latest available version, but still no joy.
I have taken out the drives and, using an external HDD port, can access them from another PC, so I'm certain there's no issues with the drives themselves.
I've tried Paragon 2010 Suite, but even that cannot "see" the drives, so I'm deducing that it's an issue peculiar to this Dell model.
I want to do a clean Vista install on the above notebook, and if the time comes, restore the setup (OS) to the default config with minimal effort. Read a lot of threads on how to do this, but just need some help/advice on the following.
Currently the HDD partitioned as:
110MB (EISA Config), FAT16 Pri
10GB, RECOVERY (D:), NTFS Pri
136GB, OS (C:), NTFS Pri Act
2.5GB MEDIADIRECT, FAT32
Discs supplied with laptop: Vista Reinstall DVD, Dell Drivers & Utilities, Roxio, Dell MediaDirect
What I want is to do a clean Vista install to the OS (C:) partition (formatting it), but still keep the other partitions in case I have to resell my notebook. My main concern is not being able to restore the factory image back to C .....
Background:
A few days ago i bought an Acer 7730 laptop with Windows Vista pre-installed and no disks. After initial hesitation i have decided to keep vista and not downgrade to XP. After all there will be more service packs and tweaking should speed it up lots anyway.
However, i really want to get rid of the three partitions on the hard drive. There is only one physical hard drive but there are three partitions; a hidden 10GB one (EISA configuration) which from what i have gathered is now obsolete, a C: partition 111.44GB and a D: partition 111.44GB. There is no need to split a drive into several partitions now that we have the NTFS file system (unless you are using multiple operating systems of course - but i am not) so this is really annoying me.
I have made the 2 recovery DVD and the 1 applications/drivers DVD. I have an old WinXP disk that i can use to format the laptop if required.
Question:
Using the recovery disks (which i'm assuming contain a copy of my bought OEM Vista that was pre-installed on the laptop), can i delete the partitions, format the hard drive and install Vista onto a single c: partition?
I've done this exact process before with WinXP hundreds of times but i'm not sure whether i can do the same for Vista with just the 3 DVD mentioned...
I am reading the various threads about how to go about performing a Windows 7 clean install.
I see and understand the requirements to load the Sony 'platform' drivers to get the various custom hardware working.
but what about reinstalling the original applications? Particularly some of the custom VAIO apps .....
Today I will get my XPS M1730 (warranty replacement for my Gen2). I'll get it with Vista Home Premium 32bit and I have a few questions.
1. Is the installation by dell "bloated" with unnecessary stuff?
2. If it is, I plan to reinstall Vista with a retail Ultimate DVD my friend has bought. Can I use the serial on the backside of my computer for this installation to get a clean Home Premium installation?
3. Will I need to activate afterwards, like call MS or something...........
I just got a 1730 and if i use the operating system disk that came with it it locks up on the part of the install that says "completing installation" and If I try using a copy of vista ultimate that I have it will install and the first time i reboot the computer I get a quick flash of a BSOD then it restarts and keeps doing it.
View 14 Replies View RelatedCan I use the reinstall CD that came with Precision M6400 to install on other systems ? Non- M6400, and perhaps non-dell ?
Can I use the same CD to install on multiple systems ?
My wife has an HP DV6000 with Vista on it from the factory. We have talked about reinstalling Vista to get rid of all the other "junk" to put it nicely. I mentioned this to my brother-in-law and he said we don't want to reinstall Vista because HP puts so much on there to help users. If we reinstall Vista are we going to loose out on something HP gave us?
View 5 Replies View RelatedWindows XP/Vista Reinstall Guide for Dell 17" Laptops
Specifically made for the XPS M1710
Also works for the Inspiron 9400/E1705, 1720, XPS M1730, Precision M90 and M6300, see *NOTE* below
Guide Version 1.20 (Last Updated: 5-20-2008)
I've gotten probably about 15-20 requests on a guide with the drivers I personally use for my XPS M1710 for reinstalling Windows, since I have both an XP-dedicated M1710 and a Vista-dedicated M1710. So... I finally got around to posting it for everyone to see, and it includes some things that some people don't know about... It was originally going to be just what drivers to use, but instead, I morphed it into a full reinstall guide, as there are some things in here alot of people don't know about.
I'm splitting this guide into two parts. The first being for Windows XP, and the second being for Windows Vista. Both are similar in ways, but its better to do it in 2 different sections, to avoid any confusion. I'm not posting a guide for Windows x64, as I unfortunately do not have a copy of it in either XP or Vista form, and most people on the forums don't use it, so this guide is sticking to the 32-Bit versions of the respective OSes.
*NOTE*Inspiron 9400/E1705 - Exchange the Gigabit Ethernet drivers outlined below for the Broadcom 10/100 drivers on the Dell Downloads site for the Inspiron 9400/E1705.
Inspiron 1720 - Exchange the Gigabit Ethernet drivers outlined below for the Broadcom 10/100 drivers on the Dell Downloads site for the Inspiron 1720. Also, exchange the Modem drivers for the one specifically for your laptop. If you have a Webcam, add that software in as the last "driver" installed before moving to the next step.
XPS M1730 - Exchange the Modem drivers for those specifically for the XPS M1730. If you have a Webcam, add that software, along with the "Logitech GamePanel" software, in as the last "driver" installed before moving to the next step.
Precision M90 - Procedure should be the same as that for the XPS M1710, including all drivers.
Precision M6300 - Exchange the Modem drivers for those specifically for the Precision M6300, and also add in the fingerprint reader software (if wanted/needed) as the last "driver" installed before moving to the next step
For the newer (Inspiron 1720, XPS M1730, Precision M6300) model laptops, you MUST DISABLE AHCI (change the setting from AHCI --> ATA) in the BIOS in order to proceed with installation of the Operating System without issues, otherwise the installation WILL FAIL......................
You know how with Win98 there was a floppy to startup the computer to reinstall the win98 disc.... My new laptop did not come with a start up disc... how is this done? I have no original disc... can this be ordered thru Acer or do I have to purchase a disc from Microsoft?
View 8 Replies View RelatedCould someone help, when i press f8 at boot, it doesnt have the option to reinstall OS.
View 3 Replies View RelatedI am trying to fix my dads notebook, its been running very slow lately and I want to format and reinstall Vista for him, however has most of you may know, it's really hard to find notebook drivers (well in my case it is), so does anyone know where I can find drivers for me dads 5634WLMi?
I have tryed Acer's website but they are either for 5630 or 5680/90, or can I use the 5630 drivers on this?
how to i reinstall vista to new hard drive?
View 7 Replies View RelatedI managed to create a Recovery Disc last night using the hard drive from the 6820s in an external caddy and accessed the Recovery CD creator that way.
But now I'm having a problem trying to reinstall Windows Vista as when I accessed the section concerning the complete format and reinstallation of Windows Vista; I got the following message:
Error 0x400 100130000 1002
If this issue continues, please contact HP Support.
how I can fix the problem that this message is referring to?
My XPS 1530 became very slow and everytime I would click on a window I got the round symbal and the screen would go white. After many reboots I saved everything of importance to an external drive and pulled out the Vista original start up disc. So I did that but for some reason only the blue tooth light comes on and the light to the left of it does not.
I click on internet and it says nothing is found. I get confused with add a network - I don't want a network I want to get back on my wireless.
I am typing from my 4 year old HP with XP and I never have these problems and it was dead easy to get onto the internet - just type in the password and I'm on.
I have had 98SE for 8 years and XP for 4 and in 4 months with Vista I can safely say that it does nothing any better than 98SE or XP did and it crashes freezes and bugs the hell out of me far more than the others combined.
Is there anyway I can load my XP start up discs for my HP onto the Dell - honestly I really want to be able to do this. Otherwise I'm going to sell the XPS 1530 - and buy a bloody Apple.
My laptop (studio 1537) in running very slowly - so i need to either reinstall vista or do a factory image restore - I don't have any disks. if i do a factoryy restore will dell utilities be reinstalled automatically? if not where do i get them from?
How do I reinstall vista, and does this wipe personal files?
When i bought my laptop it have windows 8 but i disliked it and have many bugs on my games so i installed windows 7
and complete delete everything in my harddisk. I couldn't find product keys anyway packet , laptop etc.
My laptop is pavilion g6 2255eo
I have acer aspire 6930g lapotop came with preinstalled windows vista ..my problem is this preinstalled windows vista now has to much troubles and I want to reinstall to get red of all these troubles and I heard that I can reinstall it using ((factory default)) DVDs which I made by acer eRecovery program when I bought this laptop but I must tell you that when I bought this laptop ,its hard disk came with only 3 partitions so I used its windows vista tools to create 2 new partitions and now I has 5 partitions so If I used ((factory default )) DVDs to reinstall windows vista ,AM I going to loose new 2 partitons I created and all data in them?
View 6 Replies View RelatedMy laptop is a hp dv6000 with 32 bit vista home premium preinstalled from the store. I never upgraded a laptop before so I don't know what to expect. Are all vista preinstalled systems already activated and do they use the OEM key or the product key on the bottom of the laptop? Recently my original hard drive failed and had no other choice expect to upgrade to a new one. My laptop came with the windows anytime upgrade disc so I used that to clean install vista home premium. Would the user recovery discs work instead on a new empty hard drive? When it asks for the product key the first time, I entered it in using the key on the bottom of the laptop. After everything was complete it said "3 days until automatic activation" and had the OEM key listed, not the one on the bottom of the laptop. I reactivate again using the sticker on the bottom on the laptop and it said "windows is activated", but it still had the OEM key listed. Did I enter the right key both times? Would there be any difference using the OEM key instead? Now about the recovery discs, if the "swsetup" folder was deleted before creating the discs will it still be on the disc even though it's suppose to be a factory image? Will I get the recovery partition and quick play if I reinstall again?
View 3 Replies View RelatedI currently installed Ubuntu and it was good but It drained my battery so I decided to take it off. After that my computer started to act weird. The Media Direct partition appeared in next to my OS and Recovery partitions. When i would press the MD button, I would get a blue screen and eventually every time I press the button It just turns on my computer. When I try to turn it back on after putting it on hibernate, it states that windows did not turn off right and it restarts windows. I have decided to a clean reinstall of Vista and MD but I have a few questions. I found this tutorial on how to do it on the internet but i found that i have to completely delete all the partitions including the recovery partition. I was wondering if there is a way to do this without having to delete that partition?
View 10 Replies View RelatedI just received my 64 bit cd from dell today and am pretty anxious to get it up and running.
Just checking in to see if there are any important things to note before I start.
I decided to hold off on upgrading to Windows 7 on my Studio 1555 but I wanted to perform a clean install of Vista. So I popped in the Vista installation disc that came with the computer, partitioned the hard drive, and installed Vista. Now it is up and running but with a few problems. The problems are; (1)the ethernet controller is not recognized, (2)the intergrated camera is not recognized (when I open Webcam Central is says "Please plug in a supported webcam), and (3) the displays that used to show up when using the brightness and volume function keys no longer appears. I installed all of the drivers on the drivers and utilities disc that came with the computer but these problems are still there.
View 10 Replies View RelatedI just got a studio 1737 and want to do a clean Vista 64 Home premium install.
I was going to follow Les's guide in the main dell forum but it seems media direct 4.0 will not allow me to boot from the cd.
So I want to boot from Vista and reformat and install the OS.
Which route should I take for my new SXPS 16 - Clean install Vista from scratch along with all the drivers and programs I want or just uninstall the stuff that I don't want?
View 10 Replies View RelatedI have a Japanese VGN-Z90NS, and after getting it back from Japan for a minor repair, decided to put Vista Ultimate x64 on there to take advantage of my entire amount of memory.
Some may have seen this thread:
Sony Z HD install and 64bit upgrade problems
On at least the older Vaio Z series (the Z90, Z5xx in the USA, etc.), I have confirmed that the EFI thing is an issue if you try to install a slipstreamed SP1. I happen to have a genuine Vista Ultimate x64 install disc that is RTM, and it installed just fine with no EFI issues.
To get the 64-bit original Sony drivers, download them here or here.
Once you download all of the Sony drivers, download Universal extractor from here, and run it against all of the EXEs you downloaded to strip the model check.
To get the Intel 4500 graphics driver, download it here
NOTE: My Z does not have the built-in camera or fingerprint security, so you'll have to figure that out on your own. Somehow my notebook no longer has bluetooth after being fixed (looking into that ...), so that isn't in this list either. I do have one device that I can't find a driver for, and I bet it's bluetooth since everything else is fine. I'll update if I sort it all out.
Install Process that works:
1. Vista x64
2. Vista x64 service pack (if needed)
3. Intel chipset driver - reboot required
4. Intel Matrix Storage Manager (I have the RAIDed SSDs and definitely need this) - reboot required.......................
I have a HP Dv2700 Cto Notebook with the following specifications
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1 Ghz,
3 GB RAM,
250Gb Harddisk,
GeForce 8400 Graphics Card
OS - Windows Vista Home Premium
I had followed the Steps in notebookreview.com for "Clean install of Windows Vista" and installed Vista on my Laptop 6 months back and it worked perfectly fine.
Last week, i started facing issues with Vista and the system would automatically Hibernate.
The screen would go blank automatically even while its been used.
So, i decided to clean install Vista again.
I ran the Vista setup CD and using the Vista partition utility, formatted the Primary Parition c: (i have 3 paritions).
I started the setup and after copying 66% of the files. The system automatically shut itself down.
I Had to re-start the setup.
When i restarted the setup, the setup doesnt even start copying files. it shuts down during the initializing setup screen............
I was looking for a DV5T-1000 thread as I just ordered this laptop and want to install a fresh copy of either Vista 64-bit or Vista-32 bit, I don't care although the laptop came with 4 Gig and I know to see all 4, I need 64.
Either way, I found an older thread for XP drivers and I also know it depends on what hardware you system has, so unless someone can point me to a thread, I'm looking for the LATEST drivers and to make sure I am not missing any.
I will probably have a guy from work help me since I'm not the techiest but I'll need to tell him what to do :P (we're good at that, right? :P)
Here is what mine is coming with and I tried to assemble my best guess at drivers. The HP site helps a bit but many drivers seem older and I'm not sure I need all of them of course.
I just got one of these the other day and in order to remove all the bloatware, update to SP1 and more, I went and installed a clean Vista, even backing and rhacked by pcaestoring the activation (as the thread about using ABR says).
After this, I download every single driver from the HP support page and went through installing them (of couse, the latest version of each and even other bloatware such as help files, wireless assistant, etc.). The thing is that, after everything was installed, I was still having a "yellow unknow device" in the device manager. After much thinking, I guessed that what was missing were the QuickLaunch buttons, because none of the QuickPlay buttons in the keyboard work, neither the "eject" button for the optical drive. But that QuickLaunch wasn't listed in HP drivers. All there was is a Quick Launch Security Update, but not the actual drivers!
After much searching without hope, I tried one last thing: to let windows install those drivers by searching in Windows Update. Amazingly it worked and they were installed as, efectively, the Quick Launch Buttons! But the problem is that those still don't work! The volume mute, slider, treble and bass work (but make no sound when touched, even though they are activated in the Control Panel - Quick Touch), but the QuickPlay, DVD, TV and Eject still don't work!
Also note that before even trying to use Windows Update, I went and installed every single driver (again, not drivers that were outdated to the ones in HP support and I already installed) in the SwSetup folder: still no luck. For what I read in a thread, there should be (?) a QLB folder that would have the Quick Launch Buttons? Well... I didn't had it...................
I'm thinking about purchasing windows 7, do i need a clean install of windows vista to upgrade? and also do i need to get all the drivers ect like in the clean install of vista if i wish to upgrade? i have a vaio vgn-fw21L
View 3 Replies View Related