Where to start with a new G73JW?

This might be a lot to ask for, but I would appreciate if someone took the time to answer a couple questions regarding what should be done once you start up your brand new G73JW. I'm not only doing this for myself, but others that might also have the same questions. Anyways I'll get straight to the point.

First of all, regarding the hard drives and system recovery disks:

Should we delete the second partition and create one big partition before or after creating a system recovery disk?

Also, how should one proceed about creating a system recovery disk? Should we use a CD, DVD?

Secondly, regarding the drivers:

What are the recommend audio drivers? I heard people had a lot of problems from not hearing any bass from the speakers to getting random popping noises. What should we be using to get the best out of the speakers?

What are the recommend video drivers? This is pretty much self explanatory. Should we use the latest drivers or perhaps a previous version would be more suitable?

Also, is there any other suggestions in terms of other drivers?

Third, regarding the programs or "bloatware" included with the notebook:

What programs should be left on and what programs should be uninstalled?



And that's basically all for now.

If you have any other suggestions for the new G73 owners it would be greatly appreciated if you left them here.

Thank you.

EDIT: Just realized this was in the wrong section, sorry. If a mod could move this that would be great.

 

i used dvd for the recovery disks and did one big partition

audio driver problems were on the g73jh, and havent had any issues on the jw

video drivers recomended are the 260.99 or whatever the latest from the nvidia site were, but you have to mod them to work with the jw, which was pretty painless. i cant find the thread that tells you how to do it but hopefully someone should be able too.

theres also a handy bloatware guide to asus notebooks around here somewhere. basically, when you pop your asus drivers in you should be able to determine whats for you and whats. MOST of it is NOT for you most likley hahaha. you can do without any of the asus bloatware pretty well, just a few things left in were the ones that didnt make any of the buttons like the overclocking or screen color changes. turbogear and splendid?

watch out for random shut downs, mine randomly decides to shut down. sometimes it can be on all day and night with no problems, but sometimes itll just decide to shut down. usually while im gone but recently it did it after like 10 minutes of being on.