M1530 Clean Install

Hi guys!

I’m thinking of doing a clean install on my M1530, and im just trying to decide which options to go for, and which not to.

I will be installing Vista Ultimate. I mainly use the computer for internet surfing, watching films, using Microsoft office, and gaming (Fallout 3, Call of Duty 4 etc.).

The main things I am trying to decide are:

1. Should I install Mediadirect?
   As far as I can see the only advantage of this is getting slightly more (can anyone confirm how much?) battery life whilst watching films on the go. I mainly watch films whilst connected to power, but this could be useful in the future.
   
2. 32 or 64 bit??
   I have previously been running 32 bit, but would be more than happy to jump on the 64 bit bandwagon, as I have heard that it’s slightly snappier, and also my 4 gigs of ram would be put to full use. Would there be any compatibility issues with any of my games etc? Would appreciate some info on this. It could lead on to...
   
3. Dual-boot?
   Could have vista 32 and 64 dual booted? Or another thing that took my fancy was perhaps throwing on opensuse? I’m going to open a new thread regarding the battery life etc that this would give to try and decide if its for me, but any input would be much appreciated.

So i think thats basically it!

Looking forward to your responses, I always learn something new on here with every post

 

Hey there!

Clean installs...fun!

Have you seen Les' guide at all???

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

It's very helpful when doing a clean install!

I removed MDirect, in Jan. last year, because it was causing conflicts and such on my 1530.


Cin

 

well, you can dual boot 32-bit Vista AND windows 7 x64....

though windows 7 is on beta and will expire in august... its really good

 

I just went to 64 bit after using 32 bit vista for a while. I originally was using 64 bit a year ago but had some compatibility issues. Everything is working great now but I don't see any performance increase. That extra 512mb of ram that 64 bit sees hasn't really done much!

 

Yeah! Looked at this when i first got the lappy almost a year ago now, just installed Vista and Mediadirect as per Dell supplied though... looking into these other options now, thanks for the advice!

Could be an idea... I was thinking about this the other day. Only thing is, I was hoping to just get the OS and main programs etc. installed, and make an image of this disc incase I needed to clean install later.

It would have been nice to install windows 7, but I dont have that much time for tinkering really.

 

les's guide is excellent. i think we all probably used it.

lol, guess it depends on what you're doing?

 

NP! However you choose to do it, it will work out just fine, I'm sure!

Cin

 

Just went through the same decision process: ended up just installing Vista 64, no media direct and no dual boot (mostly becuse the 7Beta install was a problem for me, see other post).

I find the 1530 runs more stable on Vista 64, somewhat cooler and the clean install has meant an improvement all round -- just wish I hav done it sooner but when I first got the laptop I didn't really undersand why a clean install made sense.

Don't miss meida direct at all as it didn't work very well in the first place and I remapped my media button as per one of the other posts here -- much improved.

 

1 - Entirely up to you. I find media Direct to be useless, but YMMV. Plus it takes up a partition, and you can only have 4 primary partitions per disk. Depending on how you like your drive set up, MD can get in the way.

2 - Absolutely 64-bit, unless there's something specific that you need to run is unsupported. I know awhile back some VPN clients had trouble with 64-bit, but perhaps that's no longer an issue. Even notebooks from Best Buy are coming with 64-bit. If the grannies shopping there are getting 64-bit, you should too.

3 - See 2. If you really need 32-bit for something important, then just go that way. Otherwise install 64-bit only. Dual-booting Vista and Vista would be nuts. As others have suggested, if you want to dual-boot with something, dual boot Win 7 x64, and Vista x64 (or x86 if you need it).

Have fun.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I went ahead and installed 64 Bit Vista along with MediaDirect, and now I’ve pretty much got everything up and running all is well, just a few extra programs to install here and there!

I figured that I might as well install MediaDirect, as although I will not use it every day it may be useful on a train etc. And it using up an extra partition will not really bother me.

One thing I did notice though...

I use Internet Explorer 8 as my web browser, and if I press the windows orb and search for internet, I get 3 results:

1. Internet Explorer
2. Internet Explorer (64 Bit)
3. Internet Explorer (No Add-Ons)

Just wondering will internet explorer run in 64 bit mode whichever option I choose? As far as I could see the shortcut was linking to the same target...

 

Hi,

I want to do a clean install but I am not sure which way to go:
I found a thread called "clean install vista without activation" and one called "Dell vista laptop reformat and bloatware removal"

It seems the 2nd is easiest but does it do a clean istall like the other thread (1st ) is meant to?

 

just got a m1530 2 weeks ago, Dell vista laptop reformat and bloatware removal worked for me, but i had the vista 64 bit service pac 1 version supplyed by dell. have the new bios A12 on my machine, used media derect do the formating if you just want one partion and no media derect use another program it lowest option #1 leaves you with three partitions I have a 47 meg partition with image of my original dell set up left by dell, media derect left a 3 gig partion for it's self and then a c drive partition. tryed doing the flash dive step installing the achi driver but that locked up my install so, had to start over, just loaded vista with out that step worked like champ Either the new bios or vista 64 service pack 1 corrected installing driver problem, [note if xp 32 was installed on your machine check bios before installing vista make sure achi is turned on] using dell vista cd did not even have to inter product code. after installing you need to up grade all the drivers I used this web page

http://www.xps-wiki.com/wiki/M1730_Vista_Drivers

down loaded all the drivers for 64 bit then put them on flash drive after i was done installing them no pipe signs in device manager, used nividia latest driver not dells, to get the fingerprint reader to work you also need to down load the 64 bit program and install having the drive just eliminates the pipe sign

machine rocks now even installed win 7 64 dual boot , but got tired of the selection screen and remembering what os had what program on it any driver not found in win 7 you can us vista 64 if you wantto take that os for a spin

 

The second option is a clean install (with MediaDirect).