Reformat Dell XPS 1640?

How do I go about doing this properly?

I know there is two partitions on my harddrive; one for everything (C and the other is recovery (D ..

When I use my vista disc that it came with does it automatically do it for me or do I select which partition to reformat (or reformat both partitions)?

Then what do I do with the drivers disc? install during reformat or after?

Sorry, I have never really done it before and want to know everything I need to before trying it..

Cheers.

 

That is a very good question and one I'd like an answer to as well. A couple of days ago, i did something i shouldn't have to my registry in Win7 and my laptop crapped the bed. Ultimately, everything worked out to restore the laptop and keep everything i had before but when I did the install of Win7 again, it asked me about where to install and I saw that i had not one, not two, but three partitions, one of which was recovery, the second was the OS partition (affectionately known as C and the third was a very small (about 7gb) partition but can't recall the name.

Typically, you want to specify the partition, and you CAN reformat, unless you have issues like mine and NEED what was in windows. i have done reinstalls of Vista in the past, and it doesn't hurt to reformat the partition before installing the OS as long as you have all of your personal data backed up. Of course, this also leads to the question of whether you are doing a recovery/restore or a flat out reinstall of the OS because of bloatware or anything else crazy going on with the computer. Either option is just as effective and safe, but one may keep a lot of prior installed files programs, etc. and put them into the famous Windows.old file folder on your C: drive.

A matter of preference? User opinion? I'd personally like to hear any official or unofficial statements.

 

You have several options for reinstalling Windows Vista:

1) Leave all partitions alone and reinstall Vista to the current partition.

This keeps your old files and is good for repairing the OS, but is not particularly great for viruses/bloatware.

2) Leave the non-windows partitions alone, and format the current Vista partition before installing a clean version of Windows

Use this if you want to get rid of viruses and bloatware, but if you want to keep the other partitions.

3) Delete all current partitions (if you have more than one) and create a large new one and install Vista on it.

Use this if you want to consolidate all your space in to a single partition. Personally, I prefer to have all my space in 1 partition, and to wipe out all my files each time, after backing up the stuff I want to keep on to an external hard drive. Good for freeing up space too, since it wipes out any files you were unaware of.


When doing a reinstallation, you install the OS first, and then once you have Windows up and running you install the drivers off the disc.

 

It should be noted that deletion of the Recovery partition means that you will no longer be able to restore the computer to "factory state" via Dell's restore system.

 

What I did to reinstall a clean windows vista was, reboot my xps 16 with the vista disc that it came with. Then you get 3 options 1. OEM 2. Recovery 3. System.
It also has some tabs under that says reformat. I chose to reformat my system then did a clean installation.

 

I should be able to do a clean install of Win7 onto my system (formatting C drive) while leaving the Recovery Drive intact, right?

 

Yes. Nothing will happen to the Recovery partition. I think Windows would give a warning anyway if you accidentally tried to install to it, because of low disk space.

 

Great feedback guys!

Just a question now; if it is a drivers problem and I did Dells 'Factory Restore' from the D: RECOVERY drive, would that wipe drivers back to the original once that were on my laptop? or is it better to just do a full reformat with the OS disc on C: ?

And also, when defragging it automatically Defrags D: RECOVERY drive too.. woul this have damaged that drive or am I still safe to use it?

 

I don't think I'm understanding your question fully. Are you asking if there were problems with the drivers when you reinstall, should you do the factory restore? You shouldn't run into any driver issues since it's the same OS and same hardware. If it works now, it'll work after you reformat.

Doing the factory restore puts your C: drive the way it was when you got it from Dell. All installed software and drivers will be there. There isn't really a reason to do this because all of the drivers are included on the CD, with newer versions probably available through windows update and Dell's site.

Defragging the recovery partition doesn't damage it.

I'll just add that I have reformatted my 3.5 year old Inspiron laptop a few times, for various reasons. When I reformat, I erase the OS partition (I actually deleted the recovery partition and combined it with the other one -- just my preference), and install from the OS CD. I let Windows Update run once, let it download the updates, and I'm set. I've never actually had to use the driver CD because Windows caught everything. You may have to download some extra stuff to get full functionality from your laptop, but mine is more basic than an SXPS. Don't be scared to reformat! Nothin' to it.

 

Thanks Bryan.

To clarify my question a little aswell; I meant if I was to 'Factory Restore' my laptop, would that then rollback my drivers for everything to the original versions that came shipped on the laptop?

 

FoxNZ, the Factory Restore would make it to *exactly* as you received it from the factory, preconfigured and ready to run.

But do not fear, Win 7 is exactly quite fantastic at detecting and installing the right drivers to get you up and running, something prior OSes were pretty awful with. During installation, it will not only detect your wireless card, but will let you choose to connect to a network.

Once you boot to the desktop, run windows update which will grab all the remaining drivers.

There might be one or two devices for which drivers won't be found (usually the Ricoh controller), but you can come here and ask us and we'll help you get those few.

 

Here's a dumb question...when i got my XPS 16, I got two dvds, one was the Windows Vista OS and the other was drivers and utilities, so isn't that all on the recovery partition and would it be safe to assume that deleting that partition wouldn't hurt?

 

Ah, I would like that question answered too.

 

This is correct. It would be safe to delete the partition as you have all the necessary media that is already contained in the partition.

 

I realize I am late to the game on this one, but for any future readers let me clarify a few things I learned the hard way.

First if you install the Windows OS from the CD included with Dell, you forever remove the option of doign the factory restore. Even though I dind't touch the D: Partition, by installing the OS from the CD it overites the C drive master boot sector which is what gives you the ability to access and run the Dell Restore option on the D Drive.

I like the factory option because it sets up the computer exactly like it was from the factory.

You will need to update the drivers and software, but at least you have a fully functional system to start with and you don't have to sit there and install all the software and drivers and then find the upgraded drivers

Second and this is HUGE, The dell CD's only containg the operating system and the original drivers, they do not include ANY of the software you need like the Facial Recognition, Roxio CD creator, Dell Web Cam, or DVD player. You can download the software from Dell's https://smartsource.dell.net IF YOU CAN GET IT TO WORK. I couldn't, most of the time the website won't even load up and if it does it always crashes when I try to download the software. Others have had this issue, but I am now out of warranty so I have to pay someone at Dell $60 to help load some software off of their JACKED UP website.

Hope this helps keep someone from making my mistake.