Some Questions on XPS m1530 Reformatting/Clean Install

Hey guys,

My notebook's been noticeably sluggish the past few months and I plan to reformat and run a clean installation on it. I'm referring to Les' Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide for the steps, but still have a few questions regarding the procedure and didn't post on the sticky since it hasn't gotten replies in the past few weeks. Hopefully, I can also get responses from XPS users who have sucessfully reformatted their systems...

Here are my questions:

1. What particular bloatware from the XPS m1530 will be removed after reformatting? I would like to know which particular software was considered "bloatware" upon receiving my XPS on factory settings. Actually, I'd want to keep most of the pre-installed programs Dell gave (like Roxio Creator, Microsoft Works, and the Dell Utilities) so if these are considered bloatware, I would want to find a way to retain them.

2. How exactly do I go about installing the AHCI driver? There is a very important portion dedicated to this on Les' guide, but I don't understand the "Download and expand it to a USB drive or disk" part. Should the AHCI driver be the only file on the USB drive? How exactly do I "expand" it? Also, how do I get it from my Drivers and Utilities disk? Or is it better to get it from the Dell Website?

3. I have two Dell Drivers and Utilities CDs; one Black One (which i think is the main one), and another Blue One (For reinstalling Dell Webcam Manager). When do I insert the Blue CD for Drivers and Utilities? Do I run that during "Dell Resource Application"? Or do I insert the Blue disc after successfully installing Vista and all the drivers?

4. I also want to retain Roxio Creator and Microsoft Works. Dell gave me installation CDs for both with my XPS purchase. Do I install those after installing Vista and all the drivers?

5. Is it better to have 2 or 3 Disk partitions on the HD? Right now I have 220GB on the OS C: and 9.99GB on the RECOVERY D: and I wish to retain those settings. Is it possible for me to do so and how?

Sorry for the many questions, as this is the first time I am running a clean installation and don't want to mess things up.

Hope to get some insightful replies and suggestions...

Thanks!

-Dave

 

Howdy,

1. I'm not entirely sure what Dell ship on their systems these days, as the first thing I do with a new system is wipe it and reinstall it from scratch. If I remember rightly though, you get stuff like Google Desktop, Anti-virus trials, and a bunch of other trialware rubbish. You shouldn't have any trouble reinstalling Works/Roxio/Dell Utilities from the various CDs you get with the system.

2. I'm pretty sure Vista has generic support for this, and your OS recovery disk should support it out the box. It's probably best to get it off the Dell website as you get the latest version. As for it being expanded, that simply means it's not in a ZIP file. And no, it doesn't have to be the only set of files on the USB drive, just as long as Windows can find it on there.

3. You use these once the OS is reinstalled to get various devices working again,

4. Yeah, these are reinstalled once you've got the OS up and running.

5. Personally, I find the recovery partition to be a waste of space and I've consolidated it in to a single partition on all my Dell machines. But yes, it's perfectly possible to keep this arrangement; you can simply format your Vista partition to wipe the stuff on it.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your reinstallation