Clean install: Is it just me?

It seems most of the forum user problems typically start after a so-called "clean install".

Rather then reformat, I took MarkMcK's advice and deleted the junkware without suffering any problems. The 1st to go was Mcafee AV, then Norton Ghost and then the rest. Once I deleted those, I downloaded and ran PC Optimizer which deleted about 200 register entries, NOD32, Adaware, and Spybot.

Knock on wood, I haven't had a single problem and everything's been running fast and smooth.

 

Sweet. I plan on doing that when I recieve my laptop. Where did you download PC Optimizer? Thanks.

Justin.

 

I did not clean install also, removed the junk stuff, then optimized it with one of the forum thread here to eliminate unnecessary processes. Ran Ccleaner to take care orphaned files. so far works great. My e1705 boots up in 26 secs~28 about from moment I push power

 

No matter how many programs you use to clean up the HDD without formatting, a format will always make everything much quicker and you'll be sure all the crapware is gone.

 

Not only does a reformat remove EVERYTHING, you get to delete that crap restore partition, which wastes 5 gigs. Most of the "problems" are related to people downloading the wrong drivers/using the dell cds. If you use the driver website, everything whould work perfectly.

 

You spend all of this money buying a laptop. Why not have it the way you like it? For some users, they are happy with just uninstalling. For most of us, we would rather format and get the laptop set nice and neat as soon as we get versus having to do it later on.

 

I would just reformat but I'm too afraid that I'll mess something up

 

LOL, its not really that bad. I know the instructions look long, but it is literally step by step. If anyone wants it, I can walk you through a format on messenger.

Its just a personal choice. Personally, i can't stand a dirty HDD, so I reformat about every 6 months.

 

Nice call on Nod32. I find I don't need any antispyware with that install. As most of the defiinition updates they do include spyware.

 

It's a paid program. I had it on my old computer and hoped the license would transfer over, but didn't so I had to pay again. Something I was reluctant to do but glad I did. It's a good program. They'll let you run a free scan but you'll need to pay if you want to make any adjustments.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/store/optimize.asp

NOD32's yearly subscription was about to run out, but they said it was OK to install on my new computer. $40 for two years after the 1st of $35 and worth every penny compared to programs like Macafee and Norton.

 

Here's the difference...

you know how they always say that hotel beds are filthy? that's like your HD with all the bloatware, filthy.

now, if you were going to sleep in a filthy hotel bed, would you rather:

1. replace the sheets, blankets, and pillowcases with brand new ones that you brought from home and you know to be clean...

or

2. look around at the filthy sheets and try to remove any hairs or blood or who-knows-what-else-that-you-can't-see-with-the-naked eye but don't actually change the sheets, blankets and pillowcases?

"1" is like a clean install and "2" is like uninstalling bloatware one at a time.

 

LOL...

I'd rather compare it to getting a meal at a restaurant and just removing the garnish from the plate instead of sending it back to the kitchen with thoughts of the cook spitting in it.

 

You do not need to reformat the windows partition to get rid of the backup. With partition magic you can delete the backup, format it, and merge it with the c drive.

 

You don't even have to have partition magic. You can use the XP, but no matter what software you use - if you edit/delete the partitions, you'll need to repair Media Direct.

 

That would be awesome and greatly appreciated. I would be interested in being instructed over a messenger.

 

Okay, just send me a PM and we can set up a time and all of that mess

 

sadly dell has to include all those programs to keep their cost low...
although i never trust dell for notebook (IBM 4tw), i bought few desktop from them, uninstalling all the adware is pain in the ass. so i would rather just do a clean installation.

 

Not for me! The crap restore partition was over 20 GB on my 100 GB HD! When I saw that I nearly choked. Man, think of how many "uneducated" people loose 1/5 of their storage not knowing how to reformat. Crap.

 

20gb? it should have only been 5-8 gb. If it was more than that, and if you got a recent system, that was probably your spare partition. Dell just recently started adding spare partitions to the laptops and the allocate a large amount of space to it.

 

I've kept my last laptop for about 3 years without reinstalling windows once. It was rock solid, speedy, etc. Of course, you have to use tools to remove the junk and clean the registry regularly, and get rid of the useless files and favorites, etc., you accumulate.

Depending on your type of configuration, reformatting, reinstalling windows, drivers, softwares + setting it up the you want can be incredibly time consuming. This time, it took me at least 24 complete hours. Wow. I hate it. I have other things to do!

I prefer a careful and balanced approach : I backup stuff regularly, and never install more than one or two application at a time (unless I KNOW it won't do anything bad). If something goes wrong, I just go back to where I was (restore an image).

But that's just me...

In an ideal world, I'd like to keep my configuration for “ever” ( ), and just be able to move it from computer to computer, and update it as the updates become available. But that's in an ideal world. Right now, it's not possible. Even, with stuff like "Acronis Universal Restore" : a friend tried it and it failed miserably. After hours of goofing around, he... reinstalled everything on his new system!
Anyway… reinstalling everything once every 1.5-3 years seems more than enough to me.

Z

 

My Precison M90 didn't come with much junkware. Pretty much the only thing was Google Desktop, which I uninstalled. It also does not have a partition from Dell. Is that wierd? I've never heard anything about the M90 having a partition, but I was still expecting it. It thought it was a standard for Dell.

 

The Precision is dell premium business line. I should hope it comes with very little junkware.

 

That's correct. The premium systems (latitudes/precision) do not have junkware on them, nor partitoins. Plus you should get your own retail disc.

 

I agree completely and have thought this all along. Look at the average magazine, full of ads. Newspapers, too. We should be paid to read these rags, no?

Anyway, the price we pay is that we have to uninstall software or reformat these new machines. Fact of life.

 

Hiker, I completely agree with you. There are many posts here stating problems or loss of MCE or some other wanted program not running right after a reformat.

While waiting for the laptop, I read the very well thought out steps posted here to reformat and was going to do it.

But I had enough set-up time loading all my software and data, preferences, etc , so I just spent 2 hours cleaning the bloatware without reformatting and with the newer dual processors and 2 G of RAM, my laptop seems fast enough for me.

Besides, there are some programs on here that I'm not even sure yet what they are, who knows, maybe I'll discover them later and like them?

I'm don't have the time now, so I'm going to wait until the new MS OS is released and do it then. (And will go through this site's reformatting notes, thanks Southern girl and others!)