Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Hi All!

New to the forum and I have a question. I have a Dell Inspiron 1720 running Vista Home Basic factory fresh. On the only hard drive in the computer I have a volumn labeled EISA that is 86 mb big. The other volumns are recovery of about 10 gb, the OS which is about 130 gb big and an unlabeled volumn of 2.5 gb. I now what the recovery and OS partitions are, but what are the other 2 partitions used for? Any body know what the EISA partition is and the unlabeled 2.5 gb partition is? Thanks for the help.

Michael

 

The EISA partition is there so that diagnostics can be run without an OS - keep it. It may be (near) impossible to remove anyways.

The 2.5 GB partition is MediaDirect.

 

Hi, just got my system yesterday and wanted to give this a try but where do i get the Dell MediaDirect 3.3 from cus it sure didn't come when i bought it.

 

You should have gotten a Media Direct Disk, along w/ the Dell OS reinstallation disk, etc. If not, call Dell Cust Service and tell them you didn't get one. They should send it to you- no problems...

 

hi guys i just did the reinstall of vista on my new laptop XPS M1530. I also did the AHCI driver install during the vista installation. I just wanna be sure that I did it correctly so how can I check if the AHCI driver was installed properly and whether that driver was correct for my computer. I have windows vista 64bit. Thanks for all your support.

 

hi guys i just found it how to check it. Under the category

IDE ATA/ATAPI CONTROLLERS
- ATA Channel 0
- INTEL(R) ICH8M ULTRA ATA STORAGE CONTROLLERS - 2850
- INTEL (R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI CONTROLLERS

thats what it says guys. Please check and tell me if i did it right or wong

 

Hello all, 1st post here....so please have mercy!

My Dell Studio 1435, yes you read it right...arrived 4days back, and the factory-partitions weren't to my liking, so i decided to read-up on how to change them. Fast-forward 3 days, and at the end of trying to read as many pages of this MONSTER thread as possible, i am thoroughly confused about what to do...

Firstly, let me plead my ignorance- this is my first notebook, and i've never messed with partitions on my old Desktop either, so that's a first too.
Right now my 320GB HDD shows the following info in the 'Disk Management' utility:
1) EISA Configuration (FAT32, 110MB) (no drive letter assigned)
2) Drive D: “Recovery” (NTFS, 10GB)
3) Drive C: “OS” (NTFS, 287GB, containing Vista OS and free space)
I read posts where MediaDirect was counted as a 4th partition, but all i see are these 3 volumes....Any idea Where does MediaDirect actually sit?

1. Any idea what the 110MB 'hidden' partition does? Any idea if i can't touch the EISA 110MB partition?
2. Further more, does that mean that i can then, at maximum, have only 3 other Primary-partitions (one being allocated to the 'untouchable' EISA volume)
   
3. What is the correct calculation of maximum-Primary&Logical partitions?
   • Is it at max, 3 are Primary-partitions and 4th onwards are Logical-partitions
   • or 4 maximum are Primary and 5th onwards are are all Extended/Logical partitions?
4. Am i correct in assuming that the 10GB Recovery drive, does nothing more than restore my Notebook to it's factory-condition? Absolutely no other functionality?
5. Will the functionality of this Recovery drive D: be retained if i burn (the contents visible in Vista) to DVD's? And how will use the 3or4DVD's if i ever need them?
6. Does deleting this Recovery Drive to gain another usable Primary-volume affect the Servicability or any Dell Warranties?
   
   
   Although i do realize this thread primarily concerns removing the bloatware, my main um...objective is partitioning my HDD, to get as many Primary-partitions as possible...that way i could always store my data in the other volumes and erase/restore the volume with my OS.
   
   Ideally i had this scheme in mind, IF POSSIBLE:
   1) 80GB (for Vista + free space)
   2) 100GB (free space - for personal files)
   3) 80GB (free space - i figure i can "expand into" this from either/both of the adjacent 100MB-volumes since they would be contiguous to this 80GB.
   4) 100GB (free space - for media)
   Net=320
   I know my understanding of the tech isn't sound, but i believe this arrangement would leave me with Three Primary-partitions of 80-100-80 + One 100GB Extended-partition which i could later use to create as many 'Extended-volumes' as i need.
   Correct me if this understanding is wrong.
   
   
7. Is it possible do this arrangement, 'within' Vista, using the "expand/shrink" functions? Or does the arrangement i am proposing make it necessary to re-install Vista?
8. I found it confusing in the guide which step i would have to specify that i wanted to make 4partitions, and how i would go about actually creating 4 partitions?

I’m actually hoping the forum-gods will bear with my umpteen noob doubts and help me out, since i have no background in this (im a dentist! ) and i don’t want to void my Dell warranty by messing around and then spoiling a brand new laptop.

 

hi i am still waiting for my answer anyone is here to help?

 

I always install the AHCI driver (a part of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver) after I install the OS. You can check in the device manager under "Controllers" to see if it's there.

Yup, that looks right.

 

I believe the latest version of MediaDirect installs on the main OS partition instead of on its own partition.

1. The hidden EISA partition is a configuration partition meant for diagnostics and a few other things. It should not be removed and may be (near) impossible to do so anyways.

2-3. I'm not sure what the limitations on the number of partitions is. I'll see if I can dig it up.

4. Correct

5. Not sure. Check your Dell manual to see if there are instructions for creating restore disks

6. Deleting the recovery drive does NOT void your Dell warranty. Did your computer come with OS reinstall disks? It should have. If so, you can use them to reinstall your OS without the bloatware rendering the recovery partition pretty much useless.

7. It would be easier doing it if you reinstall Vista. You may have issues doing all that with Vista's partition manager, but you can use GParted to adjust your partitions.

8. One of the first steps in reinstalling the OS requires you to create your partitions and select which one to install Vista to. That's where you would create whatever partitions you want.

None of the above will void your Dell warranty in any way.

Also, please don't bypass the language filter, it's against the forum rules.

Please edit your post to comply.

Thanks for understanding and welcome to NBR

 

Hello everyone,

I'm doing a clean reinstall on my Studio XPS 13, 64 bit Vista. I followed the instructions up until it came time to install the AHCI driver in the middle of the Vista installation. I hadn't extracted the files correctly (didn't realize that at the time) so it wasn't working. I found some advice on this thread telling me to go ahead with the Vista installation and just install AHCI once Windows was up and running. Well I finished Vista and started installing some of my drivers from the driver cd. Just tried to install AHCI from Intel's website and I get an error message saying "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. Setup will exit."

Any ideas? This is my first time ever doing a clean install so I wouldn't be surprised if it was something simple, just thought I'd ask the experts!

 

Hi, I also just did a reformat of a Studio 17, I would assume the process is similer.

I did not install the AHCI driver in the middle of vista, I just let Vista take care and reformat accordingly, no problem there.

Hmm, you may wish to reformat again if time is not a issue?

 

hi all,another newbie to this site.
want to try this and do the stuff on this thread.....
one "problem" for me though....i have an inspiron 1501 and as far as i am aware of, no media direct stuff. ( when i searched in the windows search panel for "dell media direct" all it brought up was stuff for "windows media something" not sure of its exact name )
anyway,basic questions here....
1 can i do what this thread is about ?? i.e. remove all the garbage that i will never use anyway,trial junk,30 long virus stuff,etc......
2 i bought this computer used, and didn't get any cds at all for it.
i know there is (or was for some older systems,anyway ) a way to get all the recovery stuff right off of the system itself.....( also wanted to put in here that i haven't yet tried to just get these off of dell themselves yet, was a lil leery of trying that as i don't have the prior owners info b/c of the method of purchase.... i am also unaware if they would gimme the cd's if the prev owner had yet to finish paying for the system, or is that just between them and their customer, i would guess ??? what is the worst case scenario here, i would have to pay them to get these cds ? they know of course i would have no use for them w/o a valid windows product code. )
lemme explain that,just in case i am unclear there......say i had a system running win xp, and had no windows cd for it, i could burn the copy of windows that is on the computer onto a recovery cd ......they say it is a royal
pain in the butt to do but hey,if i gotta do it i gotta do it.
3 i dont know if it will help,but it an inspiron 1501 running windows 32 bit basic
service tag # 430c1d1
5 what is that ahci( i believe it is being called ?) and does my system ( being win vista ) already have it in it ? or is it something i need to get or let the computer get when it is updating ???
6 sorry for the monster first post here, but this computer has come an awfully long way from whenever i first got it, and i want it to be all that i can get it to be.
8 another thing flashed to mind here....how ca you check the memory specs, besides just opening the case back up again ??? ( i.e. the actual memory clock speed ) obviously i know how much there is inside already ( 1.5 gigs )
and one other one here..... what does the scroll lock button do,anyway ??
i have ( obviously )never used it and am ignorant of it's use....
ok thats about all then, for now, anyway....


woody

 

Hello folks,

This is my first post here, so first and foremost I'd like to say hello and thank you all for a great forum!

A brief question...I recently picked up a Studio XPS 1640, which doesn't have MediaDirect, and I'd like to do a clean install. The instructions at the beginning of the thread make sense to me, but not having MediaDirect means the directions will have to modified. Am I correct in thinking that the process will be simpler in that I don't have to worry about MediaDirect?

So, my questions are:

1. Do I just put my OS disk into the drive instead of the (nonexistant) MediaDirect disk in Step 1?

2. Since I do not need to make a partition space for MediaDirect, is it advisable to allocate all available space to the C:\ drive?

Basically, I'm wondering if I can use this guide, just omitting the MediaDirect steps without issue.

I've read through the thread, and although I've seen this basic question asked a couple of times, I never saw an answer.

Thanks very much for the help!

 

I am doing this right now on my Inspiron 1525

will let you guys know how it goes...

 

Finished it...was really easy.

 

Did you follow the guide Les posted at the beginning of this thread?
I'm doing this when my Studio 17 arrives next week and would like to know if guide Les posted still applies.

Thx

 

Yes...the guide still applies if you are using Vista. Good Luck!!!

 

Yup, it was so easy. Thanks Les!

After doing a clean install, I just dual booted Vista and XP

 

Hey Les, nice to see you pop in here

 

Somehow missed the thread-notification to your reply and so I haven't checked this thread in a while. Thank you for your kind reply, and your point by point reply. You'll find i have now edited my post so it meets the language criteria....my bad, totally.

 

I got the mediadirect 4.0 with my new studio 15, and it wont boot from the dvd, i can run it when i'm in windows so it's not a damaged disc. Anyone had a problem like that?

 

Thanks


10char

 

Glad I could help and thanks for editing your post

 

Just got my studio 1737. ANd want to reformat..

Fell like a moron as I dont see the ahci driver on the dell website.

W

 

I'm having the same problem. The Vista disc will boit but I can't get the media direct disc to boot! And I can read the MD disc once Vista boots!

Driving me nuts.

 

guys I've just got my XPS1340, looks lovely! I got it from DELL Outlet and I have 2 CD's that came with it, one is MS Works and the other is a recovery CD. I am trying to do a fresh reinstall following the bloatware removal guides but I'm not getting the right screens up. I am thinking I don't have mediadirect?? is this the recovery CD as I don't see anything called mediadirect on it? How do I then do a clean vista install?

 

you will need the Vista cd.

 

I'm in the same boat. Did you ever resolve this?
I'm thinking the newer versions of media direct are not bootable.
When I ran media direct in the factory setup in ran in windows.
I re-formatted and re installed windows on the "c" partiion and media direct is gone.

 

Should DELL provide one?? As its installed, infact looks like both 32 and 64 bit are installed

 

You can ask. I always do when I buy a new system
You bought from the DEll Outlet I'm not sure if that matters

 

hey all just was wanting to get a reply for myself, and perhaps help out some others that have my same issue at the same time.
was wanting to know how to do this bloatware removal in my case.
i also have noticed that my system isn't very popular and seems to be overlooked in general.
i have an inspiron 1501 which is factory without the media direct stuff in it.
is there a thread to just get that version of this guide, for people like myself????
i have also read that i don't need that ahci driver, as people say it is included with vista already......
i am not trying to be a pain but i tried posting that and that was like 3 weeks ago.others have gotten replies and such, and now my query is posted 2 pages ago ( pg 217 )
i only posted originally such a long post as i had many questions and tried to get those all in my first post.
also,i did not wanna get flamed for asking a dumb question( s )
also, as i haven't tried to get the original driver discs yet,is dell very hard to get along with on this matter??
anyway, any replies would be a great help.

thanks
woody

 

Hello. I just received my new XPS M1730 yesterday and decided to go through this process. I really don't know nearly as much about this stuff as many of you, but everything has worked out fine. There is just one thing I'm wondering about.

While installing Vista, I inserted my drivers disc to install AHCI drivers. However, it found nothing on the disc, so I just finished installing Vista and MediaDirect.

Now, when I insert my drivers disc, I select the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver and install it. However, instead of actually installing anything, it simply copies about 8 files to the drivers folder. Instead, I selected the Intel Mobile Chipset in the drivers disc. This installed a few things, most of which I'm unfamiliar with. But, after that, I now have Intel ICH8M SATA AHCI Controller - 2829 in my device manager. Is that all I need? Anything else I need to do? To my knowledge, I haven't actually installed anything specifically called Intel Matrix Storage Manager. Instead, I installed the Intel Mobile Chipset which appears to have installed the AHCI driver.

I just want to make sure that that was an okay thing to do...


Edit: Also, I have something called "Base System Device" under "Other devices" in the device manager. When I automatically search for updates, it finds nothing. Anyone know what this could be? Again, this is a new M1730 that I just reformatted.

 

I recently undertook a clean install of Vista (SP1) onto my XPS M1530. After the installation was complete, I manually installed the Intel Matrix Storage Device drivers (AHCI).

When I view the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers list in Vista's Device Manager I see the following:

- ATA Channel 0
- Intel(R) 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller
- Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2850

My question is this - have I properly installed the AHCI drivers? If so, what do the other two entries in the Device Manager list refer to; is it the DVD drive?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

It may refer to the SD/MMC, xD-Picture, and Memory stick slots, or the IEEE 1394 port - have you installed drivers for those?

 

Looks like I have "SDA Standard Compliant SD Host Controller," "Ricoh MMC Host Controller," "Ricoh xD-Picture Card Controller," and "RICOH OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller" in my list.

There was some Ricoh driver on my resources disc that I opted not to install because there was not a check mark next to it to indicate that it was a part of my system. But a couple other things that I knew I wanted and could utilize also did not have check marks, like the software for the little Logitech LCD display.

Anyway, do you think that was it? I only mention that because the name Ricoh keeps popping up in my post. I really don't know much about these particular items.

 

Tx Crash and others....pop in seldom now I know but real life takes presednce and I have somewhat moved my interests from the ssd to the VTX1800retro and planning my trip from Niagara down the South Coast this summer.

Its nice to see so many still helping out and i have to chuckle every time I think of our first exchanges Crash....remember back then??? lol

 

Hello,

I am new to the forum. I have a 1340 on order and am getting prepped to tweak the machine. Here is what's on the way:

XPS 1340, Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 (2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6M L2 Cache)
4GB, DDR3, 1067 MHz 2 Dimm
NVIDIA GeForce MCP79MX
256GB Dell High Performance Solid State Hard Drive, 2.5MM
Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 Home Premium Edition (32 Bit).

Questions:
1. Has anyone performed the Bloatware removal with an SSD drive?
2. Is there any difference in the tweak with 32bit vs 64?
3. How about you 1340 users... is this machine stable after tweaking (not that it is stable upon arrival from dell) :0 ?

This will be my primary work machine so I need it to be solid.

I look forward to getting your thoughts and advice.

Brian

 

1. Yes. The Tweaking Threads and Bloatware Threads were both created with my system, ssd installed.

2. No.

3. It has nothing to do with the system and the only concern you may have is with drivers if you are going 64 bit. I believe Dell may have overcome these issues with driver availability.

I have been running my M1330 in 64 bit mode with an ssd for well over a year now. The system is, by far, the most stable I have ever used. With respect to what I have put it through, feel free to go through my articles and testing below.

 

Yup, the good ole' days I hope you have fun on your trip this summer!!

 

I am getting interested to get an E6500 or M4400. Just don't know if I should choose it with the P8700 or P9600. Would it make a big difference to spend $100 more for the P9600 and is the E6500 really as good as I am reading in most tests? any answer is deeply appriciated.

 

Hi, just received my 1340 and am about to reformat and upgrade it to 64bit Home Premium, where do I find these AHCI drivers people are talking about? They do not seem to be on the download page for my product on the Dell website?

 

The difference between the two processors is very minimal. Unless you do lots of processor-intensive task (like HD video encoding), you're likely not to notice the difference. More questions about the two systems should be posted in the Dell forum, as this thread isn't the place to ask them.

The AHCI driver is part of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver. You do not need to install them before installing Vista, although you can if you'd like (I don't).

 

I'm reinstalling Vista 64bit on my 1340 and the install keeps on hanging on "completing install" - apparently this has something to do with the drivers? Anyone else had this problem?

 

Hello,
I have a dell inspiron 1525 and i want to format it. he comes with vista and initialy the disk was formed from C: and D: (recovey). I was made an F: (logical drive , extended partion) from C:. Now i want to format C: and put again vista. how i need to made this , and the data from F: will be lost?
thank you for helping.

 

Thanks Les and Bamaster for this guide. My M1330 (refurb) arrived at the office today and didn't last a half hour before I wiped and started the reinstallation.

Starting on the tweak guide now. I've been avoiding Vista but thought I'd finally try it out on this laptop. I've got all of the "XP on a M1330" drivers, etc. ready should it turn out that I don't like using Vista.

 

As long as you don't change any of your partition sizes when reformatting, you will be able to access all the data on the other partitions (D: and F: ). Keep in mind though that if you installed programs to another partition other than C:, they will not work anymore once you re-format. You will need to reinstall/repair them. All the data on C: will be erased when you re-install Vista, so make sure do move any important data from your Users folders to another partition or an external HDD.

And welcome to NBR

Give Vista a week or two before throwing it out. You may end up liking it

 

thank you for your promt reply.
so nevermind if drive F: is made from C: and is not a primary. this is a good think because all my data are on F:. i was try to install vista by puting the vista dvd but it install a fresh copy but not format the drive C:, like i was making with my comp on XP. how should i do to format c: and install vista?

 

I am receiving a Dell Studio XPS 1640 laptop next week and I am doing this task first thing. Before I do so, I am confused on the AHCI driver part of the instructions. Could anyone please explain to me as if I was an 8 year old what this means and what to do? I really appreciate it.

"
7. Follow the instructions/select complete install and, in the select partition screen, click bottom left to install the AHCI driver, insert the driver medium and direct it to the file which will say AHCI. There may be two files identified, ensure you select the AHCI driver. Once you have completed installing the driver, select correct partition to install Vista on;"

Do i need to download this "AHCI" driver on to a flash drive or disk before I perform this process or is it on a disk already for me in my delivery package? Please explain?

 

I don't think it makes a difference if F: was created from the C: partition, it should stay separate when you reinstall Vista. You should just in case back up your data though.

All you need to do is stick in the Vista disk and tell it to install in the the C: partition. The setup will format C: then install Vista on it. You don't need to format it ahead of time.

You do not need to install the AHCI driver during the Vista install, it can be done afterward. But, if you want to do it during the Vista install, you will need to download it from Dell (called the Intel Matrix Storage Manager) and put it on a USB drive. When you're on the step where you can create partitions, there should be a button that says something like "Load hard drive driver" or something like that. Click on it and follow the prompts.

Hope that helped!