Formatting my Inspirion 1705

Well I am formatting my Inspiron 1705 now, deleted all the partitions and stuff and it is formatting, what I would like is help getting it to run in the best condition.

I've heard of utilities that remove all the unecessary junk that Dell puts on there by default.

If anyone has any tips, I'd be happy to hear them.

I am installing my free Vista Home Premium upgrade after the XP format.

The computer has 2 GB RAM
7900 GS card
and a 7200 processor

 

If you are doing a fresh install, you shouldn't have to remove any junk (it won't be there, it's stored in the Dell restore image) I'd just install Vista and see if every device is recognized. If not, go to Dell's driver site and install what you need. After that it should be smooth sailing. Install your programs, data, files, and see how you like it!

 

I would just install vista, but I got that vista upgrade from dell, it says upgrade from media center edition on it, don't you have to first have media center to upgrade from?

 

ok here is what you do:

i reformatted because partition magic screwed me over and messed up my hd [so never ever use it ]
install xp get everything set up

then restart your computer with the vista upgrade in the drive
[dont open it in windows ]
install it without entering your cd key on the vista disk cover thingy
then when your in vista and its installed start the cd again and upgrade it ,this time using your key
and everything will be fine

make sure you install xp first though

 

Thanks, yeah I got vista on this laptop now, but alot of the stuff isn't there, like before I had Audigy Advanced MB edition or something, which was pretty cool, and I don't knwo where to get it now and stuff.

My Resource CD doesn't have very many things on it at all, is there somewhere I'm not seeing that has drivers or something?

 

Since you are doing a fresh install there will be no Dell junk in there

 

Yeah thanks, its good and I did a fresh Vista reinstall, I think I have a clean install now (no XP underneath).

But now I have a question. Do I have Vista 32bit or 64bit?

I do have core duo t7200 processor if that matters.

 

Most likely you got the 32bit.