Hard Drive Formatting

I've noticed a lot of people recommending that dell laptops be reformatted out of the box because they come pre shipped with a bunch of junk software. Can someone please put up a step by step guide on how to do this safely? Thank you.

 

No Problem:

1)Make sure you either have a copy of the Dell Drivers CD, or go to their website, download the latest drivers, and burn them on a CD
2)Backup any important files
3)Make sure you set your CD Drive as a boot drive. This can be done during the BIOS screen
4)Put the Windows XP/recovery cd that came with your computer in the drive
5)The CD should boot you to a blue screen
6)You will want to choose the option that allows to do a new install of Windows, not a repair
7)It should tell you a list of partitions that are currently on your drive. Find the one with your current operating system installed
8)Delete this partition.
9)Then I believe you can install a new copy of Windowx XP. I can't remember if there is an option to format your drive at this point, but if there is, you should choose.

I'm writing this off the top of my head so if any one else remembers how to do this please fill in.

 

I got to the point that shows me the partitions. How do I know which partition my OS is on?

 

Hi flatulent.fox, don't tell me how you got that name
If your not computer savvy, and need to ask how to reinstall the OS. It is probably best to just keep your notebook as it is and read up and learn computers more. I'm not trying to put you down or anything, we all started at ground zero. I just thought I would warn you after I read that the part where you asked which partition your OS was on. If your not sure about the basic stuff like that, then you just asking for trouble by trying to reinstall your OS. Your notebook is working, take some time to learn about this stuff a little more before you jump into the deep end not knowing how to swim.

Good luck
Jack

 

Jack makes a good point.

However, to answer your question...it really doesn't matter which partition your current OS is on, go ahead and delete all of them. Again, I am assuming you backed up any documents, pictures, music, etc....you won't be able to get those back.

After that you should be able to install the OS. I think at this point it will ask you to format, etc. Sorry if my instructions sound vauge I'm just trying to picture it in my mind.

Let me know how it goes.

 

i believe you should format after u get ur notebook, i got mine and formatted it. Dell puts all this junk that you will never use takes up about a gig of your hard drive and it might even slow you down.

Formating with windows xp is so easy:

Put win xp cd in computer
restart
when the boot screen shows up press f12
Then selected CD/CDRW
Then it will say press any key to boot from cd rom, press a key
then it will load it up
Press Enter to install windows
then Press Enter again to install fresh copy of windows
Then it will show you the partions
It will look like
:FAT 32MB
C:NTFS About the size of your hard drive
then 8 mb

dont delete the 8mb or the 32
delete the NFTS by pressing D, then L
then go to unpartitioned space and press C to create a new one. after you create select Format NTFS and once u do that its pretty much simple after that.

 

Yeah I think I'm finding that out now. I went to dell's support site and tried to dl the drivers from there, but its a little confusing as to what to dl

 

Ok, so now I've got a clean hard drive with xp installed. Only problem is: I may have lost the Dell Utilities CD that has all the drivers on it. Crap, what do I do now?

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Flatulent.Fox

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by bootleg2go

 

Hell Yeah!!! So I got off the phone with a GREAT rep from Dell and installed the following drivers:

-network device (wired/wireless)
-video
-audio

Any others that I need? At this point, I'm just happy to be able to connect to the internet [8D]

 

What are the other two partitions that Dell created? I think they're 2MB and an 8MB partition?

-tn

 

Fox,

If there is a "chipset" driver for your computer, download that...

Also download "Dell Notebook System Software" which manages USB ports, etc.

Tom: I don't know what those other partitions do, but I deleted them as well.

 

tomb those partitions are used for some of the drivers that are stored in your computer but they are invisible u can still delete all partitions and make sure u press "D" then "L" then "Enter" to delete all those partitions. all u do is "C" to create one or just press "enter" on the unpartitioned space and it will create one for you. easy and simple. by the way the only way to lear is by messing ur computer up couple of times. dont be afraid the worst thing that could happen is the computer will be missing drivers or anything like that. i will be more than happy to help anyone formatting windows xp, 2000, 98 SE, or windows 2003 server. if u have any questions just im me or email me

If u can't fix it, throw it out the window.
Inspiron 9100
Windows xp SP2
Intel 3.2 800 FSB
2 Gigs DDR Ram 400 Mhz
80 Gig Hard Drive
128 MB ATI 9700 Graphics
Dell Wireless Mini-PCI Card
Dell Bluetooth

 

Dammit I'm such a dork. I was so excited to use my pc that I forgot to install an antivirus. Now its got that dam Sasser worm. What do I do?

 

I saw your response to this issue and recognise myself here. Have thought to be resonably competent with PC's, but having reset the hard drive I have not been able to get the WLAN configured correctly.
Any advice would be welcome.

I agree. It is going to be difficult to get the drivers properly installed if you don't know what your doing. I have a lot of experiance with computers and the drivers were tough for me to get working properly, specifically the WLAN.
[/quote]

 

Fox - to get rid of the Sasser worm, check out Symantec.com. They'll have instructions for it somewhere, and maybe even a removal tool.

 

To be safe. I highly recommand you install symantec software to protect your NB from virus.

 

Why can't you just uninstall the unncessary programs and delete the i383 and DELL folder on C: which contain about 1.1 GB of files? I'd make a back up of the computer first of course. I reccomend PowerQuest/Symantech Drive Image 7 for making an image of your computer or drive onto DVD or a Firewire or USB2 drive.

Chris

 

Oops! I meant i386 and DELL directories in last post, not i383.

 

Hi to all. I tried formatting my dell notebook and came up against some problems.

I followed the steps as given in previous posts, till the deleting of the partition step. When i tried deleting the partition that my previous OS was on, i was prompted that i am not able to delete that partition due to some temporary files required for setup that resides on that partition.

How do i go about solving this problem?

Hope that someone can help me out here. Thanks.