How important is it to reformat when I get my 1505?

Hey guys. Everyone seems to be suggesting a complete reformat as soon as I pull my new laptop out of the box. What exactly am I getting rid of that a simple delete wouldn't fix? AOL? I only ask because the instructions southerngirl is suggesting seem long and complecated. (No offense, Southergirl- I appreciate detailed instructions. It just seems like it'll take a long time and be easy to forget something).

Thanks
-@dam

 

It is to get rid of all the bloatware that Dell puts on their machine. It takes up space and slowes performance because of the processes.

You can uninstall alot of it, then get a registry cleaner and tune XP to get it running faster. If you don't want to do the re-format.

Hope this helps.

 

Yeah, I will say. Once I got my laptop, it came with **** of softwares that I didnt need and I know it will take out the performance of my laptop. One I completely reformat the hd and install a fresh clean of XP, I was very pleased withe results, and you should be also.

JC

 

I will be also performing a 'clean' XP install myself, but just to be sure you know before you start....

1. There's a good chance you will 'break' the Dell restore functionality. This allows you to put your computer back to its 'as-delivered' state

2. Your Dell MediaDirect 'hot button' may no longer work properly and it can be a bit of a chore to get it back.

Mark

 

Is it safe to uninstall - I mean, are there any programs that have dll links that are critical to other programs??

 

I didn't notice any. I got rid of almost all the stuff I could. All the other programs work fine. I got rid of Norton too (after some trouble). For the most part no issues.

Hope this helps.

 

it's your decision, but for me, the importance of a clean install is a very strong 10/10. not only is it the first thing i do for every new computer, i also do it periodically as stuff accumulates. when i was in law school, i did a fresh install of the OS every new semester and i still do it about twice a year.

 

I'm like drumfu, i reformat about every 6 to 8 months. As you install/uninstall programs, alot of junk builds up and clutters your system. Even if you have a 120gb HDD, this junk will degrade your system.

As far as I know there isn't any .dll that are critical to the other programs. Most of the registery keys that are cleaned up are specific to that software.

SG

 

How do you backup the Dell restore partition just incase? I tired Goodells.net like Southerngirl mentioned in another thread but I could not find it anywhere.
This is my first notebook, that I didn't receive yet, but I would like to have a clean install, that's what I do with my desktops always.

Thanks

 

the dell restore partition is an image of the factory install meaning it has all the junk in there. it also takes up around 3-4 GBs of hard drive space. because of this, i always delete all partitions and make one parition using the entire drive. you paid for a certain sized HD, why lose 3-4 GBs for a partition that's useless?

 

Here is the instructions to save a copy of the restore partition:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/recover.htm

Just as drumfu said, if you have the XP disc, chances are that you'll never need the restore partition. If your laptop has the Media Direct button, don't delete the smaller 40mb partition. This contains the software to use your Media Direct functions.
SG

 

so i can do a full reinstall and keep the Media Direct button suff with no problems if I keep that partition. Or is there still a chance that i will screw the the Media Direct stuff up.

 

You can delete all of the partitions except the 40mb and you should be okay. You do have to do a repair on the hdd, but there are some suggestions on this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=40902&page=24

I would follow the directions in post 238. It looks complicated and there have been several problems, but that seems to be from the users that deleted all of the partitions - or at least that is where I've seen the most complaints.

The repair utility can be downloaded from support.dell.com under drivers & downloads in the applications section. It is also your drivers & utilities disc.

SG

 

Hey guys, is Partitionmagic capable of doing all the work needed?

 

Must admit I am yet to be convinced that is the case. I have the partition still on my system, and after a VERY careful look in the partitiion.... there is nothing there except for the Dell Diagnostics, and the bits-n-pieces for the Dell Service Tag splash screen etc... I'm awaiting the infamous MediaDirect 2.0 Reinstall CD to experiment more....

wrt Partition Magic... what do you want to do wrt the partitions?

It will resize, copy, move, hide partitions just fine. The problem comes in when the Dell code in the MBR kicks in to perform a 'QC' on the partition table status/configuration. If it doesn't like what it sees, your Dell restore function can 'break' [even though the restore partition is still in-place and intact]

If you want more on the topic Dan Goodell has some very good info on the subject.

As he [along with others] have done such great detective work on the Dell partitions, need to get him to explore the MediaDirect 2.0 integration on the new Dells....

Mark

 

But is it better to move it? like let's say to the end of the disk using partition magic before deleting the OS?
I'll try that link, thanks...

 

You can't move it and expect it to work. As Mark or another user said, your HDD has to be the exact same as when it was shipped in order for the restore partition to work. When you run the restore utility, it will scan your HDD to make sure that no changes has taken place. If it detects that you've reformatted or edited the partitions, it will cause the restore utility to shut down.

I haven't seen very many ways to keep and use your restore partition after you've reformatted, but goodell's method is one of the most suggested ways to do it. I've never tried it, so I don't know how well it will work.

 

Thanks for the quick reply but I was talking about the 40mb partition. Can we move it to the end of the disc?
It looks that the restore partition is going to be gone right away.

 

if i was you, i wouldn't
unless you know what you're doing, formatting could cause problems with you re-installing all your drivers.

 

formatting and reinstalling drivers are kind of unrelated. can you maybe elaborate?

 

You'll need to read thru Dan Goodel Page.

Based on my read the answer is... Yes

But.... I think Partition Magic will have trouble moving the Utility Partition unless you first change the Partition 'Type' from DE to 06

Once you've got it to where you want... then you'll need to change it back to DE

Then again.... there's always using the 'Drivers and Utilities' CD and forget the whole thing...

Mark

 

seriously, what's the point of worrying about keeping a partition for drivers when they get updated so often. just grab them from the dell site. over half of the drivers that came with my 6000 are now outdated.

 

I'm sorry all this is confusing me.

Can somebody tell me if this is correct or not.

True or false question 1

When you get the computer for Dell

There are 4 partions

1) 40mb media Direct
2) 40-60mb Dell Diagnostic utilities
3) 3-5 Gb restore
4) windows C:\ the rest of the HDD

True or false question 2

To do a reinstall of window you can simply (using the windows reinstall disk with out having any extra software or hardware) delete the 3 and 4 partions reformate and and reinstall windows over those.

After this do all of the drivers ect. ect.

 

I agree.... I plan to use a CD or thumb drive

Just to be a little more 'clear' though

The Dell "Utility Partition" holds the Dell Diagnostic utilities... not the Drivers

Mark

 

Based on 'my understanding' and my particular system.

There were 3 primary partitions

1) 39.2MB DELLUTILITY partition
2) A big "C" partition [don't recall the exact size, but close to 55GB or so] which holds Win XP MCE
3) 4753.6 MB "Local Disk" CP/M Concurrent DOS, CTOS partition

Partition 1 holds the Dell Diagnostic utilities and is accessed/run by depressing F12 during boot [appearance of Dell Logo]

Partition 2 holds XP MCE

Partition 3 holds the Dell/Symantec Restore 'Ghost Partition' [Ctrl + F11 keys at appearance of www.dell.com 'blue banner'] and Dell MediaDirect function.

Yes... that will work [Given you are referring to 'my' partitions 2 and 3]. But you can no longer use Ghost to restore to 'as-delivered' state and MediaDirect won't work anymore

hth

Mark

 

what system do you have?

so the media direct is in the system restore partion

To ge the media Direct to start working again you have to get the MediaDirect repair CD and follow the steps in
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1302739&postcount=238

 

Isn't the 40 mb partition the one for media direct? That's the one I would like to move so I can have a clean drive. Is this possible? Everything else it'll get deleted.
Still confused???? LOL

 

On your first part, that is true and false.
You get 3 partitions -

• XP Partition
• Restore Partition
• Dell Utilities/Media Direct (on some systems)

The Dell Utilities is a program that you can run (hit f12 and select Dell Utility) and it will run a series of tests on your system to see if there is any problems.

And on your second question, yes you can do that. Most of us delete our restore partition because there really isn't any sense in having it if you have the XP disc. Some users create a spare partition to store the documents and other files on for security reasons, etc.

If you are familiar with XP formatting on desktops or other computer systems, it is the same thing. You just have a few partitions which creates all the confusion.

 

but if you levase the "Dell Utilities/Media Direct (on some systems)" partion you still have to run the MediaDirect repair CD to get it to work

 

Yep that is how it works. MediaDirect is supposedly on the Utilities partition, and when you get your system it is all set up to run, but when you start messing with the partitions, you have to repair Media Direct so it will know which partition to boot off of to play DVDs (assuming your laptop is off).

That is my take on how the partitions and Media Direct come into play with each other. This is only for the E1505/E1705 systems which use Media Direct Version 2.0. If your laptop uses Version 1.0 then this will not work.

 

In my opinion....

The smaller partition is for Dell Diagnostic utilities. I say that based on a couple of things...

1. I blew away the 'Restore' partition [leaving the small partition in-place with no modifications] and MediaDirect stopped working

2. I looked in the Diagnostic Utility partition and didn't find anything wrt MediaDirect... Just the diagnostics. I would be very suprised if it is there and I missed it

Unfortunately, I can't do a 'Aaah Haaa.. There it is!!", because I don't have the Restore partition any longer...

So.... that's my 'story' anyway...

Mark

ps... If other 'theories' are correct... I should be able to 'fix' MediaDirect because it is still there [somewhere] on the Utility partition. I intend to try this and see, but I'll wager it won't work and will have to use the Reinstall CD. Whatdaya Think???

 

Have you yet tried the MD repair CD?

All that does is reposition/place a pointer. I'm told. Be sure to look to see if you get an A: prompt or an F: prompt when you get the DR-DOS prompt.

Hermit

 

So it's here, I finally got my Dell E1505...UUUUhhhhAhhhhhhh what? Can't believe how many taskbar icons I have soooo.... reinstalling noooowwww....
seriously is insane how many icons I have, on any of my computers at work no at home I have not more than thress here is like almost eighteen.
I'm not impress with the speed of the machine at all, my P4 2.4GHZ desktop is faster than this machine, it might be all the bloatware?

Thanks

 

It is all the bloatware...when I first got my I9300 it was slower than 2.4 P4...and I was mad. That is until I un-installed all the bloatware and used a reg cleaner and tune XP. Now it is awesome.

 

I was looking on the dell download site for the e1505 here...

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...en&SystemID=INSPIRONI6400/E1505&os=WW1&osl=EN

And there are a TON of things to download. I imagine a lot of it is some of the same bloatware I'm trying to get rid of. How do I know what is important?

Also, they have a download for "Dell Media Direct repair utility" under "applications". It says...

"Web release for Dell MediaDirect Repair Utility tool. The tool will restore MediaDirect function after user breaks the system MBR by manual re-install the operation system"

This might be the solution we're looking for- no install disk or partition needed. Just reformat the hard drive, and download this 928kb file. Anyone want to give it a try? Oh yeah...what does "MBR" mean?

Also, is the system restore partition essentially just a from-the-factory restore disk, but on the HDD instead of on a DVD? In other words, it has a copy of the OS and bloatware on it, and is NEVER used unless I want to wipe the c:\ and restore to factory configuration? If so, I'd rather just burn it to a DVD for $0.30 and keep the several dollars with of HD space free- especially if that partition isn't needed for Media Direct.

Something else that might be nice, for novices like me, might be a bloatware un-install guide for people who don't want to reformat their harddrives. Maybe a computer savvy person here (Southerngirl?) could come up with a bloatware list, and instructions on how to get rid of it. Just an idea.

 

MBR=Master Boot Record

 

Hmmm, this strange banner saying "Installing Applications" after Media Center was installed is not a Microsoft banner. Bloatware??????

 

It is as you describe, but I'm still undecided as to where MediaDirect resides. I'm leaning towards the 'Restore' partition, but jury seems to be still out....

Couple of things about your 'plan' to simply copy to DVD [and I assume delete the partition]. You may loose MediaDirect. If you do there are reports of successful 'fixes' out there. I haven't tried yet so I don't know.

And it won't be just a simple matter of plopping the files back on the hard drive. The Dell boot routine has some 'checks' that it performs and unless you do some pretty involved MBR work I don't think you'll get it to work...

Give a good read thru this info and you'll get an idea of what I'm saying....

Good Luck

Mark

 

What should I install form the Drivers and Utilities Cd? Is there something I need? I think all the drivers are already on that Drivers forder I backed up from the pc before reisntalling it.

Thanks

 

I'm old fashioned and like to install from downloaded files [in this case from Dell].

Some have mentioned you can do it by simply copying the 'Drivers' folder from the root directory [as you have done], but I can't comment as to if/how that all works....

Mark

 

On another topic, I noticed that before formating the drive there was a directory I386 in the machine, I backed up that but now I don't have that directory there.
Why?

Thanks

 

It holds [or did... ] XP-related OS files. Very similar to the files you would find on your XP installation CD.

Comes in handy for when you add some new hardware/software that would require Microsoft files that aren't on your machine or if there were some Microsoft XP components you didn't install intitially.

Instead of asking for your XP Installation CD, Windows is smart enough [well sort of... I guess you need to point it to the i386 folder location at least once] to find the needed files/drivers in the i386 folder and loads/installs them directly from there....

I believe it is just a matter of copying the i386 folder from your XP install CD to the root directory of your hard drive....

Mark

 

Ok, what kind of registry cleaner can I use to clean my system now that I finished installing everything?
About the speed of the system, so far looks impresive after reinstalling it, when I first got the computer yesterday it was really slow so I DO recommend to everyone to do a clean reinstall the computer is a lot faster now.

 

Well.... My experience is that it won't get any cleaner than what you've got already from a 'clean' state. Kinda like giving a new car a paint job....

"Cleaning' would be needed after you load/uninstall applications/utilities, and hardware.

I can't recommend one as I have stayed away from them.... I'm not sure how 'smart' they are and if they're not... they can really hose your system.

Maybe others with some 'happy' experiences can recommend one...

Mark

 

Mark, what is the video resloution you are runing on the E1505? when I installed the ATI drivers I didn't install the control center, just the drivers so I don't have that many resloutions to choose from, either too small fonts at 1680x1050 or too grainy at a lower resolution.
This computer is really fast I can't wait to try it with my other applications at home.

Thanks

 

Must admit I haven't decided yet between 1680 x 1050 or 1280 x 768...

 

So I guess, after reading this thread, if I bought a new hard drive and put it in myself, there's no way I can get media direct on it.

Well that's just a bummer.

 

I don't know if that's a for sure "can't be done".

It's more that there hasn't been a consensus yet on how to 'fix' it esp. what tools to use and in what sequence.

Mark

 

So are you saying it is pointless to backup the restore partition then?

 

After some re-read of posts/Dell documentation, I'd say that... Yes you can. You'll need the MediaDirect 2.0 Reinstall CD [e.g. DH371 or RJ262??]

Mark