Is this a good way to install a fresh copy of Vista?

I got a Dell a few weeks ago and I didn't want to be left without all the right drivers etc so I just went with the install they put on it and took out all the bloatware.

Should I create a 2nd partition, and install a 2nd copy of Vista on that and then gradually migrate all the drivers and programs over to that side and then just eventually delete the first side?
Would that improve performance as well?

Then when Win 7 comes out I can just upgrade to that as well.

Anyway of knowing if I would get any conflicts or missing drivers or anything? Any problems you can think of?

Dell Studio 1555 btw

 

There is no sense in having two Vista partitions. Just delete the one that exists now, and install Vista from scratch in that empty space. It's a good idea to download all the drivers ahead of time, since the LAN and wireless will not work on a fresh install without drivers. Put them on a USB flash drive or something. In the end you should not have any missing drivers, and there will be no existing drivers to conflict with.

As I recall, you have a Studio 1555. The drivers you should get in order to not be missing anything are:

• Chipset
• Graphics (ATi/AMD or Intel depending on which option you chose)
• LAN
• Wireless (also depends on which wireless card you chose)
• Bluetooth, if you have it
• Audio
• Touchpad
• QuickSet software

If I'm not missing anything, that should be all the drivers you need for a fresh install.

 

Well I want to do it gradually. I don't want to just start over right away, I don't have the time to install all 50 things or so I did all at one time.

And last time I did this on a computer I lost my favorites by accident so it's nice to have both at one time. They'll both consider their native harddrive to be "C:/" right? LIke if I'm on Vista 2 its partition will be C and old Vista will be D.. and when I'm on Vista 1 its partition will be C and new vista will be D..

But yeah I'll do that for sure, thanks.

 

actually i just got a tiny little usb bluetooth module from dealextreme, is there a certain driver i should install?

 

Just back up any folders you care about (Favorites, for example, probably Documents, Pictures, maybe Music too) to an external hard drive or USB flash drive. A clean install really is the best way to go, and can be done in half an hour including driver installations, plus a bit more time for automatic Windows updates.

And I don't think you will be able to have 2 simultaneous Vista installations anyway, due to license issues.

That module should have come with a CD containing the driver for it. If not, check the manufacturer's website.

 

as in it goes against their license yada yada (which i dont care about) or there will be something actually stopping me from doing it?
What is it about doing a clean install versus just removing the bloatware?

there is no manufacturer.. it's just a generic USB bluetooth thingie I bought for a few bucks. Works though

 

Ok I just tested it, booted from disc and it started to install (but I canceled the installation) so I'm guessing it'll work.

I'm not sure what would be different between this and doing a fresh install? At least this way, if I DO forget something, I can always go back to the old install and grab it.

BTW is there any reason to keep the recovery partition?

 

I think doing a clean install gets rid of everything quicker and more effectively, if you just uninstall the bloatware, there will still be some small traces, possibly?

The recovery partition is there for if you want to reset your computer to the way it left the factory, all drivers, apps, etc.

I just deleted my recovery partition to get the extra 10gb, and if anything does go wrong, i don't mind installing vista fresh myself.

 

What I would always recommend is that once your system is setup how you like, make a restoration image using something like Acronis. That way, you can always restore back to that, but you wont need to install quite as much as a complete fresh install.

 

Regarding the gradual transition method you have chosen, no reason it won't work but you will not be able to delete the old partition and join it with the new partition AFAIK. You will be stuck with at least two partitions, although you could make more partitions out of the deleted one. Someone correct me if I am wrong about this, but IME you cannot alter the OS partition in any way and still have it be functional.

Doing a total clean install only takes a few hours more at most, but is the only way to guarantee a 100% bloatware-free system. Using their install and just deleting software always leaves footprints and mess. Plus, with a clean reformat and install you can do it without any partitions (which I prefer).

 

Can't you eventually just delete the old partition and then extend the new one into the space the old one took up? To be honest I've never tried it; but I can't see why it wouldn't work.

In any case, I always have two partitions. One for the OS/software and one for documents. I make a Acronis backup image of the OS/software partition after clean installation & setup; then only need to backup my documents via normal backup routines. If you need to reinstall OS for any reason, you can do so without destroying your documents partition, or even having to restore them from backup. So you could simply use the other partition in this manner?

 

IME no. To "extend" the OS partition onto the new space requires reformating both areas into one new area, and this total data loss.

Again, if anyone knows a way to actually do this, please chime in!

 

Using Vistas "Shrink or Extend" does not delete data off the harddrive. It doesn't always let you do what needs to be done though. You can give it a try under "Disk Management." It has worked the all but 3 times I have used it, but I know from friends and family that sometimes it won't let you shrink or extend.

 

So yeah what I was thinking was, (as I have it right now I have a 40gb partition and a 250gb partition with the existing OS and programs and files), install Vista 2 on the 40gb partition. Install a new program everyday and transfer files until it's all basically the same. Then delete the old partition and make it unallocated space, allocate 210gb to the Vista 2 partition and then leaving another 40gb space for a backup partition. Or maybe a bigger partition for documents even.. then yeah I'll use something to copy the harddrive as a backup.

 

I have mine setup to be about 150GB for data, the rest for OS + programs; but I guess it depends on what you store on your laptop. All my music, photos etc are stored on a home server, but as I work with large databases, I need to leave a reasonable amount for mini extracts.

 

I did a little googling and found that you should be able to do this. There are circumstances where it will not work, but in your case it should.

An example of a situation that would not work is:
|---C:---|---D:---|---free space---|
*cannot add free space to C
where as the following would work:
|---C:---|---free space---|---D:---|
*can add free space to C

It has to do with the physical location of the data on the disk I think. Extend requires the volumes to be adjacent.

 

Ok, so how about this then:

starts off like this:
|----C:-----|-----D:-----|

Where c: is the existing Vista OS and d: is the new one.

Then as time goes on, everything that is needed on d: is there, you could simply delete the c: partition:

|---free space---|----D:----|

Then extend D: into the free space.

The logic being that you are not disrupting the files on D: and you are simply extending it into space that is adjacent to it.

Think that would work?

 

i'm experimenting right now.. shrinking C and gonna see if I can add it to D

 

Hmm I think I'll just abandon the idea at this point. Too risky.

Everyone says do a fresh install after getting it from Dell but honestly I think I've removed everything that needs to and I use TuneUp Utilities a lot and make sure everything is optimized. Is there anything else I should look to take out?