M1330 Format & Clean Installs?

I know I posted this in the M1330 owners thread, but I wanted to get some more opinions since I think my post(s) were lost in the thread.

How many of you who have actually received your M1330's have formated and performed a clean install of Vista? What did you do the three partitions Dell automatically puts on the hard drive? Do you plan to keep Media Direct? What about the backup partition? Does the restore partition serve any purpose? Can you perform a factory restore with all the correct drivers as the first day you opened the M1330, kind of what HP and other PC manufacturers do?

I'm only posting because when I had the 1520, I formated and installed Vista. Using the Dell Recovery CD for the necessary drivers was a bit of an issue. Some drivers didn't work right, others I needed to search online for, etc. I then experienced problems, like the 1520 not being able to wake up after sleep mode, extremely long shut down times, etc. I think they were all driver related. I didn't experience any of these problems before the clean install. I've had Dell desktop and laptops for years, always performing clean installs, and never experienced any of these problems.

Any thoughts?

 

Bumping this up, figured more people have their M1330s, maybe they can provide some information on how they performed clean installs, any necessary steps to include to make sure there are no driver issues...

 

If ever you want to do a clean install in your system just in case you dont want the stuff Dell have placed inside your system, well try to delete all the partitions that you see there and then install vista in the unpartitioned space and then it should load eveything in it, the native drivers will be loaded automatically by vista.

If you want to use the media direct button well first put in the media direct disc then it should create its own partition and then just follow what it says then after that put in your vista dvd and then load everything after. That should basically take care of everything. Then just install your additional drivers if ever you have any 3rd party hardware you installed in your system and install your softwares that you need.

 

I will draw on my experience of my M1210...its the same setup within and I have done it ohh....10 times i think.

If you are going to clean install, you want to consider what type of a clean install. Do you want to keep media Direct 3, the restore drive and the system partition which enables Dells use of both??

If not, simply insert your Dell Vista Disk in your system and reboot. At the initial screen, hit F12 and boot from disk. Follow the directions from the disk for a clean and full install...simple as that.

All of your bloatware is now gone.

You will next need to reinstall certain hardware drivers which can be found on a system disk you were provided or the Dell support site. I prefer the support site as it has the most updated drivers.

When you are done, check your 'Device Manager' within 'Control Panel' to ensure all the drivers have worked properly. If you still have yellow exclamation marks, you may need to hunt down a driver for hardware.

Now if you want to re-install your whole system, gain space and have the cats caboose clean system, you will need the MediaDirect 3 disk. I cant say yet whether it was included with the m1330 XPS package but, you just have to call XPS support and they will send it.

Put it in, reboot, F12 and start the system from the disk. You will have the opportunity here to repartition which dletes everything if you like and exit. You can also repartition to get rid of the restore disk and it will give you instructions on what to do next. Remove, install vista, replace and so on....

Hope this helps and if so...rep me.

Good luck!!!!

 

I don't think I'm going to keep Media Direct. The useless button won't bother me. Did you decide to keep this one?

I also think the restore partition doesn't serve much a purpose if a clean install is what I'm looking for. When I had my 1520, I deleted all the partitions and just installed Vista on one.

What about the SATA driver that everyone is talking about, should I try to install that prior to Vista?

When I had the 1520, I performed a fresh install but had some issues with the Intel chipset drivers, so I think the Vista native drivers were still on it. I then had issues getting the machine out of sleep and very very long shutdown times. I just want to make sure that when I do perform the clean install on the M1330 I don't skip a crucial step.

 

I'm just currious.. what do they put in the back drive? How does dell back up your stuff? Do they just throw a bunch of window files in there? Or does it back up your data each time you shut down?

 

The restore partition resets your computer to new...simple as that.

As far as mediaDirect, i have found it very useful for battery performance when playing DVDs, thats about it...I turn it on for everything else.

 

Was there much bloatware on your system? Do you think its better to use the restore partition or just do clean installs in the future? I know the Dell restore would be much easier and less time consuming, but I always think there's extra junk you wouldn't need...

 

There is a dissadvantage to getting rid of the restore partitiion. If you have future problems and you need Dell svc regarding the software (ie Vista not working properly), they will instruct you to do a restore on the phone. Its a pain explaining why you deleted this and getting cooperation from then on.

There is not much bloatware on the 1330 but I have read where elimination of it increases start speed by 20-30 sec.

Try this...its free:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/features

I would recommend only people touching their system if they know what they are doing or not afraid to tackle problems...

 

When I turn off IE7, iTunes, and STEAM I have 43 processes running and I didn't do a clean install. My laptop boots up and shuts down MUCH quicker than my Inspiron E1705 did.

If you're unsure about a clean install, go through and delete what you won't be using, defrag and use a program to clean up the bits and pieces of files still laying around. I prefer to use nCleaner as it is free, works great and registry cleaner aswell.

 

well Steam doesn't work on my M1330... for some odd reason after steam loads it automatically stops responding. My windows runs fine and everything else is working except steam. I can't do anything with it once I pass login stage. Does anyone know why this might happen?

PS: Steam takes up 38-55% of my cpu power and just sits there after.

 

Apart from reinstalling it I don't have any idea Murdoc. I'm at around 3% CPU usage with everything going on right now. (Including Steam)

 

Thanks for that link, that program works like a charm, but it says to remove norton anti virus, whats a good replacement for it, thanks.

 

AVG Free or Avast antivirus (the free versions)

 

I use AVG as well and have for years... I find it to be the least memory consuming program outthere...

 

I'm a huge AVG fan as well, picked it up from The Screensavers on TechTV. Anything those guys recommend, I'll use. Thankfully their still around on TWIT, Revision3 and DL.TV.

 

Quick question, when I've used the Dell Restore CD to install drivers, on my previous Dell systems, there's a little check mark next to the drivers that the CD auto-detects. However, there are a lot more devices on my machine than the little check marks indicate. Do you think I should go to Dell Support and download all the drivers manually?

 

Thats what I do... When you go to dell Support, input you Tag number and locate the drivers there.

You may have to write down the number and what each driver is once you find them just to remember.

 

From my experience, they sometimes give you drivers that don't correspond do your system, like all the mobile net cars from the cell phone carriers. I guess you can just read and take off the ones you don't need...

 

The exact same thing happens to me! I can't figure it out. My specs are identical to yours as far as I can tell. Anybody else?

Also, Murdoc, what brand of Vista are you running?

 

according Games for Windows magazine, steam dosnt work well on vista. you will have to wait for Valve to update steam.

 

Why would it work for some and not others with the same system? There must be a reason.

Yo, try uninstalling Advanced Video FX Engine. Seems to work.

 

steam works fine on my vista partition

 

Lost Planet, one of the few DX10 titles, runs exclusively via steam, so how can steam be incompatible with vista? Doesn't make any sense

About SATA driver - you need that if u intend to run your drive in AHCI mode. AFAIK, AHCI=SATA2 mode with all the enhancements, basic mode is for compatibility with SATA1 drives=slower than AHCI.

 

I find that a format is the only real way to go . Installing ultimate as we speak

 

i got it working thanks

 

Wouldn't one want that though? Who wouldn't want AHCI mode?

 

I am having trouble installing Dell MediaDirect on a new HD.

I created 2 partitions, C=80GB, D=104GB, and left 2GB of unallocated space. Installed Windows on C, formatted D. When I try to install MediaDirect, it keeps saying the HD is not prepared. I thought you can have a max of 4 partitions, 1 for MediaDirect. Am I doing something wrong?

 

Unless its changed, mediadirect installs automatically.

Put MD3 disk in, reboot, F12 and boot from disk.
Follow instructions and create partitions.
It will then tell you to replace with Windows disk, reboot
and same same
Windows will start and ask what partition you want to install it on. Select and voila.
At the end it will tell you to reinsert MD3 disk to complete.

 

I used my Vista Business to install Vista...

 

did you read the directions that came with the Media Direct CD?

 

There isn't a real restore partition on Vista systems. Can't do a system restore without the DVD. I know it couldn't be done on the M1330 or my E1505.

 

Apologies, I know with the m1210 there was a system restore if you held down F11 during bootup. I had heard it was still there but the new key was F8 now...I sit corrected.

 

Kinda, I think my issue is that I didn't use the MediaDirect CD to partition my drives. I did this through the Windows install. I guess I will try again tomorrow.

 

SO, has anyone who has done a reinstall had any issues?
I'd really like to hear from you all. I'm planning to do it tomorrow. The only thing is my system is working fine and i wouldn't to do this and make it work 'not fine.'
My reasons for doing this are to get back that 9.99GB from the restore partition (there isn't a way to get it back without reinstalling right?), and perhaps knock off a few processes from the task manager.

Thanks berry mucho!