Reformat HD or Add / Remove?

I've heard that Dell installs quite a lot of bloatware on their laptops. Will I have a noticable difference in speed on my 640m when removing programmes using the Control Panel as opposed to wiping the HD and reinstalling Windows XP?

 

If you do it that you will want to run a reg cleaner while you are in safe mode in windows, once you uninstall the programs you don't want. I didn't notice a big difference between the 2 options.

 

Personally I just reinstall the OS

 

I would reformat. I always do it after getting a new pc. Ghost it after ward and save to DVDs. This way, you can put this image back every year to get rid of all the junks, spyware thru the year.

 

I'm still unsure - I've never reformatted the HD / reinstalled Windows in my life before and don't want anything to go wrong.

Could a few more people give their opinions, please?

 

it's much easier to screw up with add/remove.

when you do a reinstall, all you do is answer 2 or 3 questions during the process... the rest is just waiting around while the install does all the work.

there's a thread at the top of the dell forum where these questions/procedures have already been outlined

 

Another vote for a re-install here. I've noticed that Dell has been installing less bloatware when I compare what was on my latest Inspiron E1405 to my old Dimension 8200 where it was so bloated things didn't work right and Dell told me to re-install XP. Go figure. Screwing up a fresh install is hard to do. The only tricky part for first timers is the partition setup, but even that is easy.

 

I vote for the reinstall too, but I know if you haven't done it before, it can be scary. Like the others said, it is a really easy process. It is just the idea of what you are doing.

With reinstalls, your laptop will be completely clean. If you add/remove, you'll still have keys, folders, and a bunch of files left behind. The actual formatting and installing XP takes about an hour, but pretty much you just have to wait while it does it thing.

If you want to and if you have a second computer, I can walk you through the process using AIM or some other messenger.

 

I feel so dirty if I don't do a clean install.

 

l'll be getting my E1405 tomorrow and i'm kinda weary about doing a clean install, l'm hoping that add/remove programs should be enough to clean it up but l guess it won't. ls it as simple as popping in the MCE recovery disk (l spent the extra $10 on it), formatting, and then installing the drivers disk? Will it screw up my mediadirect partition? l read your sticky southerngirl but l'm still kinda confused on that.

 

I'm going to try to write a post about how to repair Media Direct and in corporate it into my sticky.

Basically leave the smallest partition alone. You can deleted/edit/create partitions from the other two partitions. I'll try to have a more detailed thing up on how to make the disc and exactly what you need to do.

As i said in my previous post to Central, if you want, I can walk through the process with you when you are ready to format. I am always online.

 

Ok but l have one more quick question; when l reformat the HDD l can choose just to do it on the partition with Windows, and Media Direct would be untouched wouldn't it?

 

Untouched, yes. But still it won't work correctly until you run throught the media direct repair utility. It's a piece of cake too. 3 minutes tops after you burn it to cd.

 

Ok, thanks.

 

don't even dick around by adding/removing the programs...i did it at first just so i could see how much garbage and how much fasteer it would be once i reinstalled the OS from scratch....

...trust me (and everyone else)....just reinstall it right out of the box.

 

I got MCE on my E1405 and installed my copy of XP pro. I didn't even care about the media direct, just blew it away. I don't really have a use for it.

 

I just did it today in the process of installing Ubuntu Linux (an OS) and its one of the easiest things there is to do. All the warnings of "THIS IS IRREVERCIBLE", "ERASE ALL DATA!?!", are just intimidating but if you actually want to erase the drive, literally nothing can go wrong. The worst thing that could happen is... you erase you hard drive.

~ Brett