Things to do when you first get your dell

I didnt have a format disk so i just tried to delete all the crap programs that came with it. Is there any other things I can do, ive heard of some registry clean up programs....do they help your comp go faster and unclutter it? Any 1 know of good programs I could use that arent viruses or any other way to clean up my system without a format disk. thanks

 

If you want, you can take it to Best Buy, and they will remove it all for you for a nominal charge.

 

hehe id rather do it myself for free and also save the hassle

 

i plan to reinstall after i play with it a bit. ill prolly get the CDs from dell, but i already have a reinstall XP CD of my own. so i dont know if i really need it. so i might just use my CD, then download the drivers online

 

yeah with my E1405, if i just put in a windows xp disk to format it completely, are there any drivers or anything ill need to download?

 

actually, best buy might put in some geed squad junkware on your computer after they're done.

 

Please check the Reformat and Reinstall guide (link in my sig) before you reinstall. There are several things that you need to know before you format.

If you don't want to format, at least run a registry cleaner - you should do that no matter what anyways. We also have an optimize guide in the Dummy Article Forum which will give you all the details on how to optimize your systems.

 

My E1405 came with a C drive of 40 gigs and a D drive of 12 gigs. Can i drag my mp3 files to the D drive then put in an XP disc and format the C drive. Then ill have the same affect of formatting my comp and getting rid of all the crap, and just drag the mp3 files back once i load up windows again?

 

I'm not 100% sure. Supposedly the D drive is your back up drive, so you should be able to put documents and things on it. When you format XP, those will be safe. The problem is that this is a new thing that Dell is doing so I don't know what they did.

 

I'm not sure what the D:\ drive is for either, but when I had an Acer, the hard drive was split into partitions. What I did was format the secondary partition and store my files on it.

If you want to format the D:\ drive, hit Start > Run (or Windows Key +R), then type compmgmt.msc - it will take you to a screen. Click Disk Management on the left, then right-click D:\ and hit format. Once completed, it will be completely clean and you can just use it to store stuff.

 

The D Drive might be partitioned off for Norton Ghost. If you uninstall Norton Ghost, then it will ask you if you want to delete the backup drive that Ghost had created. I did, of course, and now all that space is back on my C drive.

 

Use CCleaner. Excellent programs that cleans up program files, temporary internet files, and cleans registry. Highly recommended!