To reformat, or not to reformat....

Hey guys....

I just ordered a Dell Inspiron 6400 (e1505) (in Canada) and I was wondering whether it is worth reformatting it. I have heard horrible stories of how the computer is loaded with so much bloatware that after a reformat it goes twice as fast. Apparently if you remove programs in control panel/add or remove programs it doesnt work as well. Anyway I'm not exactly a tech savvy guy, so I'm wondering if it is worth reformatting, and if you get the drivers CD (i ordered the OS reinstallation CD, but what about drivers?).

oh and by the way i have a 160 GB external hard drive that is used only as a backup HDD for all our house's computers, should I do a backup on that before wiping it? Should i delete the backup partition that restores the comp to out-of-the-box state, or should i keep that and just delete and remake the main partition...ugh so many questions...any help is appreciated, especially if you can post a link to walk me through the reformat, ive never done it before, although i understand the principle more or less

thanks in advance guys

 

yes make sure you have a back of the origonal stuff but just put that on a dvd
as for drives there should be divers with the computer on a cd.
yes after reformat your computer will be faster
deleting the hidden partion is up to you, you really don't need it if you have a dvd of the origonal os.

wow you do have alot of questions did i miss any?

 

That's something I'm wondering about, too. When my 1210 comes in, I probably won't reformat, since it's my first lappy, and I'm not used to messing with them. I don't want to hose it as soon as I get it. So I'll probably go the "Add/Remove Programs" route, and get rid of as much crapware as I can that way.

It would be nice to know that there's a way to restore it to factory condition even if I reformat (assuming I don't FDISK it and trash the partitions)...is that true?

 

did you not see the "HOW TO FORMAT XP GUIDE" at the top of the forum?

 

I received my I6400 from Dell Canada a few days ago. I love the truelife screen on it. I had to decide whether or not to reformat it. I've always done that on my previous notebooks. So far I've manually deleted the bloatware. I did not regain much disk space but the computer is running very fast. At this point I don't see any point in reformating. From past experience here's why I would or would not do it. I would do it because:

-The hidden partitions take up almost 20gigs of space. Out of the box my 120gig hard drive only had 99gigs of available space.

I would not do it because:

-When you reformat you lose access to the hidden restore partion (if you do not delete it). This means to will lose the ability to restore certain software such as the Dell Media Experience. The backup software that Dell provides does not include this. You have to go the hastle of ordering the disc from them.
-There's no guarantee of a faster running system if you reformat out of the box. Not in my experience.

My suggestion is that you can reformat any time. Use the computer for a while and see how it goes. I am very happy with mine so far.

 

aight thanks, and by the way yuio, thats pretty much all my questions youve answered...

I guess I'll try it out, see how it runs, then delete the bloatware through add/rmove programs

I can always reformat later, just gotta make sure i have all the necessary software and drivers... Dell never seems to send everything

 

I'll be recieving my new 6400 later this week. First thing i'm going to do is backup the whole HD to dvd without ever going into windows so i get a nice clean untouched backup. Basically using bootcd.zip following this guide: http://images.lunarpages.com/pdf/Dell%20Notebook%20Restore%20Utility%20Guide.pdf#search=%22dell%20pdf%20ghost%20restore%20bootcd.zip%22

Afterwards i'll probably use acronis boot cd also to make a second backup just in case. After that i'll be able to screw around with everything, partitions, and what not at the same time feel safe that i can restore everything back to factory.

 

Why not use ghost from norton?

 

ok thanks for the link zubin, i'll look into it, but I still wanna mess around with the factory install (add/remove programs) before i decide on reformatting