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    Reformatting Envy 15

    Discussion in 'HP' started by Sleepy1212, Jul 14, 2010.

  1. Sleepy1212

    Sleepy1212 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hey,

    I just bought a new first gen envy 15 and was wondering about reformatting it with a clean install of Win7 (not factory state, just plain old Win7). When reading around the forums it seems like I have to backup the swsetup or whatever or is that just optional? Will a clean install of Win7 play nice with the hardware? Of course, I'll prolly install whatever drivers I need later.
     
    Sleepy1212, Jul 14, 2010
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  2. moviemarketing

    moviemarketing Milk Drinker

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    did you see this guide?
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-hp-laptop-out-box-guide-2-0-windows-7-a.html

    win7 clean install works fine, make sure you install these drivers
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-drivers-software-forum/426181-drivers-hp-envy-15-intel.html

    I know some have experienced crashes when attempting to update the Catalyst drivers or BIOS. If you have the SSD Raid option, there may be some special steps for running the Intel rapid storage driver tools on your drive as well.
     
    moviemarketing, Jul 14, 2010
    #2
  3. Sleepy1212

    Sleepy1212 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ah, thank you for those links and the quick reply.

    One more (stupid) question. Win7 should install fine using the external dvd drive right?
     
    Sleepy1212, Jul 14, 2010
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  4. moviemarketing

    moviemarketing Milk Drinker

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    yes, you should be able to boot from the external dvd in order to start the process. can't remember if you need to press F8 or some key like that when restarting so that your computer boots from the the other drive.

    just make sure to make all your recovery discs or backups first, esp. if you will delete all the partitions
     
    moviemarketing, Jul 14, 2010
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  5. HPEnvy15

    HPEnvy15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Do you guys recommend having a clean install with all the bloatware they put on there?
     
    HPEnvy15, Jul 14, 2010
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  6. erple2

    erple2 Notebook Geek

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    Do you mean to doing a clean install with bloatware, or do you mean to do a clean install because of all of the bloatware on the machine?

    If it's the latter, I'd recommend it. It isn't quite as simple as screwing in a light bulb, but it's pretty close. Just make sure that you can always restore back to a known good configuration (which wouldn't be helpful if you don't have a backup of the restore DVD's)...
     
    erple2, Jul 14, 2010
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  7. moviemarketing

    moviemarketing Milk Drinker

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    do you have an SSD or regular hard drive? on a previous occasion a few months ago, when wiping all the partitions and doing a clean install, I found that the read/write speed dropped a bit, compared to when it was still factory condition but with all the bloatware manually uninstalled.

    however, there may be some more recent Intel Rapid Storage drivers that help to better optimize the SSD and correct any problems like that.
     
    moviemarketing, Jul 14, 2010
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  8. HPEnvy15

    HPEnvy15 Notebook Enthusiast

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    yes the latter, should have worded it better.

    thanks for the tip
     
    HPEnvy15, Jul 14, 2010
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