Clean Install Guide (works for 32-bit or 64-bit)

Take a loot at the "Where my disk space" guide in my sig.

 

My girlfriend had CA installed in her old laptop with Windows XP and she was having problems with internet connection. Sometimes she couldn’t enter in some internet pages where I could easily enter. Maybe it is the CA. She just moved to another firewall and everything was ok.

If you plan, for example, to use internet by cable or telephone, yes.

 

Thank you Stallen. Finished a clean install last night and everything is working properly and faster than before. I have never clean installed any OS, but using this guide made it straightforward and simple, now giving me more confidence should I have to do it again in the future. My only advice is to read everything in his guide carefully before proceeding...reading the installation notes next to the driver and patch downloads made everything way too easy.

With the clean install on a 100 GB HD, I am down to 72 GB after installing Vista, Office 2007 Ultimate, and a bunch of software I use for research.

thanks again Stallen.

 

Thanks for your help. I tried searching but was not sure which one to go off. Can you post a link please?

 

Thanks for your input Cherude.

I would say that CA is the problem since the "callingid" thing has nothing to do with anything Vista could come up with on its own. Hopefully CA will come up with a bug patch... otherwise you might want to look for an alternative.

As for the patches. double click on the downloaded file. Right after you double click the file it will show you were the file will be extracted. Write down that location, then navigate to that location and click on the .exe file to apply the patch.

(This is how almost all of the drivers are installed as well. If you don't know how to install these patches, I can't help but think you probably didn't get some of your drivers installed as well).

 

Thanks. I'll try shutting off the firewall tonight and see if it makes any difference. I did try installing Firefox this am and seeing if it was just an IE thing, but I got the same message. I do remember Computer Associates just added Vista support recently, hopefully it is just a bug like you suggest that they haven't addressed yet. I really like my clean install and hate the thought of having to restore back!

 

are you running windows mobile or palmOS?

 

palm OS for a treo 700p

 

BTW...there is a new intel turbo memory driver out (1.5), the bundled matrix storage driver included is also upgraded to 7.8 from 7.6

 

im not really that familiar with palm...
but try this:
http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/...upportKB,ts=Palm_External2001,Case=obj(13950)

and if the above doesnt work....
http://treo.about.com/od/treobasics/ht/bluetoothsync.htm

also do the following... control panel >> bluetooth devices >> options tab >> check the box "allow bluetooth devices to find this computer"
once you know you have everything setup you can uncheck this box (for security issues), and everything should work fine in the future.

let me know if this works

 

Just reporting:

I have completed my clean install following all stallen's steps and no problem at all. Vista is running like a wild (and very clean) horse

Thanks Stallen.

 

diddo!
i also made the jump up to 64bit vista... so far no problems.

 

Now do something useful with that big blue button!: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=171644

 

That's cool! Thanks!
I was exactly thinking if it would not be possible!

 

Ickysmits, Mikeee's software didn't work for me... Guess it doesn't work on Vista. So I am doing it manually. I want to use the blue button to shutdown (turn off), not hibernate. Should I use the command:

@echo off
shutdown ( without "/h" )

And name the notepad file as shutdown.bat???

 

I really don’t know, I only compiled the information from people who are more knowledgeable with computers. The utility didn't work for me either but others reported it worked for them in Vista.

Having said that, it might be easier for you to just tell the laptop to shut down when you close the lid: go to Control Panel => Power Options => Choose what closing the lid does (on the left) => and tell your laptop to shut down when you close the lid from the options. Much easier and leaves an option to use the button for a program you might use more often.

If there is something specific you want the button to do, I’d like to suggest you ask on that thread. Maybe someone can help and I can add it as an alternative.

Edit: darn, I just noticed I'm post #666...spooky

 

I guess I found...
The commands are similar to hibernate:

“shutdown /h” is a hibernate
“shutdown /r” is a restart
and
“shutdown /s” is a shutdown and power off

I will test and if it works i will post there.

 

Well, I had to uninstall my CA internet security in total, and now my problem is solved. Can anyone suggest a free alternative?

Thanks again for all the help!

 

If money doesn't matter, my favorite anti-virus is nod32 (for 32-bit or 64-bit). My favorite anti-spyware is spysweeper (32-bit only; I just use Vista built-in for 64-bit).

If money is an issue, then my favorite free utilities are AVG anti-virus and Adaware SE

I don't want to turn this into a "What is the best anti-virus utility" thread. Their are already too many of those. Just search. Also, if you go to Dave's Computer Tips and click on the left side under "navigation". You will find many resources and links to the best Paid and free utilities. Check it out!

 

I will, thanks!

 

Just completed the clean install of Vista 64 on a T61p. Worked like a champ. Thanks!

One note -- the Intel Turbo Memory and Matrix programs (driver install steps 2 and 3) are now both combined in one driver download, and thus steps 2 and 3 are actually now step 2.

 

the reason why they were listed as seperate before is because the older turbo mem driver had an old matrix driver bundled in. As a result, you would need to download the latest matrix driver and install it on top of the one included in turbo memory

there's a new driver out dated on 11/3/07, which combines the latest turbo mem 1.5 and the latest matrix driver 7.8, so those 2 steps can be changed in to 1

 

That would be the case if everyone had Turbo Memory, but I want the guide to be user friendly for those without Turbo Memory as well.

I am aware of the drivers.

Step 2 is the link for the new driver.

I just haven't decided how I want to word step 2 and step 3. I might put for step 3: "Skip this step if you have turbo memory." But then it causes confusion.

I the meantime, there is no harm by installing the matrix driver twice.

 

Stallen, do you think a matrix driver is even a necessity for those w/o turbo mem? I ran my notebook for a month without having turbo memory, nor the matrix driver that came along with it installed and I didn't notice any issues

 

As far as I know, the matrix driver has nothing to do with Turbo Memory. As I understand it, it is the driver for your hard drive. I would suspect that the matrix driver is another driver that windows updates installed for you and you didn't even realize it. Regardless, windows vista will run on generic SATA drivers, but if you want maximum performance and stability it is always best to run the drivers that are designed for your specific laptop as opposed to old generic windows drivers.

 

I made a screenshot of it and there is no mention of installing anything related to SATA or AHCI from windows upgrade. I would say my system was running at max performance w/o matrix, it was lightning quick. I don't think anything could have made it quicker. It was also very stable...a solid month without any sleep/resume issues or freezes or BSOD's

 

Can you show me some benchmarks with and without the matrix driver?

Did you use every possible application on your system during that one month?

Did perform every possible type of file transfer with your hard driver?

Did you use more than one brand of hard drive?

It's great that it worked out for you, but for someone with a different hard drive, or using a different application, or transferring different file types or sizes, or any combination of other variables, might not have the same luck.

It's like saying that you put a renal failure patient on a regular diet (generic driver) for a month and they did fine. You know that a renal diet (specialized driver) would be better right? (Medical analogies never seem to work very well with computers... just having fun.)

 

yea that's true (med analogy)...however, i have tried every single transfer possible, BT, external to internal, vice versa, internal to internal, SD card to internal, vice versa without any issues.

this is like high dosages of vitamin C curing my polio (from last nights house md)...but only my case..may not work well with others..agreed!

 

so let me get this straight... we have a patient with renal failure and polio, who is on a specialized renal and vitamin c diet....

if by some chance the vit c treatment works, the patient (your T61) will probably need a kidney transplant (upgrade to the 7200rpm HD). after the transplant, the patient will be severly immunosupressed (because you will do a lenovo factory install instead of stallen's clean install)... so we might as well upgrade to the T7500 to handle the extra bloatware (immunosupressive drugs and opertunistic infections).

although personally, i think the patient is screwed... ditch the sucker and buy a new T61

 

lol..we are better off keeping comps and med fields separate since the analogies make no sense

Thanks for those links earlier bomber stud, I'll try those tips out if i ever decide to install x64

 

We need to get a clean install guide like this one for Window XP Pro users.

 

Right, but I guess I wasn't clear. The link to the Matrix driver actually takes you now to a legacy driver. There is only one driver install program for both Turbo and Matrix. So, regardless of system, there is only one program to download, I think?

Again, thanks for your work on this. The process was flawless, and I can't believe how much quicker everything runs without all the software that came with the computer. (And maybe because of the x64 interface as well...)

 

I understand what you are saying now. When you install the Turbo Memory driver you will get the Matrix Storage Driver version 7.8.0.1012. However, when you install the Matrix Storage Driver alone you get version 7.6.0.1011.

I realize that, but since the "newer" Matrix driver is bundled with Turbo Memory but not offered alone. I assume that the new Matrix Driver is only supported on systems with Turbo Memory.

I will update the guide to make sure that turbo memory users don't install the previous matrix driver.

If you find that Matrix Driver 7.8.0.1012 is offered alone please let me know.

Thanks

 

Stallen, from the readme notes, it states that please only use the matrix driver included with the turbo mem for turbo mem users because it was tested for compatibility. At this time, there is not a stand alone 7.8 matrix.

 

yeah.. I made that assumption. Thanks for confirming

 

There are a lot of XP guides out there. Gather some information together. Go through some trial and error when you get your laptop. Then put together a guide. That's what I did along with another forum member (hypertorphy). I found about 4 different guides (Orev's, Wh1t3w0lf's, jstigall's, and Dave's Computer Tips) that I found helpful. Used information from all of them, did some trial and error on a Thinkpad and then came up with this "Thinkpad Specific" guide.

Go for it!

 

I'm in Australia, and the Anytime Upgrade DVD is not available here. Is there another way to do a clean install of Vista?

Also, I understand the T61p does not come with OS discs, but does it come with a restore DVD (that includes the thirdparty software etc.) should the notebook have a serious problem?

Thanks.

 

You can make the restore disks once you get the computer, but it does not physically come with them.

 

So what do you do if you need to reimage/reformat the machine?

 

The set of disks you are capable of making will do that.

 

I realize that, but making the discs isn't obligatory is it? The average person wouldn't make them and what I'm asking is how you would then restore the OS in that situation.

Thanks.

 

to the australian guy,

At this point, I would recommend just downloading an anytime upgrade for vista off BITorrent. It is not illegal to download the file, as long as you have a license key to go with it

 

Thanks. So it's not region specific?

 

Here is a cut & paste from Step 1 of the guide. This is how to make recovery disks:

"Make Recovery Disks: Open the start menu and in the search box, type "Recovery Media" (without the quotes). Then click Recovery Media from the window. *Be warned, you can only make ONE copy of the recovery media. If you mess up, you'll have to reinstall from the partition again in order to be able to make another recovery disk.* Make sure you have 3 recordable dvd disks available (or 1 CD and 2 DVDs. The first disk can be a CD). It takes 2 to 3 blank disks total. Then just follow the instructions and you'll be all set."

To use the disks to recover, I believe you just boot to the first disk and follow the prompts.

As far as the "anytime upgrade" disk. I don't think it's region specific. At least, it's not "region specific" like DVDs going into a stand alone DVD player "region specific". However, it could have a limited number of languages to choose from. This shouldn't be an issue for Australia. If you notice in Step 3.6 of the guide you will see a screen shot that shows language, time/currency, keyboard/country set-up in the install. I believe all the information you are seeking is available on page 1.

 

Also, keep in mind if you make your own recovery discs...the same bloatware will be installed with it....hence, kind of counter-intuitive for a clean install. YOu are better off downloading a torrent version and doing a clean install with that. This is only for those outside the US who really have no other way of getting their hands on an anytime upgrade disc

Just be very careful what you download. Torrent sites are known to have many fakes with viruses. Read all comments to a specific torrent carefully. There have been many occasions when I was downloading a tv show, and it was not what I expected.

 

I had an excellent tracker for the retail install disks (both 32-bit and 64-bit) but demonoid.com is down again so they don't work. Major bummer

 

Thank you so much for your excellent guide. I was having endless problems with all the ThinkVantage programs and unnecessary bloatware that came preinstalled on my T61. Vista was freezing up all the time.

I followed your guide and did a clean install -- installing only the necessary drivers listed -- and my T61 is now working essentially perfectly.

It would have taken me many hours to figure out everything in your guide on my own by reading the various posts -- time I did not have.

I am grateful you put together such a helpful, accurate guide.

-Wes

===

My computer:
Thinkpad T61
Windows Vista
14" widescreen (1440 x 900)
2 Gig RAM
T7300 Core2 Duo processor
100 Gig 7200rpm hard drive
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140m
Intel Turbo mem
Bluetooth
a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter
9 cell battery

 

stallen just wanted to say your guide worked aces for me. Just having this annoying Bluetooth problem but it isn't related to your guide as it was there before the clean install. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the advice guys. Any other good torrents for the Anytime Upgrade disc? I can't find any and I'm usually pretty good at finding these things.

 

Any retail disc will do. You don't specifically need the Anytime Upgrade disc. Just make sure to get 32bit or 64bit, depending on your needs.