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

I have used the built in version several times and it works a treat. All features function as described. I used to use Ghost but I have had no need for it.

 

I actually just used it right now for the first time. I like it! I backed up my clean install (Vista and drivers only) to 2 DVDs. I think I'll make another set after I install all of my basic "must have" applications. I might even just back it up to a small portable external hard drive that I can keep in my back pack (in case I need an emergency recovery). Sweet!

 

I am writing my dissertation, and cannot afford to have anything go wrong. I have used it for backing up the complete PC to a portable usb hard drive. And, I am backing up documents to another usb drive and to DVD for redundancy. I avoid keeping the backups and the computer in the same place, because I cannot having them stolen together as that would be catastrophic.

 

You can also email yourself a copy of the stuff periodiclly (using gmail for example), that's pretty reliable.



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Talk about bloat, the amount of hot air... uh hmm pertinent information in in a dissertation balloons them beyond the Google limits. J/K

 

I do this quite often for some things like word documents and pdf files (resume and professional license,certificates and such). I have found that the file size must be below a certain limit. I can't remember of hand. Something like 12-20mb???

 

My chapters are figure heavy and even individually they exceed 25MB which is the high end of email transfer limits. But, I do use gmail to various other items.

 

AFAIK, the only thing that might resolve the issue is the Rescue and Recovery Repair diskette, but you'll need an external floppy drive to use the file. There is a problem with the MBR sector of the HDD after a clean install. I found it easier just to delete the recovery partition, reformat the HDD, and do another clean install.

Stallen, any chance you'll try to do a recovery anytime soon, just to know whether it worked or not? Acronis imaged my HDD without a glitch, but could not recover the data.

 

Can I just use the SWTools folder for drivers after I clean install? (Of course, I'll have the SWTools on a DVD or something) I know they won't be the latest drivers, but can I use it to get started and then update later?

 

Sure. You can do that.

 

So is the Windows Vista built in Recovery program better/same than the Recovery Media we're supposed to use in Stallen's guide? Or am I being stupid and it's the same program?

 

The recover media that you make before doing the clean install is using rescue and recovery. You probably won't ever need them, but it's nice to have them just in case you want to revert back to the original install with all the bloatware or in the unusual even that something goes wrong during the clean install.

The media you will use to actually do the clean install is the "anytime upgrade" DVD. The links are provided were you can purchase them for $5 in the guide. An OEM or retail Vista DVD can also be used. Basically they are all the same.

After you have finished with the clean install and have installed all of your drivers (and applications if you wish) you can use the built-in Vista recovery program. To make a new set of recovery disks that will recover your clean install system. I believe the built-in Vista recovery program is only available on Vista Business and Ultimate. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Of course Acronis True Image is available to everyone for 30-day trial to try out. It is probably superior to Rescue and Recovery or Vista's built-in recovery.

 

I know it's in Ultimate, and the chart says it's in Business. It's called "Complete PC Backup", and I can verify that it works well (at least for me it did).

 

I am planning to do a clean install as soon as I get my Vista upgrade DVD, so I am trying to gather all the drivers and software I will need before I get this disc..

So far I have made my recovery DVDs, and I am on the next step which is copying the directory c:/swtools/drivers to a CD. My question is: What is the point of this? If I am downloading all the drivers in step two, why do I need the swtools/drivers directory?

 

The C:\swsetup folder contains more than drivers. It has other software in there, like quickplay, roxio, norton, fingerprint reader, etc... You may not want all of that (sort of the point of doing the clean install), but you might want some of it. So that's the main reason.

If you don't save it and you decide you want something later, your only option is to do a full restore, losing any data, so you can get at what you want.

 

I don't plan on ever needing any of that... but who knows... so why not? Disks are cheap so I did it.

 

Yes better safe then sorry. I didn't figure it would contain stuff that would be bothersome to obtain elsewhere.

 

Guide update to include more specific instructions for installing the bluetooth driver.

 

hi

i did restore to the factory setting by the original installation dvd recovery
but now the vista need to activate again
why ?
is this because i update the bios ?

 

Activation shouldn't have anything to do with BIOS updates. If you were trying to follow the guide, why don't you just use the ABR utility to restore the activation. If you didn't do that then call microsoft to have it activated. I can't offer much more information than that. I have very little interest in restoring factory bloatware/bugware settings. However, I wish you the best on whatever you are trying to accomplish

 

can this problem happen if i switch the harddisk with other one and then switch again to the first one ?

 

I followed the instructions and I now have a sqeaky clean Vista Ultimate install. Thanks to all who contributed info.

 

A little off topic... but is the 64bit version faster in regular use than the 32bit ? or do u need specificially 64bit apps running to have any gain ?


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There is much debate about this and all the studies I have seen seem to conflict with each other. You can find lots of information with google.

It seems to me that benchmarks show that most 32-bit applications running on 64-bit show a very slight decrease in performance compared to 32-bit running on 32-bit, but nothing noticeable in real life performance. Occasionally some benchmarks show that a particular 32-bit application will have a performance increase on 64-bit Vista.

Of course these tests are always running the application on the same system. The typical 32-bit Vista system can only use ~3GB of RAM while 64-bit Vista allows use of 4GB of RAM on the typical laptop (much much more RAM than that if the system supports it). So I would come to the conclusion that most RAM hungry 32-bit applications would perform better on a 64-bit system with 4GB RAM than a 32-bit system with only 3GB RAM.

If the application is 64-bit there would be no doubt that you would see even much bigger gains in performance. And of course, you wouldn't even be able to try out a 64-bit application on a 32-bit system.

I adopted 64-bit Vista because I do use some RAM intensive applications. I wanted to max out the RAM on my system. I also switched because I have heard more positive things about system stability from 64-bit Vista than 32-bit Vista. I don't have much personal experience with Vista, but so far all I can say is 64-bit seems very stable. I'm happy with it.

I think the driver support is pretty good now. You just need to do your homework to make sure all of your hardware and software have driver support. Most mainstream applications and hardware are supported.

I believe the next OS from Microsoft will only be available in 64-bit. Although, that's probably 4-5+ years from now. (guess)

 

I just searched this thread for "t60", and did not find any matches. Would these clean install instructions be valid for my t60 (windows vista business) as well? Thanks.

 

Yes, this guide will work on any computer regardless or brand or model. However, the links provided for the drivers are specifically for all Lenovo models. Enjoy!

 

I ordered my Anytime Upgrade DVD on Aug 14, today's the 25th...I still haven't received anything in the mail.

Do you guys know how to cancel the order... I am guessing it's not worth it because you have to pay for shipping again for the CD to return to compusa.

I could have already downloaded the whole thing from torrent by now...

 

I ordered it from compusa as well on the 19th but it hasn't come yet. Funny how they ship it separetely from everything else...I ordered a mouse on the same day and that came in 4 days. I don't even have a tracking number for this one. They did provide some tracking link but that doesn't work.

 

Have you guys called them? I guess I will remove the links from the guide if this doesn't get straightened out. Please let me know how it works out.

 

Hey, one question about drivers. Your Step 1 says to back up "c:/swtools/drivers". Subsequently, Step 2 also says to download drivers online. I see in the instructions where we install the drivers from Step 2 (downloaded) but I don't see where we use the drivers from Step 1 (swtools). Could you clarify this for me? Thanks a bunch.

 

Step 1: You will probably not ever use the recovery disks that you make. Also, you will probably never use the drivers in swtools. I just put this in the guide just in case anyone wants to revert back to the factory install. Disks are cheap so why not do it.

Step 2: I suggest using the downloaded drivers because that is a sure bet that you will be installing the latest drivers available. You don't want to use the drivers that you backed-up from swtools in step 1. You can, but many of them are probably older drivers than what you can download.

At this point, I think the guide is complete. If you follow all the steps you'll get the job done right. I didn't say what to do with the files you back up from step 1 because there is nothing to do with them except to store them away.

 

I ordered mine on the 14th and it supposedly shipped on the 15th according to the email I received. Also I can't track my order and every time I go to the my order status page, it says something like tracking status is not available at this time.

 

Frequently asked questions updated in the guide to include information on backing up after doing a clean install.

 

Hello, thank you for your contribution. I was so happy to finally find information on how to remove the hidden partition and bloatware on my T60.
Unfortunately I am having problems gaining all my hard drive back. To be specific, I have a T60 with a 120GB HD. I want to make as much of my HD useable as possible. I don't want a recovery partition.
1)I have burned recovery disks and backed up activation.
2)I have used the diskpart guide to delete a 7GB partition.
3)Next I used the anytime upgrade disk to do a clean install as in the Clean Install Guide.

Immediately after the clean install here's where I stand:
Disk 0: partition 1: 104.81 of disk space, only 93.52 free (windows was installed here) and then there is partition 2: 6.98 GB. If you do the math there are still about 8.5GB unaccounted for. Is this as good as it gets?

In step 12 of the Clean Install Guide, I was unable to see any recovery partition to delete. Any options to expand the largest volume were shaded out. Months ago I once used to recovery disks to restore my system to the factory settings. Is this why I cannot see the recovery partition?

How can I remove all partitions at this time?

 

Thanks for your input. I believe this area of the guide could use a little more explanation since it is probably the most confusing and least understood area of Vista installation. I'll update the guide when I get a chance.

First off, you will always have at least one partition even if it is just one big partition taking up the entire hard drive space. That is what I have and in my opinion is the most desirable. It sounds like that is what you are after as well.

There are two ways to accomplish this. The first way, during Vista install when you see the screen under Step 3.12 you should see all of your partitions. It is best to just selct them one at a time and click delete/erase/remove (I forget the exact word that is used. After you have removed all partitions, just create a new partition and give it the maximum size Vista install will allow. This will give you one big partition and no other partition.

The second way can be done after Vista is already installed. This method involves using diskpart.

To do this...

Go to start and type "diskpart" (without the quotes) in the start search blank. Press enter.
Next type "diskpart" press Enter
Next type "list disk" press Enter
Highlight disk 0 and type "select disk 0" (This should be your primary and largest partition)
Next type "list partition" press Enter
Next type "select partition 1" press Enter (This should be aound 7GB, the partition you are trying to remove)
Next type "delete partition override" and press Enter

That should do it. I will probably add something about this to the guide. Let me know how this works out for ya.

 

120GB X 93% = 111.6 GB.

I'm not understanding you correctly: could you clarify? So you have removed a 7GB partition initially using diskpart (what was in the partition). Now after the clean install, you have a primary partition, that is about 93.52GBs, and a second partition of 6.98GBs. So in total, you had 3 partitions on your HDD. Is this correct?

If the 6.98GB partition that you have left on your HDD is the lenovo recovery partition, and you wish you remove it, just follow the diskpart guide and you should be able to delete it that way. Since you have already done the clean install, and i take it you dont want to do another one, you must use a 3rd party software to remove the partition entirely from your hard drive. If you decide to do another clean install, you can remove the partition and reformat the entire hard drive volume as one primary partition while you go through the OS install steps.

 

Ahhh... I missed that he already used diskpart. Anyway, if there is another partition just remove it the same way with diskpart.

As for hypertrophy's math equation, I think what he is trying to tell you is that any HDD you install is only going to be able to use about 93% of its stated capacity. So your 120GB HDD will only have ~111-112GB available for use. My 200GB drive only has 186GB available.

 

Thanks for the little correction. That's exactly what i was trying to convey with my little equation.

We need to know if the 6.98GB partition is the Lenovo hidden recovery partition. If it is, and it's protected, he must use diskpart to delete the partition volume. If it's just an ordinary partition, then he can delete the partition using disk management.

 

Hey hypertrophy... I hadn't seen you diskpart guide until just now. Very nice. I think I'll provide a link to that somewhere in the guide if you don't mind. Maybe under the Frequently Asked Questions.

I think I will also add more information under Step 3.12 to get rid of the hidden partition during install. Does my description a couple posts above sound about right?

 

Thanks. Sounds good to me. Feel free to do so.

Your description is spot on. The reason i chose to use "x" instead of telling them to select partition 1 is because just in case the partition number is different for some reason or another, i dont want them to accidentally delete the wrong partition. Using a variable they are able to look up the exact/correct partition themselves. I know Thinkpads use to have the recovery partition set as partition 2.

 

Would it be too much trouble to ask somoene to image the "Windows Anytime Upgrade Disc" and let me (and others I assume) download it? I have had a fiasco trying to get this disc (ordered through compusa 2 times!) and have had it with waiting. I checked the torrents and there are so many versions, I'm not sure which are "real", etc.

If this is inappropriate - please delete this post or just let me know. But I don't think this is illegal since I have bought a licensed version of Vista (business on a new X61s). Thanks!

 

I have a Lenovo-branded Vista Business disc, that I got during the Express Upgrade deal that ended around March 16. Will that work as well?

 

I'm not sure. My guess is that you can use that disk to get Vista onto your system. Just follow what ever instructions you have for doing that. THEN follow this guide to make it a clean install.

You can try to use the disk in place of the anytime upgrade DVD, but I only know for sure that this works with the anytime upgrade disk, retail disk, or OEM disk. If you try, let me know if it works.

 

Hypertrophy and Stallen, thanks for your replies. I think I understand you correctly now; my total HD size is 120 GB of which I can use about 111 GB (93% of 120) and so after windows (about 12GB) is installed I am left with about 99 GB, which is what I have now.

I still have two partitions though, one is an unallocated ~7 GB and the other is 104 GB primary. I can format the unallocated partition to be useable, but I prefer one large partition. Stallin, I will try to do another clean install and delete/remove/or whatever all partitions in step 3.12 as you suggested above, is this reasonable?

 

Sure, that's reasonable... but if you've already done a clean install you should be able to just use diskpart to get rid of any other partitions.

If you do another clean install, please jot down the steps involved in removing the partition. I have updated the guide (Step 3.12) but I probably don't have the wording just right. I can't remember if you select remove/delete or what.

 

I was not able to remove the partition with diskpart... not sure why. I did the clean install. I did the clean install before I read your request for the steps, but I'm pretty sure this is how it goes. When the screen shown in step 3.12 is shown you need to:

1)click on drive options (advanced)
2)select the smaller recovery partition and click delete
3)select the larger partition and click format and select the largest size available (if you want max disc space).
4)In the end I have one large partition (111 GB but windows takes up another 9 GB or so).

Thanks again for your help, you're awesome!!!

 

Sorry if this has been answered... but what driver am I missing here: (see pic)... I installed Intel Turbo Memory, so that's not it.



...thanks...

 

Turbo memory.

 

@kachofool - I agree with aadams. It must be the turbo memory driver. I find it interesting that you have "SCSI/RAID Host Conroller" listed there. I don't have that.

did you install the Turbo Memory driver from Intel or Lenovo? I suggest installing theone from Lenovo even if you already installed it... try again and reboot. If that doesn't work then uninstall it - REBOOT and install it then REBOOT again.

 

How do I determine whether or not I even have TurboMemory? Maybe the problem is I installed it and I don't really have it?