Time to "Reformat" Help me out!

Hello everyone,

So I have had my Sager 5792 for over a year now (1 year 1 month) to be exact, and have never reformatted it. Granted I don't see any major problems with my system at the moment, I just feel its probably a good idea to give it a clean/fresh start. Although I have reformatted several Dells with XP I have never reformatted a Vista system So I want to make sure I do it correctly.


What I have

Sager 5792
Midern Computer INC Recovery DVD-ROM for Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
Device Drivers and Utilities + User Manual Disc
Nero 7 Home Essentials Disk

and

LOTS OF TIME.

Firstly, can do a proper format with the recovery DVD provided by Sager?

Secondly, are there any tricks, or special procceses to be done during re-install.

Thirdly, will I have to re-enter any sort of Windows Activation #'s etc. I don't want to reformat and be stuck with a unlicensed version of Windows or anything ya know.


So can someone, experienced in this whole Vista Reformat thing, either re-direct to me a accurate guide, or create a new step by step process for me to follow (preferably with screen shots)

THANK YOU MUCH!

(I would like to do this tomorrow or the next day too )

 

not what I was looking for at all...

Especially your first response, what does No Such Thing mean???

And what exactly will I be asked as far as the reactivation of windows? Will it just ask for the number on the bottom of my laptop or what?

Anyone else....and please if you don't have time to give a proper answer, don't half A** it. If I wanted Googles advice I'd ask there, but I prefer a more personal response, from people who have similar systems / and from a helpful community.
Nirvana come on AIM so I can yell at you for this response... epic fail.

 

I am looking at a disc that I got from Sager called...

Midern Computer INC.
Recovery DVD-ROM for
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 Bit..




Is that not a recovery DVD? Cause it says it is in a title...

Since when are you so sarcastic?

Don't see ya.. send me a message.

 

I do not know? Thats why I am asking............................I have a drivers and utilities disc tho...

Anyway, my first post again is what I have - I need some help from the community to fill in the blanks on how to reformat properly.

and im not your little brother so maybe you could just be a pal and remind me

Thanks

 

and the windows activation? what # do i need?

and how come i got recovery dvd's and not an OEM disc...

 

Yep thanks

Any chance I can get you, just for the sake of me having a guide to follow...
putting together a step by step for me?

Thanks. Haven t done this in a while.

 

Redeeming yourself yes... yes...

Still more of a step by step guide would be REALLY appreciated

 

OK, if it's like the "Recovery Disk" that came with my Asus, then it's always considered "active", with no need to enter any activation code, activate, etc.

Here's what I do:

1.) I hunt down all the newest/latest versions of the drivers and utilities I need, and then burn them to a CD, so that I have an updated/current drivers disk.

2.) Reformat the HD/OS partition to NTFS.

3.) Run the Recovery Disk, which installs Vista.

4.) Install all of my drivers and utilities.

5.) Configure the system.

6.) Install and configure any software.

Also you should check and see if there's an updated BIOS available for your notebook, and if so, considered updating your BIOS before the reinstall.

If you have any questions about this that I may be able to help you with, likie more details about things or something else; please let me know!

 

hey bro, to solve your key issues, download the free trial of the program called advisor. it will tell you the CD keys of ALL software currently installed on the computer, the license keys, and your OS keys. really good stuff check it out

 

What happened to this thread? Garandhero seems to be talking to himself

You might want to check to see if your Vista recovery DVD is service pack 1 and if not, use VLite to integrate SP1 into it, if you want to set up a custom reinstall DVD for your machine. While you're at it, you can integrate all your drivers into your Vista install with the program as well, saving some time now and in future installs.

http://www.vlite.net/

As poopdawg27 mentioned, there are various programs that will fetch all your keys for installed programs out there - that's really the best way to go about reinstalling.

On a side tangent, if your system is running fine, there's no need to reinstall. You'll probably be better served by running an antivirus scan, a couple of spyware scans (SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes are what I'd recommend), CCleaner, yanking out stuff loading with Hijackthis, uninstalling unneeded programs, running a checkdisk and defragmenting. It's not like a clean install of an OS, well Windows, is the best solution for a performance increase (as a lot of extraneous things install on default installs).

</a month later after thread was asked...>

 

Reinstallations are a waste of time and energy (if they can be avoided). In future you should use a disk imaging program such as Drive Snapshot or Acronis True Image to take a complete snapshot of your entire system in its clean freshly installed working state.

If your system is running fine then you should not do a reinstall. I agree with what ''Tarentum'' said, Instead you should do a full antvirus and anti spyware scan, full defrag, disk error check, system error check, temporary files clean out and give your fans a clean.

Since your system is already working fine, you should do a snapshot of it as I suggested.

If it aint broke, don't fix it right.