Miscellaneous laptop discussions forum: Full Install or Reformat

in your choices. A clean install will offer you the option to format. This method gives you a pristine installation and is best for a fresh start.

Here's the scoop:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

I definitley agree w/Bob and you'd better back up all drivers prior.. Sonys getting tighter by the minute on downloadable factory drivers and such. It wont come with a recovery disk set either... Pop a second drive in and install the XP pro to se whats missing or not working prior to wiping the factory drive out..

Most manufacturers either supply a driver CD or they have the drivers assessible on their websites but apparently Sony is remiss in this instance.

Note that HP/Dell, etc have ongoing notebook bios and driver updates that are current that should be downloaded as well for optimal performance (and sometimes to correct errors with keyboard keystrokes, etc)

If sony are not providing a recovery CD
or any other such helps aren't they in
breach of their licence with Microsoft?

I know over here in Oz Microsoft go on and on
about how a new pc or laptop has to come with
all the CDs or it's not legal....

But Bob is correct I think

I bought a refurbished HP Pavilion desktop that did not come with any program or recovery discs, or even a manual. Is there a way to make a set of recovery discs, and would my HP have the instructions on how to do that? Forgive my dumbness.

Ali

Didn't offer to make the CDs but looking around the Start menu and such I did find it. It's too bad that they didn't make it obvious.

Bob

Correct and they can be a bear to find on the website but they are generally availble..(Took me an hour to find a recovery disk for an S-360 Vaio).. Literlly

12.95 and all was good...

Reformat it, which I do personally recommend, but don't just jump to it, take time to do these things and don't reformat outta box and learn the hard way like I did as I would rather not talk about it .

COMPUTERS WITH A RECOVERY PARTITION AND/OR ONLY RECOVERY CDS

0) IF ACCEPTABLE TO MAKE A CD RESTORE IMAGE LIKE ON SOME HP MODEL, DO THIS BEFORE CONTINUING. IF YOU HAVE RECOVERY DISCS, IGNORE THIS STEP.

1) BACK UP ALL FILES TO A CD/EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE, DO NOT TAKE NO CHANCES AS TO WHAT YOU MIGHT/MIGHT NOT NEED AT THIS STEP.

2) VISIT THE COMPANY WEBSITE AND DOWNLOAD ALL UPDATES AND ALSO BACK THEM UP.

3) FORMAT AND REINSTALL WINDOWS.

4) COPY ALL FILES TO DESKTOP INCLUDING THE OLD WINDOWS FOLDER AND SO ON.

5) INSTALL ALL UPDATED DRIVERS (I WOULD INSTALL THE CPU DRIVER AND REBOOT THE COMPUTER FIRST IF NEEDED) (EX. AMD PROCESSOR DRIVER).

6) OPEN DEVICE MAANAGER AND CHECK TO SEE IF ANY DEVICES ARE NOT INSTALLED, NOT FUNCTIONING, SO ON.

IF A DEVICE IS NOT INSTALLED AND YOU DON'T FIND THE SETUP INSTALLER OR DRIVER IN STEP 7, TRY TO INSTALL THE DEVICE BY POINTING THE DEVICE MANAGER TO THE OLD WINDOWS\INF FOLDER WHICH SHOULD BE ON YOUR DESKTOP AS THERE WOULD BE A 90% CHANCE OF HAVING THE DRIVER.

7) SLIVAGE THROUGH THE OLD FOLDERS TO SEE IF YOU CAN FIND THE USEFUL PROGRAM/DRIVER INSTALLERS YOU MAY NEED(EX. C:\SWSETUP FOR HP).

8) ONCE DONE, WHATEVER YOU WANTED TO KEEP/NEED, BURN TO A NEW CD OR BACK UP TO HARD DRIVE.

IF I MISSED ANYTHING, PLEASE TELL ME AS IT IS HARD TO DECRIBE EVERY DETAIL.

COMPUTERS WITH A WINDOWS CD AND AN APPLICATION/DRIVER CD

1) DOWNLOAD ALL DRIVERS FROM THE COMPANY WEBSITE AND BACK UP TO A CD OR EXTERNAL HARD DRIVER.

2) FORMAT AND INSTALL WINDOWS

3) COPY THE UPDATED FILES AND THE APPICATION AND DRIVER CDS TO THE DESKTOP.

4) INSTALL ALL UPDATED DRIVERS (I WOULD INSTALL THE CPU DRIVER AND REBOOT THE COMPUTER FIRST IF NEEDED) (EX. AMD PROCESSOR DRIVER).

5) OPEN DEVICE MAANAGER AND CHECK TO SEE IF ANY DEVICES ARE NOT INSTALLED, NOT FUNCTIONING, SO ON.

IF ANY DEVICES APPEAR TO NOT BE INSTALLED, FIND THE APPORITE INSTALLER ON THE DESKTOP FROM THE APPLICATION/DRIVER CD.

6) SLIVAGE THROUGH THE FOLDERS TO SEE IF YOU CAN FIND ANY USEFUL PROGRAMS YOU MAY WANT.

THIS IS MY BASIC ADVICE AND I WON'T BE GOING INTO FULL DETAIL, SO IF YOU NEED HELP, YOU CAN IM D4RK3N3D H4CK3R.

Is there no other way to get rid of bloatware?

Why can't you just uninstall programs that you don't use?

Manufactures put what they want on your system. They seem to think that it is stuff the customer needs. But heres the thing the customer will never use half of it and on top of that it uses a lot of your system resources. The problem that is starting to happen now is that manufactures are catching on to people reformatting and are sending out images instead of a actual version. To me this unacceptable since you are paying for a copy of an O/S you deserve the O/S. Not what the manufacturer decides they want to give you. For this reason I do not buy computers I make my own.

Use the utility CD that comes with a desktop hard drive to write zeros to the hard drive first then install the operating system.

To do this:

1. Boot the computer using the utility disk.

2. Write zeros to the hard disk with the utility program.

3. Reboot and install the operating system. (To avoid the bloatware, don't use the manufacturer Recovery CDs to reinstall, except for the driver CDs)

This method gets rid of all data AND partitions, (like those recovery partitions put there by the manufacturer and their recovery CDs).

It's also a great way to get a clean install if you want to get rid of viruses and spyware.

I've done it about a hundred times.

It started with a Compaq when I tried to install Mandrake Linux for a dual-boot. There was a "hidden" restore partition that didn't show up in the partition information. It caused disc capacity errors that crashed the whole machine. It took about a week of trying until someone on Linuxanswers.com finally figured it out. That's when I downloaded GWSCAN and wiped the whole drive. I've been using it ever since. Get it here;

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?param=gwscan&st=kw

Open it and burn contents to floppy. Make a Win98 startup floppy, or an XP DOS floppy. Set BIOS to boot from FD, and boot up. Once it gets to the A: prompt, switch discs and type "GWSCAN". You can run HD diagnostics or rewrite drive to zeros.

I know a guy (part time computer teacher, full time millright for GM) who had to do this on his Compaq laptop. He used to reformat every 30 days to reinstall a $5000 CAD program trial.

I have a Toshiba M55 Sattelite laptop and I wanted to do a clean format/install with my legitimate copy of Windows XP professional instead of using the Recovery CD that came with my laptop. However, the laptop won't allow me to run the Windows XP CD. If I try to boot from the cd, the computer hangs.

Does Toshiba only allow users to reformat from its own Recovery CD? I would like to reformat with my Windows XP CD because I want to get rid of all that junk software that comes with the Recovery CD.

If you dont wont the recovery cd, im in need of one? what you can do set up with recovery cd than reboot with xp disk it should ask you if you wont to reformat. good luck if you wont to email me at jmhg@earthlink.net