Re-Installing Vista For Fresh Install

[samureye]

Watching this week's episode of Tekzilla, Patrick and Veronica were talking about how installing and uninstalling things makes your PC slower over time. Well this is the gospel truth, and I think I want to re-install Vista on my laptop. Not because it is unbearably slow or anything, but I have so many things on here I just want to start anew, and I am sure the performance will be snappier as well.

What I want to know is how I go about re-installing Vista exactly. I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 and it came with a bunch of CDs. I want Vista as though it was freshly installed on the PC out of the factory, not with any of my older files on here. Like new. How do I go about this? Will it be possible by throwing the disc that came with the system in there and it will be an option? Or do I have to resort to using something like dBan?

[chris3d]

You'll need the Vista DVD and a disk (or flash drive, external drive, etc) containing the device drivers specific to your laptop. If you did not get a driver disk with your laptop, I know that Dell has fairly good website support for downloading model specific device drivers. You will most likely need to get into the BIOS (watch the screen as the computer boots. Most will tell you a key to press to enter setup), and set the computer to boot from the DVD drive. It's pretty self explanitory from there. Just insert the Disc, and follow the instructions. Vista should force you to do a clean install over a current install, so no way to go wrong there.

Also, I would recommend leaving the power adapter plugged in during the process of installing the OS to eliminate the possibility of running out of battery power all together. Don't forget to backup any files that you want to save first.

After you're done, make sure you remember to install the drivers for your model laptop. You may find that stuff works fine with the Vista drivers, however, a few key parts you will want to make sure to get drivers installed for. With Vista, the graphics card driver is a must. I usually see what all is working and go from there.

This should actually leave you with a computer in better shape than you got it from Dell, as most of them are loaded with crapware on delivery.

Oh, and don't forget to install SP1 :)
Hope this helps. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

[burkhartmj]

chris3d seems to have covered everything. Something to consider: Dell OS install DVD's have a bad habit of being corrupted, so if you're one of the unlucky people to have one of these, you might consider torrenting a clean [not cracked] install ISO of whatever version you have. As long as you use a legal license key, it should be fine.

[ArmpitOfDeath]

As far as Vista itself is concerned, unless you're like installing something new every couple of hours I don't think it's a big deal...

... However I've had the opposite experience to burkhartmj and this is one of the reasons you may want to reinstall Vista. I've had a couple of Dell notebooks on which the Vista install was obviously corrupted in hindsight, but the DVD was fine.

I say in hindsight, because in one instance I kept having SLI problems with one of my XPS M1730's and a few other very obscure issues which were annoying but I couldn't tie down to anything specific. Then I was doing other stuff, wasn't paying attention and fubar'd the RAID0... so I figured I'd reinstall it fresh from the DVD and update the drivers from the web as I'd tried before. Hey presto, zero problems and SLI like butter.

On that occasion I did complain about the wasted time in both trying to figure out the problem - and if I hadn't been fiddling trying to figure things out I'd probably never have fubar'd the array accidentally - and also reloading Vista. I'm sure subtly corrupted images aren't that unique an occurrence.

[burkhartmj]

As far as Vista itself is concerned, unless you're like installing something new every couple of hours I don't think it's a big deal...

... However I've had the opposite experience to burkhartmj and this is one of the reasons you may want to reinstall Vista. I've had a couple of Dell notebooks on which the Vista install was obviously corrupted in hindsight, but the DVD was fine.

I say in hindsight, because in one instance I kept having SLI problems with one of my XPS M1730's and a few other very obscure issues which were annoying but I couldn't tie down to anything specific. Then I was doing other stuff, wasn't paying attention and fubar'd the RAID0... so I figured I'd reinstall it fresh from the DVD and update the drivers from the web as I'd tried before. Hey presto, zero problems and SLI like butter.

On that occasion I did complain about the wasted time in both trying to figure out the problem - and if I hadn't been fiddling trying to figure things out I'd probably never have fubar'd the array accidentally - and also reloading Vista. I'm sure subtly corrupted images aren't that unique an occurrence.

Touche Armpit. I've never experienced this myself, but that could just be because I usually reformat an OEM computer within days of getting it just because I figure crapware is at least slowing it down if not messing something up.

[ArmpitOfDeath]

Totally off topic, but I wonder what I'd do if someone called me armpit in real life...

[samureye]

You'll need the Vista DVD and a disk (or flash drive, external drive, etc) containing the device drivers specific to your laptop. If you did not get a driver disk with your laptop, I know that Dell has fairly good website support for downloading model specific device drivers. You will most likely need to get into the BIOS (watch the screen as the computer boots. Most will tell you a key to press to enter setup), and set the computer to boot from the DVD drive. It's pretty self explanitory from there. Just insert the Disc, and follow the instructions. Vista should force you to do a clean install over a current install, so no way to go wrong there.

Also, I would recommend leaving the power adapter plugged in during the process of installing the OS to eliminate the possibility of running out of battery power all together. Don't forget to backup any files that you want to save first.

After you're done, make sure you remember to install the drivers for your model laptop. You may find that stuff works fine with the Vista drivers, however, a few key parts you will want to make sure to get drivers installed for. With Vista, the graphics card driver is a must. I usually see what all is working and go from there.

This should actually leave you with a computer in better shape than you got it from Dell, as most of them are loaded with crapware on delivery.

Oh, and don't forget to install SP1 :)
Hope this helps. If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

Thanks for making me feel like such a newbie :D

Well Dell gives you the Drivers on CDs so that shouldn't be much of a problem now should it? And yeah Dell's site has the drivers available, but I guess it couldn't hurt to download them manually and put them on a flash drive.

Laptop is always plugged in unless it's overheating or off and I always have Vista updated so no problem there.

burkhartmj - What do you mean by corrupted discs? Is it that Vista won't be able to install at all? Or halfway though it's going to mess me up and totally botch my system? Just want to find out what you mean.

And since it's a laptop I bought from Dell with Vista on it I should have a key.

ArmpitofDeat - I have installed a lot of stuff and I'm out of space. I just want to backup my music and important docs and start anew.

[burkhartmj]

Thanks for making me feel like such a newbie :D

Well Dell gives you the Drivers on CDs so that shouldn't be much of a problem now should it? And yeah Dell's site has the drivers available, but I guess it couldn't hurt to download them manually and put them on a flash drive.

Laptop is always plugged in unless it's overheating or off and I always have Vista updated so no problem there.

burkhartmj - What do you mean by corrupted discs? Is it that Vista won't be able to install at all? Or halfway though it's going to mess me up and totally botch my system? Just want to find out what you mean.

And since it's a laptop I bought from Dell with Vista on it I should have a key.

ArmpitofDeat - I have installed a lot of stuff and I'm out of space. I just want to backup my music and important docs and start anew.

Both are possible, sometimes it freezes when the disc-boot is loading, sometimes in the middle of installing. I've had one or 2 OEM discs like this, out of like 4 OEM computers. It's just good to have another disc handy in case this happens.

Totally off topic, but I wonder what I'd do if someone called me armpit in real life...

I shudder to think of it =]

[slonkak]

Though your system came with a driver disk, those were probably outdated before it was shipped to you. Go to Dell's site and get the newest drivers (chipset, nic, modem, graphics, audio). And when you install them, make sure you install the CHIPSET FIRST. All other drivers depend on the chipset and you could see weird issues crop up if you don't install the chipset first.

[computoman]

I think I had xp almost 6 years when I was using it and only had to reinstall it when a drive went down. At most twice i did it because of the formerly crappy maxtor drives. To see people seem to want to redo vista after such short a time just boggles my mind. There must be some other issue. A good registry cleaner would probably cure most of anyone's issues without reinventing the wheel. I do not use or own vista, so I can not recommend anything. I usually run a cleaner right after a clean install (that is after all the extra apps have been also installed) to begin with and it makes a difference. Why? because the registry gets loaded into memory and makes a large footprint that will slow down the machine. A clean registry will have a smaller footprint on ram and the system will run faster because of more free space and less virtual memory swapping. (deleting temp files, using a virus scan and or a spyware cleaner would not hurt either). I would suggest if you do reimage, that when you are finished reloading it, you image the drive. the next time you feel you need to do things over, back up your persinal data files and just restore from the image and save your self a lot of time and hassle. That is the way the pros do it.

[darknessgp]

I think I had xp almost 6 years when I was using it and only had to reinstall it when a drive went down. At most twice i did it because of the formerly crappy maxtor drives. To see people seem to want to redo vista after such short a time just boggles my mind. There must be some other issue. ...

The general rule for most tech people I know with any OS to do a clean install (or restore from clean hdd image) every 6 months to a year. This is because they are installing and uninstalling stuff quite a bit. That's great that you had yours for 6 years, but that makes me wonder if either you didn't notice/care that it was slowing down or you never installed anything, except when you first set it up.

Other than your above statement, I agree with you on getting a registry cleaner. It works great if you had stuff installed that never completely went away.

[remarkablere]

nah formatting always speeds things up...neverslows it down...less virus's...and fewer files make pc faster:)

[burkhartmj]

nah formatting always speeds things up...neverslows it down...less virus's...and fewer files make pc faster:)

I just like having a PC without a ton of useless files. Have reformatted my computers every 6 months for about 5 years now, and every time it makes a noticeable difference.

Having to call in to revalidate the OS can get annoying though :)

[samureye]

Though your system came with a driver disk, those were probably outdated before it was shipped to you. Go to Dell's site and get the newest drivers (chipset, nic, modem, graphics, audio). And when you install them, make sure you install the CHIPSET FIRST. All other drivers depend on the chipset and you could see weird issues crop up if you don't install the chipset first.

Here's dell's site for all the drivers I need for my system. (http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?os=WLH&osl=EN&catid=-1&impid=-1&servicetag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1520&hidos=WW1&hidlang=en) You mean to install the chipset first after installing the OS? There are 55 different files. I can't help but thing there are some things I do not need, or should I download every single thing to a flash drive and after re-installing Vista start installing them, starting with the chipset?


Since I haven't done it yet, what would you guys recommend for registry cleaners?

[cablegeek]

My Suggestion is to throughout vista and install XP PRO vista is a ram hog and kills cpu's.

[burkhartmj]

My Suggestion is to throughout vista and install XP PRO vista is a ram hog and kills cpu's.

I thought we had an entire thread awhile back about how this isn't true.

Especially with SP1, vista doesn't use that much RAM and especially doesn't kill modern CPU's.

I'm running vista home premium on a P4 2.8 GHz box with 1GB RAM and a PCI radeon 9200 [yes, so old it doesn't even support aero], and it runs fine. I'm not gonna be playin crysis on it anytime soon, but it does basic stuff pretty smoothly and even handles being a media center PC

My Dell XPS M1530 with Vista Business is smooth as silk, and usually uses about a third of my memory with firefox and pidgin running.

I'm an OSS fanboy, not MS, and was just as skeptical of vista as everyone else at first, but it runs perfectly fine. A computer less than 5 years old should be able to handle it relatively easily.