Formatting a computer
 

I just ordered a new laptop, Dell Inspiron 300m.

Specs:
Pentium M 1.2Ghz Processor
12.1 inch XGA screen
1.1GB RAM
XP Professional
Microsoft Office Professional
External 24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive with D/Bay
Intel PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
65WHr Extended Life Secondary Battery
Microsoft® Money 2004 Standard
Dell Media Experience

well thats most of it, the rest is blah blah.

I have been reading reviews on these machines and most say that Dell loads it with tons of uncessary software and that i need to format the machine before use.

how do i do this?

thanks for helping.

:nerd:

That they do...

If you have XP Pro CD's along with the software CDs that you want to install - its quite easy. If you just have restore CD's it could be difficult.

Anyway, if you have the software...jsut put in your XP CD - boot from CD drive. Choose fresh installation - choose the drive - choose format drive with NTFS file format - bada bing bada boom. Install the software that you want and you are good to go.

I dont know how Dell makes their restore CD's, but Im sure there is a way to extract the software that you actually want to install from it.

I believe when you load Dell's cd that most of the junk is optional. I'd just uninstall all the BS they put on there. Or just stick with what PoBoy said ;)

nope...

dell ships full version of OS on cd. plus they include all the crap they install in separate CDs. (say last 2-3 years...)

1. boot from OS CD.

2. tell win 2000 or XP installer to reformat HD

3. install OS.

that simple. someone's laptop at work died. actually their HD.

dell ships me a new HD. i install in 2 seconds. boot with win XP with service pak 1.

done with install in 1 hour. this was a p4 laptop so it was fast.

now installing office, and all the crap i install, plus doing all service paks and updates take over 3 hours... lol...

Well i got my computer today (im on it now!)

i uninstalled most of the garbage ill never use.

having 1.1 GB of RAM is awesome, everything is loading super fast.

ldivinags route is the best but if all else fails and you have older bootable floppies then
you could always go down that route.

Use Windows 95/98/DOS boot disk. Boot with bootable floppy disk and use fdisk to clear all partition information. Recreate partitions and install OS separatly.

All else fails

lol...

i'll let you know in a couple days. a machine here has a dying HD. i called dell. they will ship in 1-2 days. even though machine originally came with win2000, i'll dump xp on it since it has a bigger driver database.

downside is, our license dont allow us to use a FULL VERSION (or OEM version) of the CD when we upgrade machines. so i'll be using a win xp setup disc without the service pak 1... crap. that adds about 30-45 minutes to the install. although i coulda sworn when i was reinstalling a few months ago, there was an option to do the windows update at the same time...

i'll time the whole process and report back.

btw how the heck do you get 1.1 gigs of ram? the .1????????

You should be able to get most of the unnecessary stuff off simply by uninstalling it - that way you don't have to deal with reinstalling windows (unless you want to).

And yes... all that RAM is nice. I've got 2 gigs in my desktop.

okay... here's the unofficial results of reinstalling a windows XP on a brand new drive:

dell optiplex running 256 megs of P4 at 1.6 Ghz

initial windows says 37 minutes. i believe that. it took me longer to find the serial # lol.... so take into count, the time to format the drive, under 50 minutes. that's from a dead start of booting from a CD to a completely blank HD.

i bet the SP1 will take longer. currently doing that right now. zzzzzzzzzz...

of course not counted are the times me not looking at the screen to hit a key or stuff like that...