A Query for owners with factory installed windows 7 64bit

Hi,

I just got my outlet latitude E4300 which was supposed to come with windows 7 Pro 32bit installed + a copy window XP on CD.

Well It came with XP pro was installed , Sticker on the bottom was Windows 7 pro and I got the windows 7 pro 32bit & XP pro OEM discs, + other discs

Ok my task is now to zap the XP pro and reinstall a 64bit version of Windows 7 pro. I had a look at the sticky to creating a legal windows 7 on the forum..... BUT I down want to go down that root because it means I have to start manually installing the dell drivers one at a a time since it is not a dell OEM disc.

So Ideally looking for a proper Dell OEM windows7 64bit disc.
I found what I thought was the right one on the internet and installed it. Install went fine but i did not see the dell and drivers folder on the C Drive. These folders always come with every dell installation.!. However I found the Dell Logo (in pproperties of my computer)

I then installed my OEM win7 pro 32bit and the mentioned folders exists with other bits n piecies. This kinda implies that the disc I used is not a propr Dell OEM or ....maybe they 64bit installes dont have these folders.....?


So questions are :-
1) For your Dell factory installed windows7 64bit, do you have a dell and drivers folder , + specific model bits?
2) what is the size of the DEll OEM Windows 7 64bit disc, is it <4Gb or greater than 4Gb hence dual layer disc?
3) can I make my own dell Windows7 64bit OEM disc by merging a normal retail windows 7 64bit data with my 32bit OEM?

cheers

css_jay99

 

Even with the Dell disc, you would be installing drivers. The Dell OS discs don't have drivers, you would have to download them from Dell Support

The only time you are going to find a Dell drivers folder is on a factory installation, not when you reinstall from an OS cd.

The size of the disc depends on which version you are talking about. Most that I have seen don't fit on a single layer disc.

You may be able to get a 64bit disc from Dell directly. They usually don't put up much of a fight with that, especially if your order reflects Win7 and you got XP installed.

 

Well, you got the XP downgrade, which correctly comes with XP installed, so Dell may charge you a fee for a Windows 7 disk. I don't know why you would choose the downgrade option if you wanted Windows 7 in the first place.

 

It was an outlet item, so did not have option to/not to chose downgrade. It came with XP & Win7 disc but XP was pre-installed. I thought if you bought a pc with downgrade disc all it meant was the pc will come with win7 but you also get winxp disc as well if you want to downgrade?

@jason1214 , I guess I should go ahead and start downloading the drivers ...

Outlet description showed disc included is win7 pro 32bit. I wonder if they will charge me a lot if I ask for 64bit CD

css_jay99

 

It's not the OS that comes with the computer, so they'll probably charge you full, not just the disc price.

As for drivers, they come on a separate drivers & utilities disc. Usually, the disc is horribly out of date and you need to go to the website to get the latest drivers anyway.

 

And they just boosted the price to 10$ for the (outdated) drivers disc.

 

Cheers guys. I have started do the re-install which is a complete pain

 

Once you've got everything to your liking I suggest you make an image backup
of your system partition. Then you won't have to go through so much pain again
should you need to reinstall.

 

exactly, i alway make backups.

i currently use acronis. any other recomendations?. ive always found norton ghost too heavy on the systems

 

Windows 7 has a built-in system backup utility...no need for any 3rd party tool anymore. Search for 'Backup and Restore' and click on 'Create a system image' in the left pane.

 

Based on anecdotes, doing a full restore with that image is dicey at best. I've personally had success pulling individual files and folders, but I haven't tried my hand at doing a complete restore.

 

I have other non windows7 environments as well so keeping backups with same program is more ideal