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    Advice needed on Vista Premium upgrade and partitioning

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by iafzal3, Aug 31, 2007.

  1. iafzal3

    iafzal3 Notebook Evangelist

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    Ok guys I requested the OS DVD and they sent me the Vista premium instead of the Basic. So now I plan to upgrade my OS
    Currently I have a 40GB partition for OS (Basic), a 3GB for recovery partition and then 75GB for data.

    My question is should I do complete new install or just upgrade?
    I don't think I have much bloatware as I removed those choices when I was configuring my Vostro.
    Also if I do a complete new OS instead of just the upgrade, should I be wiping the HD clean, complete format?
    Do you have to create the recovery partition or it is created automatically during a new install?
    If it is not automatic how can I create it?

    Also what are some good programs for formating HD and creating partitions?
    Thx
     
    iafzal3, Aug 31, 2007
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  2. Dragoneye1589

    Dragoneye1589 Notebook Consultant

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    A fresh reinstall would never hurt for an upgrade, but just doing the straight upgrade won't be bad, as the ability is built right into Vista.

    As for good partitioning software, Partition Magic, and Gparted (Linux, run off USB drive or LiveCD) are pretty good from what I hear.
     
    Dragoneye1589, Aug 31, 2007
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  3. Significa

    Significa Notebook Consultant

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    I believe upgrading doesn't work on the Dell CDs, at least it didn't work for me from Windows XP. You probably have to end up doing an clean install.
     
    Significa, Aug 31, 2007
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  4. illmatic8

    illmatic8 Notebook Consultant

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    Partition Magic is the best in my opinion.

    Also, you will have to go to command prompt and type in "chkdsk /f" to unlock the drive before you do any partitioning.

    Good luck.
     
    illmatic8, Aug 31, 2007
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  5. laptopquestions2007

    laptopquestions2007 Notebook Consultant

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    Unfortunately Partition Magic has not kept up with the times....

    Acronis Disk Director is much more robust.

    Used it to multi-boot XP/Vista.

    Just my two cents....

    -LQ
     
    laptopquestions2007, Sep 1, 2007
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  6. LNahid2000

    LNahid2000 Notebook Guru

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    I don't recommend gparted. I tried using it on a Vostro 1400. It took over 5 hours and at the end it ruined my partitions. But of course, I had everything backed up. The recovery partition is not really needed. What I would do is back up all your data, then boot to the Vista install disk. You should be able to do destructive partitioning with the Vista disk so that you can create one for the OS and one for data. Remember that this will erase all of your data though, so make sure to have everything backed up. It's good to back up everything when you're doing any sort of modification on the partitions anyway.
     
    LNahid2000, Sep 1, 2007
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  7. iafzal3

    iafzal3 Notebook Evangelist

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    I still have my data on the old computer so nothing as far as data is concerned in the Vostro 1400.

    It seems just doing an upgrade will be easier.
     
    iafzal3, Sep 1, 2007
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