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    Clean install vs using Derik's Nuke and Boot

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by seoulless, Oct 17, 2010.

  1. seoulless

    seoulless Notebook Guru

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    My studio 16 came rather bloated. Is there any benefit is there any benefit to using an erasing program and then installing Windows 7 clean to just reformatting internally?
     
  2. V_Chip

    V_Chip Be about it.

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    Bluntly: Time.
     
  3. seoulless

    seoulless Notebook Guru

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    so DBAN will be quicker?
     
  4. V_Chip

    V_Chip Be about it.

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    That's what I think. Clean install ftw.
     
  5. Cin'

    Cin' Anathema

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    2nd that on Clean install. : )
    I have only used DBAN when I've returned a laptop to Dell.
    Personal choice, either way..: )


    Cin...
     
  6. Nankuru

    Nankuru Notebook Evangelist

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    Yup, all DBAN will do is wipe your data so it can't be read by someone else in future, it won't make your machine run any faster after the install.
     
  7. millermagic

    millermagic Rockin the pinktop

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    I thought Dell doesn't ship OS cds anymore. If you blow away the current installation and use the home-made recovery CD won't it install all of the crapware again?
     
  8. woofer00

    woofer00 Wanderer

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    Don't DBAN if you're just reinstalling. A clean install will produce the same performance. If you're paranoid about the free space, wipe that, not the entire drive.

    A recovery is not a clean install. A clean install would be installing off OS discs, whether provided by Dell or not (links to legal downloads you can burn are available on the Windows subforum). DBAN will by default blow away all the partitions on a drive. DBAN is intended for wiping physical drives, not partitions or file structures imposed on the physical drive.