Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

Thanks!

+ for you

 

Flamenko, I have one question. Does this clean reinstallation pose any problems for a blu-ray optical drive in an m1530? Are there any drivers I would need for that or is that also on the drivers disc?

 

Any hardware drivers will be on the disk...nice system. Shoulda grabbed a SSD as well.

Do u have Vist Ultimate? If so, make a complete PC backup for safety and if not, download Acromis DiskImage 15 day trialware. The DVD backup you will make of your entire system is bootable and has no timestamp so u can put your system back to how u got it whenever.

 

No, home premium. I will use the acronis program, and could I just back it up on a CD-RW, or does it have to be DVD? I'm guessing DVD because of the space needed. Thanks though. SSD + bluray= "a lot of money", maybe in 4 yrs..

 

turns out I did have a system of dubious build quality. to dell's credit they came out and fixed things pretty quickly. the media bar was not plugged in correctly, and it affected Vista's ability to boot up. Interesting after they replaced the DVD drive (Matsu****a) and the media bar, everything is up and running smoothly. Flamenko's instructions are correct, I just unfortunately had a hardware issue on top of it.

 

I'm getting an m1530 on monday...

is this the correct procedure to install win xp...

1. reinstall mediadirect. make two partitions.

2. install xp on the second partition.

3. install drivers from driver pack on that other thread.

4. find an audio driver because the one in the audio pack doesnt work.

5. i assume mediadirect will work with win xp pro.

thanks

 

Ok... I reformatted and reinstalled Vista & MediaDirect, and everything seems to be working now. In the Device Manager under Storage Controllers the only entree is Microsoft iSCSI Initiator. Is this normal. I reinstalled Vista with BIOS set at AHCI.

Under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers there are two entries from Intel as follows:
Intel(R) 82801 HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller and
Intel(R) ICH8M Ultra ATA Storage Controllers - 2850

Is this normal if you intended to use Intel SATA Matrix Storage Controller? I think I installed Matrix controller during the process. How can i change it?

Thanks

 

You are just as I and fine...your running in AHCI mode.

Congrats.

 

Hi,
I followed everything like you said but i can't get this damn installation working in Vista.
When i insert the cd it start to install and then give me an Installation Errors screen with nothing written except Installation Errors.
Does someone knows where it come from ?
Thanks

 

Is it BSODing in blue or just the installation errors? If it is the installation errors, you may have received a bad OS disk which occasionally happens.

Frustrating I am sure, but we will get you through it.

Can I ask...

Are you reinstalling MediaDirect?
Did you designate an OS partition?
Which version iof Vista are you using?

Try and describe your exact situation as precise as you can; it helps alot.

 

Ok so i formated my hdd using the media direct dvd then i installed windows.
When Windows was running i inserted the dvd of mediadirect and got a message in the installer saying : Installation Error.
I'm using Vista Ultimate 32bits. I tried with my roommate DVD and it's not working either...

When i press the MediaDirect button to start the computer i have a screen saying that the media partition is not found or MediaDirect cannot be use with an encrypted partition or something like this

 

Flamenko ~ Thanks for your help!! Everything worked out fine!!! I ended up reformatting to increase my C, drive to what I felt comfortable w/ & it all went smoothly ~ even the tweaks! No complaints. ) Jeeze, and my friends thought I couldn't do this....lol!!!

I'm connected wirelessly & "good to go" thus far Thx!!

 

So then, when the OS finished installing, all was fine. The problems are occurring when you place the MediaDirect disk back in and click on the exec file right?

 

Yes.
I don't really know what to do ..
I won't reformat only for MediaDirect but if there is a solution i'll take it ...

 

I need to confirm...

When you restarted your system and Vista was working properly,

you then inserted the MediaDirect Disk back in, brought up the directory and clicked on "dellkit", the executable?

Your problem could have been caused by you clicking the wrong filename or the disk being bad...

This could have also occurred if you never ran the MediaDirect disk at the beginning.

I would start all over again and follow the guide exact, word for word. You will probably do this a few times before you get your system set perfect in any case.

 

Well i clicked on dell kit and the disk is ok i tried it on another computer and it's working.
I'm not willling to reformat just for media direct because everything is working and i don't have the courage to do it again.
but thank you for your help it's been really helpful and the tutorial is amazing !
Keep up the good work
Thanks again !

 

hoping someone may also be able to help me.

After receiving my Inspiron 1720 today I decide to get rid of some of the rubbish.

I got up to step 7 fine, but it is now stuck "completing installation". Its not frozen because the . .. ... is changing. Its been stuck here for about an hour and it will not let me quit to retry.

Any ideas?
Thanks

Lee

 

This has happened a few times prior. Eject, shut the system down and try again.

You may have to install the AHCI driver at the point of choosing which partition to install the OS. There will be a drivers button where you install the medium with the AHCI driver and have it find it.

There are plenty of threads, including this that describe that.

 

thanks Flamenko, completed the reformat but the system now doesn't seem to be working as well. The volume keys at the front arn't working and things still seem to be slow.

Is there any way to get it back to how it was when I got it? We purchased 2 1720s so one of the laptops will have the recovery partition. Can I transfer it to this laptop, and reboot from it and be back to how I was?

Thanks for all your guidance (rep added)

 

No you cannot because it will be the same edition of Vista on both.

Your system will run much better but you need to figure out why and explain how it is running slower.

This has been dine countless times now with success.

Can you detail for us the exact specs and conclusions as well as how you came to them.

 

HELP!

I started step 1, but the partition took so long so I thought something is wrong with it, it is stuck at the black screen with one white dash forever, so I took out MD3.5 and rebooted.

NOW IS STILL AT THAT BLACK SCREEN! my computer wont do anything else!

 

I had the same problem as JaY-B (with MediaDirect failing at 4% installation with "Installation Errors"), and think I have now solved it.

When you are re-installing Windows, you need to install it on the same disk drive that the MediaDirect partition is on (my Inspiron 1720 has two disk drives and the MediaDirect partition was on the second drive (Disk 1); I had been installing Windows Vista onto the first drive (Disk 0)).

I have just installed it all for the third time, but with Windows Vista on Disk 1 rather than Disk 0, and it seems to all be working fine now, including MediaDirect.

Hope this works for you too Jay-B.

 

Omnisin - I had that problem too - turned out I hadn't read the screen properly before hitting a key to continue, and I was supposed to have swapped to the Windows disc.

Try putting the Windows disc in and restarting the PC (press F2 at startup to change the boot order and boot from the DVD drive - F12 didn't seem to work for me after the first time).

Hope this helps.

 

Your not doing it properly. What you describe occurs because...

Once you put the MD3 disk in and boot from it it only takes a few seconds to do what its supppose to and prepare the partition. After that, a screen pops up stating that you have to remove the disk, place in the OS disk and reboot.

If you don't, what you have described is the result.

Also, others have then inserted the OS disk and not rebooted correctly from disk...same same again.

You need to walk through these steps very slowly and make sure you dont miss a note.

Insert MD3
Reboot, hit F12 at Dell screen
Select 2 to boot from DVD
DVD boots and does its thing
When told, take out dvd and place in OS dvd quickly
reboot again remembering to hit f12 at the dell prompt again.
INstall os.

Once the OS is installed, reinstall the MD disk and click on the dellkit executable to complete the process.

 

I see I wasnt reading carefully either. GREAT guide thanks alot!

Well I got it finished now, Should I do the whole thing again without making mistakes this time?

 

btw, are all the checked drivers necessary? Im trying to keep my computer as "clean" as possible.

 

If you go into Device, you will see alot of yellow exclamation triangles. Each represents a hardware item not working without the driver.

Examples are your camera, sd card slot, video, fingerprint reader and so on.

You need to understand what is in there and reinstall the appropriate drivers onje at a time. I only install those that are required. I learned that regardless of whether there ar more recent updates, you must still install the webcam from the disk.

Good luck.

 

Ok so i finally got everything working by uninstalling MediaDirect in Windows and reinstalling it.
Everything is now perfectly working !
Thank You !!

 

Congratulations...

 

Got my 1330 last night and ofcourse one of the first things I wanted to take care of is cutting off the excess. This guide made that process painless (Thanks Flamenko, repped!).

One question I do have is, do I need to keep the Dell Driver folders after I have installed the drivers? I don't believe I do, but I just wanted to make sure.

 

Nope you don't and that is an excellent point!!

 

Good to know, thanks!

 

Great thread... Thanks a lot for it...

I'me getting my replacement XPS M1530 in a couple of days and just wanted to be ready. I don't really think I want the MediaDirect on my PC. All I really want is a clean install of Vista and 2 partitions (one the os and programs and the other for data), I also want to keep the Dell Diagnostics part of the drive (it has been a great help to me over the years when something goes wrong). So my question is how is this easiest accomplished?

Any help would be very welcome... and once again thanks for a great thread

 

Will doing this remove the Dell system recovery image stored in the HD? Is there a way of not deleting it when formatting?

 

Thanks this will most certainly help me when I come to obliterating the dell bloatware lol.

 

Question about acronis. I read this somewhere but I just want to make sure b/c my situation is just a little different. I just purchased Vista ultimate today from my University for $10. I received my XpS 1330 earlier today. The school states that this is an upgrade only. So.....I was reading that media direc wipes out the hard drive. In that case, there wouldn't be a windows blueprint that my disc could upgrade from.

Then, I started thinking about just doing a clean install of Windows now leaving my other folders how they are. My question is, once I do a clean install, Acronis has no problem bringing back my hard drive the way it was correct? I read somewhere that it doesn't read all the hidden drives but it works. If it does that I will try to use my upgrade cd after using media direct b/c I've heard even though they say it is an upgrade, it still works for an initial install. I've heard both sides. some say it wont.

My main concern is that I will use media direct to wipe out my drive, then try to upgrade with my student cd...then I will be stuck since my disc won't work b/c I have no windows to upgrade. After that, since I just deleted my restore drive, I would be screwed.

 

Hmm, if you do a clean install from an upgrade disk, how come I see a Dell folder? Shouldnn't that have been deleted when windows formats and does a clean install? I guess it just installs a clean windows folder but leaves the rest that is on the C: ??

 

I didn't make any sense in one of my posts above. I haven't even tried to see if Acronis worked, but I went ahead and backed up my HD of the Ultimate that I did a "clean install" from. It wasn't really clean b/c I saw a lot of Dell stuff still on my hard drive even though I did a fresh install.

I tried my student Ultimate CD that is supposed to be upgrade only. After running the media direct, it allowed me to install Vista Ultimate.( I wonder if they just say that so ppl dont abuse it? They told me the same thing with XP and I did a fresh install with it also). The process was a breeze. Thanks for the clear instructions.

 

Thank you very much flamenko!

I followed your instructions for my new 1525 and everything worked perfectly. This is definately a must when getting a new laptop.

 

I didn't want to read 64 pages, but will this work on a Vostro 1500 with Windows XP? Or is this for Vista only?

 

I'm assuming this will work on a XPS M1530 from the note on the 1st page of this thread. Will it work if the HDD has 2 "drive" partitions (as in not just a recovery or Media Direct but a C: and a D: partiton as well)?

 

hey, this thread was very informative since I got my xps m1330 a week ago...props to the OP.

I have a problem after I followed the steps. The reinstall of Vista and MD went fine, but it didn't merge my recovery partition into my Vista partition. I tried using the Vista Disk Management program, but I can't do anything with it except make it its own separate volume (of limited size of 14.99gb).

My partitions look like this in this order (after deleting vol. of 14.99 restore partition):
47MB
132 GB NTFS
14.99 GB Free space
2.01 GB (media direct I am assuming).

The only thing I can do is make a NTFS 'D:' drive with the 14.99 partition.

The things I tried are this:
1) shrink NTFS partition and extend the 14.99 partition to make a "media" drive - no go...won't give me option to "extend" the 14.99 volume.

2) extend the NTFS partition to use the 14.99 partition - no go...won't give me option to "extend" the NTFS partition

3) shrink the NTFS partition to create "Unallocated" and merge with 14.99 gb - no go...it gives me 5 partitions then (the reduction amount called "Unallocated" and the 14.99GB called "free space".

My ultimate goal is to use the "free space", either combining it with the main NTFS partition or by making another drive, but making it larger than 14.99 since I can't do anything with 14.99GB.

Why won't it let me use this for anything except making a 14.99gb volume?

 

cool i will use this once my new xps m1330 comes in next week.

i was wondering how you generated yoursignature image flamenko????

thanks for the help!

 

Mr Deeno,

If yo followed the Clean install guide, there should be no recovery partition left. The only way you could have ended up with th 14Gb empty space is if you selected your own partition sizes (custom). In this case, ou would need to go to control panel/administrative tools ... as below and right click and format your empty space into a logical drive partition.

Also, my sig block was created by another here on the site...Im not capable of this tx.

 

The only option it gives me on the 14gb partition is to "new simple volume", but that doesn't help me because I can't extend it or merge it with the larger partition...it is STUCK at 14gb.

It gives me the option to "Delete partition", but when I select that it gives me the "not enough space available" message.

I would consider doing the whole process over again, but if there's any way I can salvage the 14gb without doing it over, I'd much rather do that.

 

I dont know how that would have occurred.....a 14Gb straggling volume? Thoughts here?

 

I'm going to do the process over again and choose option 1 from the MD setup disc. I remember when i chose option 2, the maximum size it would let me set up C: partition was 132GB, and the leftover (the 14.99gb) was made into the D: partition that is in question.

I will let you know how it turns out. I'm actually surprised how much faster it is for Vista to reinstall vs. my last computer (which was no slouch) was with XP.

 

oh im glad i found this.. im going to do this process next to clean this thing out.

 

Hey flamenko, it might be helpful to put a link to your Vista Tweaks thread at the end of the reinstall process (maybe just as a side note) because I frequently link to this thread and subsequently link to your Vista Tweaks thread. Even though it's in your signature, if you linked to it at the end of this guide, it would make it more obvious for the average person.

Hopefully I made sense.. it's late and I'm tired. :/

 

I am probably getting a M1530 at the end of the month and definitely doing this when it arrives. Nice thread, thanks.