Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

hey flamenko - good thread!

a question: if you just want the MediaDirect OS, and not the MediaDirect playback software within windows, can you skip steps 8 and 9? The idea is to have the MediaDirect button launch the MediaDirect OS if the laptop is off, but reassign it in windows to open something like WMP or iTunes, and not have the MediaDirect windows software at all.

 

Re-insert your mediadirect disk and, when it asks, set custom partitions which will now allow you to set your sizes.

 

There has been some talk about the redirect and, in fact, there is a thread here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=161761&highlight=button

I enjoy Mediadirect so must concede my lack of knowledge on this subject.

Sorry.

 

Thanks anyway - so what happens on your machine if you press the MediaDirect button while Vista is running?

 

See the pik...

 

ta muchly. that doesn't look too shabby at all. i'll be keeping it on then

my m1330 arrives on tuesday, and i'll be following your instructions. i'll let you know if i run in to any trouble!

consider yourself rep'd

 

My 1420 should arrive today... Can't wait to bombard you all with some questions!

 

i intend to do a clean install within the next few days. i'm using the dell 1520. is it possible to backup my files on the recovery partition, and reinstall MD and Vista home premium w/o affecting them recovery partition? or would i have to remove everything entirely from scratch. meaning all partitions are formatted.

 

I did end up just backing up my ultimate setup and disabling systemrestore in vista. I will just backup to dvd every once in awhile. This freed up TWENTY gigs off my HDD.

 

Darthsat...excellent! Wanna find more? Do you have two gigs of ram? If so go to Control panel/performance Information Tools/Adjust Visual Effects/Advanced/Change click custom) and change your page file to 600min and 1200 max...you'lle be surprised what you get once pagefile is reset.

It wont affect performance in any way as well.

 

Perfectly. The only problem was the initial reboot where it blue screened. Had I re-read your guide it would have saved me 45 minutes. I re-installed and read your guide again while doing the second install and just turned it off and back on at the end. Went to Dell's website, downloaded every x64 update, installed them and trueins drivers and it has been perfect. It was actually one of the fastest and easiest windows installs I've done in the last 10 yrs.

 

Good to hear...Threw a rep at ya. Tx again.

 

OK, about to go ahead - the level of bloatware is definitely unacceptable.

One small question before I begin: will the "drivers and utilities" disc reinstall the Fingerprint Suite? I suspect I'll be needing that particular piece of soft...

 

No actually, the fingerprint suite will not be checked off. I got lost looking for this because of that....

However...no you know...you have to select and install it yourself from that disk...as do you have to insert the webcam disk and reinstall that.

Its all fun.

 

Cool!

Do you think I ought to back up the RECOVERY partition? And I've heard that some people mention a 4th partition called DELL or something (other than OS, MediaDirect and RECOVERY) - is it okay to wipe this?

 

Im not sure what system you have. I suggest to most to get something like Acronis (trialware) to back up your original complete system.

I have Vista Ultimate so that does the trick.

So, if for any reason you ever want to go back to the factory fresh image, you have disks that will do that.

Most do not. They throw the new disks in and do a clean install. I must admit...I dont know why I would ever go back to the bloatware filled, registry filled setup dell ships.

As for the clean installation, I have had tons of positive response to below. Actually, just today someone responded saying it was the easiest set of instructions he has read in 10 years.

 

So thanks so far for the instructions, but what if I want to do a clean install w/o MD3.3? Do I just pop my Vista disc in destroy all the partitions and let Vista install? After that install the drivers from the provided disc?

 

Yup...thats exactly it.

 

Instructions would be that much easier if people installed the ahci drivers during the vista install.

 

right, all going well so far - just installing drivers.

"Quikset" isn't checked. What is it, and do I need it?

 

Quickset drives the fn functions on your keyboard, you need it in order to address the XPS buttons.

 

@Flamenko, does your hiberation work? mine gets stuck wjen closing dwon, only a powercycle (pwr button for 5ecs) can resolve this on my system

 

thx, I will install the Quickset.

Also, I'm having trouble with one of the drivers. "Intel Matrix Storage Managaer - Notebooks. Rev:A02" is checked, but when I extract from the CD it's just a folder of files, without an executable...

 

you only need this if you install an Intel Turbo Memory card (ReadyBoost + ReadyDrive), it's installed via the Intel Turbo Memory installer. It does not have a standalone installer itself

 

Well, I installed "Intel Turbo Memory Rev:A00", since that was checked...

 

Oh, and SIGMATEL audio drivers aren't checked either - should I install?

 

when starting the "Intel Turbo Memory console" What does it say about the module?

Installed or not found? if not found, you can remove this driver

 

Er, I have no idea. I just extracted because it was checked, and it didn't question - just installed. Whatever it is

 

Yes, Vista adresses this with it's own HD codec and no controll panel. You would prefer to use the Sigmatel codecs + controll panel (configureable inputs / outputs etc)

 

hm, where can i find the turbo memory console? it's not on my list of programs...

(thanks for all the help by the way - everything else is going great. rep'd )

 

If not installed by the Dell driver, you can dwonload it from intel.com (just search support for " Turbo Memory")

 

Okay. Though do I even want it in the first place? If not, I guess I'll just remove the driver. Is it known to work on M1330s, and how does it affect performance?

 

this driver only is required if you've installed the Intel Turbo Memory Module (currently not shipped by Dell) so if you did not install this module yourself in the WWAN PCIe slot on the bottom of the M1330, then you don't need either the Turbo Memory or the Storage Matrix driver

 

ah. god knows why it was checked then. I'll remove the driver.

Thanks again!

 

... ok, after flailing about for a bit, how do you remove a driver?

EDIT: doesn't matter. all sorted. Thanks everyone

 

I'm stuck in step 3.

Once I restarted the computer with media direct 3.

I get the screen that says

Media Direct 3 Reinstallation
Main Menu

1. Allocate all available space to the C:\partition
2. Specify the size of the C:\partition(all remaining space will be allocated to a D:\partition.)
Q. Quit

**Note** Options 1 and 2 will allocate Utility and Media Direct 3 partitions.

Which one am I suppose to chose?

Correct me if I'm wrong. But, from what I read so far(got to page 11 so far), doing this will remove the system restore. Now if I remove that, I will never able to restore the system? How does it work?

 

Yes you wont be able to reinstall to the ORIGINAL configuration. You can always reinstall by this method which is tons better in any case.

Select option 1. if you want as much space as possible in one partition and 2. if you want to size your own partitions.

 

Thanks for quick reply. I was resigned to waiting forever for the answer

I have no successfully installed media direct and now onto installing vista.

I'm sure I'll be back pretty soon asking tons of questions.

 

Hello I'm back

I thought I pressed the key right away for the step 6 but now nothing is happening. It's been about 5 minutes since that screen came up.

Now what do I do?

Press the power button to restart?

Edit: Yeah pressing power button works

 

Is anything happening with your hard drive?

If not go back to step 5, restart/hit f12/select dvd/press when it says press any key when ready.

Sometimes if you dont hit it soon enough it just sits there doing nothing.

 

Now, I'm installing Vista at it seems to be stuck at Completing installation part. After installing the updates(don't know how it did, since the laptop is not connected to internet), it's been at completing installation page for the past 10 minutes. Is it suppose to take that long?

the process bar at the buttom is still at the same place but the dots after "complete installation" is still moving so I'm assuming it's still processing. But the hard drive is not spinning as though it's in sleep mode. Don't know what I should do. I'm going to let it sit there for additional 30 minutes but if nothing happens during that time, what should I do?

Also, I hearing faint high pitch noise from the laptop. It's not a continuous sound but like morose code. It's not really sound but you can still hear it.

Update: Now the screen has gone black with just cursor showing. Cursor responds to touchpad movement but pressing power button does nothing and hard drive is not making any noise which probably means nothing is happening. Now what do I do?

 

Oh man, I'm so stuck I don't know what to do...

I got to the step 6 and then waited for the window to complete the installation. About 20 minutes of being stuck in the installation screen, the screen went black with just the cursor. I let it stay there for additional 10-15 minutes and then I tried pressing power button but nothing happened.

After doing the research in the forum, I managed to turn off the computer and restart the computer. However, at this time, I'm getting error message and saying and give me option of starting,
1. safe mode
2. safe mode with network
3. safe mode with command prompt
4. start window normally.

First time, I've chosen option 4, and I'll get a black screen with microsoft corporation log at the bottom wtih the progress bar moving. This took me nowhere. Afterwhile, I had to restart the computer to chose another option.

Second time, I've tried option 1 and the I get whole bunch of commands with the file name and then it gets stuck when it hits crcdisk.sys file. After that, at the bottom, it says "please wait" and nothing happens.

What should I do?

 

K wait...your missing something very important here...

Turn your computer off.
Turn it on.
When the dell screen comes up, press F12 a few times.
Choose to boot from disk.

Now...start from your MD disk again and follow the instructions. Ill be here so, if your not sure just pm me and ill respond right away k?

No panic.

 

Hooray~

It's working now. Or at least I'm getting that first screen now. I'm going to follow the instruction again and hopefully it won't get stuck in the "completing installation part"

wish me luck.

 

Hello,

I had to reformat my hard drive cause Linux crapped out.

I have a Inspiron 6400 and Im trying to reinstall Media Direct 3.

I tried this many different ways, and it wont seem to work.

I finally installed Partition Magic, cause Im sick of Reformatting.

Please help me

Thanks in advance

 

Just returned your pm...Try Clean install below and identify which version of md you are using.

 

Hi All
Been following flamenko's most excellent advice, all going swimmingly so far:
1 - reformatted C
2 - installed vista
3 - installed media direct
4 - in the process of installing drivers

My question: I chose to have 2 partitions in step 1. I can see a 60Gb C drive, and a 'D' that 'needs formatting'. Computer Management reports this as a logical partition, of filetype RAW. Am I ok to just format this as NTFS in Explorer?
Thx...

 

Go to start/control panel/administrative options/computer management/disk management and right click on the square with the blank partition...format.


By the way...just down the street...my Favorite lunch place is Starapolski on Barton. lol

 

*sigh*

I'm back but it's still not working.

I have successfully repartitioned the hard drive and I'm at the same stage as before.

I have the window screen that says

Installing Windows...

That's all the information we need right now. Your computer will restart several times during installion.

Copying windows files
Expanding files
Installing features
Installing updates
Completing installation

After the installing updates, the computer restarted and I'm at the completing instalation stage. However, the computer goes to sleep mode after awhile and I can't get it to wake up no matter what unless I do the hard reset. Once I do the hard reset, I have to restart the all the process again.

What am I doing wrong? and how do I get the computer to stop going to sleep mode? Also, I don't know if this will help but the laptop is not connected to internet at all. Does it need to be connected for the process to work properly?

Flamenko help!!!

 

So the computer did start and you have installed updates so it is working. the problem is sleep mode which Im not familiar with. there has been a few threads oin people who state their system goes to sleep but wont come out of it.

So, can you turn it on and get windows to work? If so, right click on battery meter in system tray/power options/change when the computer sleeps...try and adjust all that.

We are ahead if you can get it to start and will work from there.