Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide

First you make an extended partition in the D: space. Then you make logical partitions within that space. The logical partitions should be D: E: and F: not E: F: and G: The extended partition itself does not have a letter.

I think you can do all this with the Disk Management tool in Vista.
Click Start --> type diskmgmt.msc in the box and Enter it to start the tool.
Right-click in the empty area (what you're now calling D: ) for the option of creating an extended partition, then inside that to make the logical partitions. It will ask you how large you want to make them. As long as you don't touch the primary partition you should be able to experiment a little.

This page may help
http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_07.htm
It's for XP, but I think the Disk Management tool works the same in both.

 

@chelet thanks for reply....

In my lappy, currently i am having
C: 20GB NTFS Healthy (System, Boot, Page File...)
D: 89.83GB NTFS Healthy ( Logical Drive )

So when i right click on the D: drive in the Disk management, the option to extend partition is not available...I am having options like

1) Change Drive letter and paths
2) Format
3) Shrink Volume
4) Delete Volume.

So please help me in partioning this D: drive further....

Thanks in advance..

 

You'll have to delete that 89.83GB logical drive and start over with it as unpartitioned space. So choose option 4 - Delete Volume.

 

Hey guys! Flamenko, your guide is awesome! Seems pretty easy and complete!
I've just received my Inspiron 1521. I want to make an image of the complete HD with the four partitions (I haven't even turned it on for the first time in order to save the factory settings without using it). I have an Acronis 11 bootable CD.
The question is, which option should I choose in order to make the image? "Sector by sector" or just select all the different partitions? And how many DVDs it usually takes with factory settings?
Thanks!

Mariano

 

Your gonna have to read up in the help file. Tx for the positive response.

 

In my case everything went well. I now have two windows partitions and mediadirect works fine both booting and starting within vista.

I am in the process of setting up everything. My question is how can I restore ‘DELL Recommended’ Power Plan in Power Options? It looks like MS Balanced setting is a little Different. I have some problems with devices waking up that I didn’t have before.

 

Flamenko, I am experiencing a BSOD when installing vista ultimate. The installation steps complete as expected, but on the initial loading of vista prior to vista setup, the BSOD comes up and automatically restarts my computer. This puts it in an endless loop in which vista never starts.

My question is: Would installing the Dell drivers after formatting the drive but before the actual vista installation solve this problem?

 

I just recently encountered this with a newer drive as well. the only solution I have found was to download a copy of the drivers onto a USB. It cant be the exec installation but rather the opened drivers files with the two directories, one being ahci.

I then put the Ultimate installation disk in and, when in the partition menu clicked drivers and led it to that location. It downloaded the ahci driver and that fixed the problem.

Going to work now but I will be here after to try and help you through this if you havent figured it out yet.

I never tried downloading the drivers to DVD but suggest that might work if you havent a USB.

 

Ok, I will try this this afternoon.

 

Hey Philly Guy!!!! Brought my kids there to see the Mutter Museum last year. Have you heard of it??? They loved it.

 

Yes, actually I have an apartment just a few blocks from there. My home is in the suburbs, but my apartment is just a 10minute walk from it. It is a very interesting place to visit.

 

Is the only driver that I need to load the Intel Matrix Storage Manager?

So would the process be:

1. Boot with vista ultimate disk.
2. Format the drive desired.
3. Install the Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver from USB drive to that newly formatted drive.
4. Start the vista installation.

 

Yes but it has to be a already expanded version of the driver. It cannot be an exec file or the search will not recognize it.

 

So I should just put the un-compressed driver folder R154198 onto a flash drive? The folder contains the setup.exe, data1.cab, data2.cab, and setup.ini files as well as some others. Is this what I need?

 

No. It had to be files that can be uncompressed and placed on the flash drive.
Try this:


http://support.dell.com/support/top...plash?c=ca&l=en&s=gen&~mode=popup&file=205611

Pls advise if it works.

 

Flamenco,
First of all I'd like to thank you for such wonderful set of instructions. My Vista installation went without a hitch from beginning to end.
However after using heavily slimmed down Vista (using your excellent instructions BTW) I reverted to XP PRo and noticed significant increase in performance. Everything was just much much faster with XP.
Obviously it has nothing to do with you or your excellent instructions, just stating a fact.
As of right now I don't really see any advantages in using Vista over XP on my M1330.
Thanx again.

 

Ok, I was able to install the driver and the installation of vista now succeeded. When installing the driver, it would only accept the driver unpackaged into a subfolder. So I had to uncompress it from the packaged driver file from the Dell website into a folder and put that folder onto a flash drive.

And the best part...my sleep function in vista works for the first time ever now!!!

 

Hey flamenko, thanks for all the great advice here and for your help by pm. I've followed the instructions and all went VERY well. up and running...much faster and no unwanted apps.

I was wondering if anyone knows where to get the original black XPS desktop background that came on the m1330 before I did the reinstall? I looked on dell.com and the drivers disk and they only have the white one. If anyone knows where I can find this please let me know! Thanks again!

 

I found them guys. In case anyone else is ever looking for them:

Black XPS Background

Red XPS Background

Pearl XPS Background

They're all 1280x864. Hopefully someone else can use the links when you're done cleaning up your system.

 

Hi all,

I'm planning on doing a reformat once i've backed up all my data, my question is to everyone who has sucessfully completed a reformat and reinstall of vista on a M1330: On average how long does it take?
It would be useful to know, as I don't want to be up all night waiting for it to finish installing. (I get grumpy if I don't get enough sleep!)

Thanks in advance.

 

30-45 min...

 

Thanks for the reply flamenko. I'll give it a go tonight.

 

almost an old Bowie song "ChinaGirl"

 

Hello again,

I've done the reformat and I think its gone okay (thanks to your guide, flamenko!), but I do have a question. I've tried to install the driver called the Intel Matrix Storage Manager (R154200), but after extracting it, nothing else happens. Is this suppposed to happen? Or should some sort of installation process autorun?

Thanks in advance.

 

what should my very first step be? to install mediadirect? (cuz when i did, it says it's already on my comp..) or to reinstall vista FIRST, THEN put in the media direct cd..

 

Crazychu, did you bootup using the MediaDirect Disk? You have to Press F12 when the Dell Screen comes up after restarting and choose to boot from cd/dvd.

 

You are reinstalling MediaDirect and repartitioning when you first boot from it. It will erase all and let you start your installation brand new.

 

thanks for this guide. just got my xps m1330 a couple days ago and am about finished installing everything. this was really easy. Took about 2 hours total.

 

Congrats and thank you.

 

Can I reinstall MediaDirect without repartitioning? I launch MediaDirect without Vista and I got error saying that MediaDirect cannot read HD because of bitlock.

 

You can reinstall mediaDirect from within Vista yes but...I think you may have troubles because of the bitlock program. As good as it is, it is very proprietary, in that, it grabs a hold of your system.

 

It worked without any problem before. Is it having to do with all the Vista upgrade from Microsoft?

 

No...try it...never know right? Worse comes to worse its just a few hours reinstalling.

I cant use bitlocker in 64bit but liked the way it worked the short time i was in X86.

 

How can I disable bitlock on x86 Vista? I cannot find any option any where.

 

I believe bitlock is only turned on and off by you and done through Accessories or Maintenance menu where the folder is.

 

This may not be the right thread to post on, but I'm pretty close to banging my head on the wall! Got myself a XPS1330. Runs OK except when I'm using IE7 and Outlook 2007 - the mouse gets sticky and I miss keystrokes while typing. Anyone else facing the same problem? I've emailed Dell support, haven't heard back from them yet. Even did a system restore.

 

Is this a new problem, or has it always been like that?

Also, how much RAM do you have?

Does it only happen when you have BOTH IE7 & Outlook 2007 open, or does it still happen when only one of them is open?

Sounds like an issue with RAM to be honest! If you only have 1GB, then I would stick in another 1GB to make it 2GB. The minimum that Vista needs is 1GB, so it makes sense for it to be a bit jumpy with only 1GB!

And personally, I would recommend you ditch Internet Explorer....its slow, it uses more system resources than is needed for a web browser, and its VERY INSECURE!

I would get Mozilla Firefox if I were you...it has all the features of Internet Explorer 7 (and has had them for MANY years before Internet Explorer 7 came out!), but non of the draw backs!

 

And yet just another reason to stay with XP, however as a tech Vista has been a real cash cow for me. Yep, can't wait for all the nice new christmas computers to come into the shop.

 

h3rmaN - thanks.

I have 3GB - a 1GB and a 2GB chip. The problem arises even when I have only one of the two apps open. With Outlook, its the keyboard and the mouse continously switching from the hourglass to the pointer. With IE7, its the sticky mouse issue. But it might just be a RAM issue - I had ordered a 2GB config, then upgraded to 3GB - bought myself a Kingston 2 GB chip. I guess I'll need to run memtest86 or something similar to check the new RAM. I agree with you on Mozilla - been using it for a long time, but with my config, the mouse stickiness or keyboard issue just shouldn't arise - T7500 2.2 GHz, 3GB RAM, 160GB HDD 7200 rpm, 8400 GM.

 

I cannot find any bitlock option under the accessories or maintenance.

 

BitLocker can be turned off in two ways: by disabling BitLocker or by decrypting the volume. When you disable BitLocker, your hard drive is still encrypted but your computer uses a plain text decryption key that is stored on the hard drive to read the information. When you decrypt the volume, everything on your hard drive is decrypted.

To turn off or temporarily disable BitLocker
1. Open Bitlocker Drive Encryption by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Security, and then clicking Bitlocker Drive Encryption. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

2.Do one of the following:
a.) To temporarily disable BitLocker, click Turn Off BitLocker, and then click Disable BitLocker Drive Encryption.
b.) To turn off BitLocker and decrypt the volume, click Turn Off BitLocker, and then click Decrypt the volume.

 

I saw that from Microsoft. I don't see any bitlock option under Security.

 

Ok, let me fire up a new Vista VPC and I'll see if I can locate it. But you're right it was from microsoft. Give me a little time, I'll get back to you.

Edit: Unless you have the Enterprise or Ultimate versions of Vista, you do not have BitLocker so it probably wouldn't appear where it should. However take a look at this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=142579
It may help some.

 

yea, you shouldn't be having any problems! Might be a bad stick of RAM! Even if MemTest gives the all clear, try running your lappy with just one stick of RAM and see if you still get the problems. If you get the problems with one stick, but not the other, then its def a bad stick of RAM.

But if MemTest shows a bad stick of RAM, then there's no real need to test the others.

Let us know how you get on mate!

 

Thank you. I will follow that link.

 

Thanks for the directions, I got my 1520 running like a champ now!

 

Thanks for this great post.. I followed the instructions in the first post, and everything seems to have worked fine in re-installing Windows Vista on my XPS M1330

My only snag is that when installing the drivers the Intel Matrix Storage Manager - Notebooks Rev: A02 did not seem to install properly (extracted to a directory, but no installation windows came up). Is this driver necessary, and if so how would I go about installing it.

 

You are fine if your system did not BSOD (blue screen of death). It may have been reinstalled with windows if you reinstalled the Vista disk from Dell. If problems occur, return and we will get it fixed.

 

Great great guide. Just used it to re-install my Vista Premium and it worked flawlessly. Just one quick question about which drivers I have to install:

Network Drivers:
So far I've installed Broadcom Ethernet Controller & and Intel Wireless Wi-Fi & Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Module. Do I need to install the other drivers aswell (Dell Wireless - Excpet US & Japan + Japan + US). I live in Europe (but I travel to US and Japan occasionally) and have Wireless-N.

Video Drivers:
I installed the nvidia Geforce 8400 - should I install Intel GM965 aswell, or is the nVidia Driver enough?

Serial ATA Drivers
Should I install these: Intel Matrix Storage Manager & Intel Turbo Memory

EDiT: And since I'm at it. I haven't downloaded Dell OS Tools and Dell Notebook System Software. Should I?

That's all, I believe.

Thanks, and again, great thread (for a great PC)

 

Thanks Flamenko. My other question is that when I was installing the drivers, no audio drivers was checked. So I didn't initially install any audio drivers, and no sound was working. Upon discovering that I installed the sigmatel audio drivers. Was that the correct browser to install?

I believe I have the soundblaster integrated audigy card.