Brand new Dell Laptop -> Can I completely wipe it?

[kwo]

Well, as per the Hot Deal posts, I've gone and become $1000 poorer - with an Inspiron 8600 as consolation.

Now, my first thought is to wipe the HD and do a clean install with my Unattended XP Pro/Office 2003 CD's.

However, I had some nagging questions:

1. What is the purpose of these "hidden" partitions:
a. EISA configuration partition ~42MB
b. "hidden" partition taking up 3.5GB

I'm guessing 'b' is for a system restore/diagnostics or something, but what is 'a'?

More importantly, do I need it?

2. Device drivers
I have a disk from Dell with bunches of installers and files and drivers...but well, do I need any of them?

That is, if I install XP Pro, will it be able to recognize and install everything, or will I need to painfully go through the driver CD and pull out everthing that needs to be installed?

If so, what is the best/easiest process to do that?

3. Anything else I should know about?

I just don't want to be stuck after I wipe the thing.... (I do have a little forsight, every now and again..... )

Ran

P.S. Not sure if this is the right forum, if not, suggest another and I'll repost over there..... 8)

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

I wiped my Insprion 8500 completely after I bought it (random partitions and all), installed Windows XP Pro, and went here to get the latest drivers for it straight from Dell.

 

[kwo]

Thanks for the reply!

I was fairly confident about that hidden 3GB partition..but what is the small EISA configuration partition?

 

[uOpt]

One of the extra partitions should be for suspend-to-disk.

Make sure you keep one if you want to use that mode.

 

[VietDude]

If you're like me then just wipe every clean of Dell

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

The 3.5 GB partition is probably for a suspend to disk utility. Windows XP hibernation does exactly the same thing (as far as I know) without the need to cut up your drive, so its really not worth keeping around.

I don't think I had an EISA partition myself. As I understand it, those are for running a piece of code after loading up the BIOS but before hitting the OS. I read somewhere that the 8600s display some kind of "blue strip" or something in the boot sequence before Windows loads, maybe you can confirm that for me.

 

[chiragp]

Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
The 3.5 GB partition is probably for a suspend to disk utility. Windows XP hibernation does exactly the same thing (as far as I know) without the need to cut up your drive, so its really not worth keeping around.

I don't think I had an EISA partition myself. As I understand it, those are for running a piece of code after loading up the BIOS but before hitting the OS. I read somewhere that the 8600s display some kind of "blue strip" or something in the boot sequence before Windows loads, maybe you can confirm that for me.

You are absolutely correct about the blue strip after the boot sequence before windows starts to load... Don't know what it is for though !

 

[MazerRackham]

I wiped mine right after I got it. Formatted and reinstalled WinXP Pro, then installed drivers from the Dell CD that came with it. Took about 2 hours total. Do it!!

 

[MrAce72]

What do you gain by completely wiping the drive?

I will admit that Dell loads a ton of stuff on there, but the system is pretty stable nevertheless.

I was kind of irked though when I paid extra for the Sonic Deluxe bundle on my laptop and then Dell tech support had me uninstall it when my CD / DVD-RW drive would not eject due to a conflict it was creating.

I had to go out and spend $100 on Nero 6...

 

[John]

Originally posted by: MrAce72
I had to go out and spend $100 on Nero 6...

You can pick up Nero 6 oem from dozens of e-tailers for under $10 shipped