Will I lose anything of value if I format my inspiron

[Earwax]

I just got a new dell inspiron 15" laptop. One of the dual core deals with a gig of ram and a bunch of bells and whistles. This is my first laptop, as I am trying to save space at my place, I decided not to build another desktop to replace my aging AMD rig.

I've always built my own systems because I can't stand the price of other companies AND I've always hated systems that came from dell, gateway, or compaq that were loaded with a bunch of bloatware right out of the box.

So anyway, I'm having trouble deciding whether or not I can just blow away everything on this sucker and do a clean install without any consequences. I have a full backup disk, but I was wondering if maybe there was some "special configuration" this laptop got at the factory that I shouldn't mess with.

I am considering formatting in the hope that it will increase system performance (by getting rid of all the junk that's on here now). Is this a sound idea?

 

[xanis]

It seems like doing a total reformat to get rid of some bloatware is like using a bazooka to swat a fly. Can't you just remove the bloatware manually?

 

[sisq0kidd]

I always format laptops from Dell. You can just uninstall the pre-loaded programs, but I'm really anal about what stays on my computer so I always need a fresh start.

Uninstall all the programs, see if you like the performance. If it still bugs you, reformat.

 

[Ucla74]

Did you get disks with drivers, etc.? If so, then a reformat would be safe. However, if you didn't get a driver or system recovery disk, you could be in trouble--for instance, drivers for the wireless card, sound system, motherboard/chipset utilities, etc. (However, I hope Dell still provides those CDs!)

 

[erikistired]

i reformatted my wife's inspiron without any problems, but i didn't want any of the preloaded software.

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: Ucla74
Did you get disks with drivers, etc.? If so, then a reformat would be safe. However, if you didn't get a driver or system recovery disk, you could be in trouble--for instance, drivers for the wireless card, sound system, motherboard/chipset utilities, etc. (However, I hope Dell still provides those CDs!)

They do provide them but you have to specifically request them when you order your system now. A real PIA, IMO.

To the OP, Dell now uses a portion of your harddrive, hidden, that is used for restoring everything. That, of course, is the problem...it re-install's everything, taking you right back to where you are now.
If you want to get into this, I would strongly recommend imaging (via Acronis, Ghost or whatever) your harddrive first. That way you can always go back to where you are now.

 

[rasczak]

just uninstall the programs, then do a defrag. formatting just to get rid of the "extra" programs they give is overkill.

 

[Earwax]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I went along and uninstalled a bunch more of the programs, but I still felt like my hard drive was "dirty." Plus, I hated the way they had the partitions set up. They apparently leave an ISO of the initial setup on a dedicated partition, then also set aside 26GB of a partition strictly for Norton Ghost to run.

Needless to say, I deleted all the partitions and formatted the system. Now I have a much quicker system with a Data partition and a boot partition minus a lot of crap. I think I'm gonna email dell this evening about getting some of the software I actually might use on CD. I got the windows XP cd, office cd, drivers, and McAfee security software from dell. So the essentials are covered, and I've finished installing everything else I've needed from my desktop.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: ITJunkie

Originally posted by: Ucla74
Did you get disks with drivers, etc.? If so, then a reformat would be safe. However, if you didn't get a driver or system recovery disk, you could be in trouble--for instance, drivers for the wireless card, sound system, motherboard/chipset utilities, etc. (However, I hope Dell still provides those CDs!)

They do provide them but you have to specifically request them when you order your system now. A real PIA, IMO.

To the OP, Dell now uses a portion of your harddrive, hidden, that is used for restoring everything. That, of course, is the problem...it re-install's everything, taking you right back to where you are now.
If you want to get into this, I would strongly recommend imaging (via Acronis, Ghost or whatever) your harddrive first. That way you can always go back to where you are now.

Most all of the drivers are on the support section of their website....