Dell Inspiron 6000 reformat

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fifreak3

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I have read in different places online which I can't recall right now in which people suggest reformatting these computers' hard drives as soon as you receive them because something like 3-6 GB is partitioned for a reformat, but it is actually unnecessary. Any comments or clarity on this?
 
well i no that ive seen and worked with some that partition a 'backup' of the o/s installation (winxp) and take up around that space.. but it wouldnt do much harm other than take up space
 
Well i know from my personal experience that i choose to format and reinstall. Just for the simple fact that i dont like all the extras that they add on. I like my own apps and dont need to see AOL or Netscape anywhere on my computer. It is all a matter of personal preference. If you dont mind what you have on there and installed then dont do it. Or if you dont feel confortable reinstalling dont do it. I have found that it is the best way to get what i want installed without anything from the manufacter getting in the way.
 
I think I would like to reinstall everything then because I also hate all that extra crap that is loaded on new comps. I am more into hardware than software and don't know how to do this. How would I accomplish this?
 
Well make sure all of your discks you got from Dell are handy. You wont need all of them just the ones that are for OS, Drivers. If you got any software that you would like to reinstall have that handy as well. The easiest thing to do is restart your computer, when you see the BIOS screen hit F2 to enter setup and make sure you can boot from CD. Save changes and make sure you OS CD is in the drive and let it boot. Hit a key when it tells you. Just follow the instructions form there. If you see that it has a huge partiton for nothing you can just delete all partitions and create new ones (or dont create any at all) then just format the drive and install XP. It is kinda self explanitory but if you want deep instructions i can give them just ask.
 
Ah yes, I think I am familiar with the process you mentioned. However, I am not sure if my computer comes with all the CD's or not because I have not yet received it. It is supposed to come in the mail on Tuesday. Is there an easy way to check to see how the drive is formatted/partitioned when I get it though?
 
After you insert the XP CD let it get up to the point where it shows the current partitions and that. I will be after it loads drivers and such. Basically you want to make it seem like you are going to install but dont. At the screen i am thinking of it will show you all current partitions and size of each partition. That way you can determine if you have wasted space or what not. I know that no matter what you have a 8kb partition that XP creates for temp files while instaling XP but 8kb is better than 6GB. Another way is to go into my computer>right click>properties. There it shows the size, used and free space on the current drive. If you know how big the drive is supposed to be (160Gb like mine or what not) you can determine if they did partition any space off of it for something else. Hope that helps a bit.
 
Got my laptop today! :) But........"Your computer does not require an operating system CD or drivers CDs. Instead, if you ever need to reinstall your software, use on of the following methods..."

Seems to me like I won't be able to reformat the whole thing then.....but its not that big of a deal because I have like 48 GB free out of 60GB, so I'll keep it that way for right now.

HOWEVER, I have a new problem....For some reason I cannot get the internet to work. First off, I have DSL with a wireless router. I know both of them work because we have one PC plugged right into the the modem and the other one has wireless internet.
I got the new computer to register/verify windows on the first boot, but now I can't get either connection to work. I have tried every approach I that I know (and yes, the new computer does have an internal wireless chip, I'm not that dumb). Any ideas out there?
 
Well I finally solved my internet connectivity issues myself by restoring the computer to the original restore point so that it is brand new again and the internet seems to be working just fine.

Is it normal nowadays for most companies to not include Windows disks with new computers?
 
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