Vista fresh install

[peter762033]

Hi,

I want to do a fresh install of vista as my aging laptop has slowed down considerably. I have looked at a few guides online, the installation process looks easy enough as i have my vista disk and can backup my files. The part which confuses me is installing the drivers once vista is installed. I have looked on the Dell website and have found this list of drivers to download,

http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/product-support/servicetag/GNV87H1/drivers

Im not sure which ones to download, do i need all of them?

Also if i download them and put them on a memory stick will the memory stick work with the new windows install as it doesnt have the drivers installed to recognise the memory stick?

Hope this all makes sense, just want to make sure i know what im doing before i go ahead.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[tambeshakunt]

Just need the chipset, Audio, monitor , mouse/keyboard, network, removable storage, SATA. The others like the utilities and dell software are optional.

The usb should work in a usb 2 port because vista has native usb support. You can also burn to a CD and then use that. Worst case, you can connect a LAN cable ( wired connection) and download them once vista is reinstalled.

I assume you had vista before as well and are just 'reinstalling' it...in that case you don't need the BIOS update etc.

 

[peter762033]

Hi tambeshakunt thanks for your reply.

Ok i'll look for those drivers. Also i've been looking around and seen that people recommend using double driver to back up the current drivers on my laptop so i can reinstall later, would you recommend this? Also is there any particular order i should install the drivers?


Ok thats good, didnt know that!

Yep im just doing a fresh install of the same version of vista.

Any others tips for my fresh install? Will be my first attempt, want it to go smoothly haha!

Thanks again

 

[tambeshakunt]

You are welcome.

You can use those kind of utilities but imo, its really not needed. There isn't any order as long as you get everything installed. Make sure to copy out your data (obviously) beforehand.

Apart from that...just do a custom install and delete all previous partitions during the setup. Then you are good to go.

 

[peter762033]

Ok, so is it not recommended to use double driver? I quite like the idea of not updating to newer drivers which may cause problems.

I have a recovery partition, would it be worth keeping incase things go wrong with my install so i can do a factory reset if needed?

Thanks

 

[tambeshakunt]

I would ALWAYS recommend latest drivers unless there is a specific issue with them or they are beta. Otherwise, latest is greatest!


You can if you want but it might mess things up with the new vista install (maybe - not sure). I would always suggest using inbuilt Windows restore instead of the Dell recovery tools. Up to you with that one but I would delete it and have a completely empty drive.

 

[peter762033]

Ok i will look for the newer drivers.

If i delete the recovery partition should i create recovery discs once i have installed vista? If i were to run all of the windows updates, install my programs and drivers and then create recovery discs would the updates, programs and drivers be restored when i run the recovery discs or will it only restore vista?

 

[tambeshakunt]

Yes the recovery disk would restore vista files after the updates. However, I recommend the inbuilt system restore point even more - it doesn't require any disks etc ...it justs takes up a percentage of your hard drive and can be used to restore your pc to an earlier date.