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XP-iso for reinstall after crash ? Dell Precision 380
mouser:
steeladept is right about making an image for future restores.
for what it's worth i have found that generic windows installation cds seem to work fine for formatting the 2 laptops i have tried it on instead of the reinstallation cd, BUT that some specific drivers for the touchpad or battery were difficult for me to find and install -- so be on the lookout for drivers that you used to have but don't anymore after a generic windows installation.
Steven Avery:
Hi Folks,
Right, I am basically following 40hz suggestions, since I have the Dell CD -- use it. It knows my puter, then add any more necessary drivers and SP3. Especially since I did it once before and only had to find a better video driver and a bit more.
I noticed there was a small FAT32 partition as well. Probably left over from the original puter. And the big partition -- that I deleted and restored XP. At the moment I left the small FAT32 alone, although probably it could have been deleted, or maybe still can be after the install ? I'll look with PartedMagic later.
Lots of sites have good info. This site has nice pictures of the install questions.
http://www.wallpaperama.com/forums/how-to-install-a-fresh-copy-of-windows-xp-t6255.html
Windows XP Installation
They had to use a special utility to take pictures :) . Maybe something on PartedMagic or UBCD4 .. interesting.
For free anti-virus I usually use Avira, although on occasion I have used the other similars, Avast or AVG. So that is simple, although there are many other good alternatives too. I generally use Online Armor Free now for firewall with mild HIPS, in the past Kerio-Sunbelt -- would not mind trying Comodo as a new try to compare. And good ol ZoneAlarm, always a good program, they lost me once for future use by leaving some stuff in the registry on an uninstall that was a big problem, although those were the days before Revo Uninstaller and they probably cleaned up their act. Although Online Armor's free is not real robust, most of what it doesn't have I handle outside of firewall programs anyway, and I like its style of notification, so it probably gets the nod.
If Threatfire plays nice, I understand it is strong HIPS, Wilder's folks like it too, sort of, I did not realize it had a strong-function free as it shows here.
http://www.threatfire.com/download/
Threatfire
So I will plan on starting with some combination that includes Threatfire, to widen the defense arsenal a smdgen. Hmmm... it is PC Tools now. Thinking.
And I also will do some of the image stuff, after the base install stuff is done, probably including the anti-virus types of installs. I could see if it is a Maxtor or Seagate drive and use their Acronis equivalent. I may actually make a couple of images in that early state, including from DriveImage XML. Early state images are kewl and should be relatively small, uncomplex and less likely to failure. I realize image software is a huge complex discussion -- one point to note is that in this case it would only have saved me a smidgen of time, as the partition delete and/or format was necessary in any case. Right now it is finalizing the installation.
After the anti-virus installs I plan to add a partition for data (optionally another partition for apps but I am skeptical that this is worthwhile since so many programs pour their .dlls and other stuff in the Op-Sys folders -- so at the moment I am leaning against it) and from that point on try to have data (and antivirus logs) on the new D:.
All this is behind a light older Belkin router, btw, reducing the immediate vulnerability in that interim period.
Right now XP is up installing a printer driver, so that all worked quite quickly from when I posted before, about 15 minutes of actual puter time. Ok, much more with all the settings and updates and SP3 and such, so I will get that all tweaked now, including some basic freewares that can be part of the image. (Hmmm.. afaik there is no freeware image program that is to an extent hardware independent, that is usually more advanced programs, like a special Acronis edition, you can see how that could be a nice program.)
And I installed the Ethernet driver from the Resource CD, so it up on the Internet. Moving along !
Shalom,
Steven
40hz:
Be careful with that little FAT32 partition. Some systems keep a small partition reserved for diagnostic/recovery information: special drivers, license keys, etc.
Still, I wouldn't worry about it too much since most systems (IBM, some HPs, etc) that do have them won't use a DOS/FAT partition for that purpose. AFAIK, Dell doesn't use a diagnostic partition, but I can't be completely sure they don't.
However, if you see any small (10-20MB) non-DOS (i.e. type = "unknown") partitions when you run fdisk, do not delete them until you know what they're used for. Those usually are used for diagnostic purposes. There is a chance you won't be able to use a recovery CD if you get rid of them.
I'm guessing that Dell originally set up a small partition for use with the 'hibernate' power-save option. If that's the case, and you don't use hibernation, you can get rid of it.
:Thmbsup:
tomos:
I'm guessing that Dell originally set up a small partition for use with the 'hibernate' power-save option. If that's the case, and you don't use hibernation, you can get rid of it.
-40hz (April 13, 2009, 07:23 AM)
--- End quote ---
just curious - why would they do that?
Steven Avery:
Hi Folks,
Yes, I will be careful with the FAT32. Dell surprised me with some special diagnostics when I booted with UBCD4, so the partition may be related to that. Good thought.
All pretty fine, doing some post-driver (no question marks now or exclamation points in Device Manager) , post-setup, post-basic-software imaging at the moment. It seems testing images can be a bit squirrelly, trying to test without risking your system. Maybe a restore to another partition which likely won't boot but will allow a full restore might be a good test. I'd rather test some images now when I have 3 Gigabytes (plus 2 if I keep the pagefile) than later when there is more complex stuff. My plan is to have two or three totally different software images (from different apps). DriveImage XML is in process now, the no-brainer freeware however not the most robust and flexible. After a couple of imaging softwares comes the partitioning with PartedMagic. Everything in decency and order.
The drivers took some checking and hunting, the Intel site for their chip-set driver, three other driver sets from the Dell CD or Dell site. I do like Double Driver for saving for future use, the program is very well-designed for simplicity, giving clear options (Microsoft or non-MS drivers, safe to folders or to an .exe .. save a list .. kewl stuff).
Now I do wonder how to determine for sure that my drivers are USB 2.0, although they came with the system and the Precision 380 is supposed to be 2.0. I have some special pages to read on that .. apparently in that area the vendors are a little slack in giving clear info.
Thanks for the help, guys. My system is much crisper now. I might put in a list of my pre-image software additions. (Basically top freeware that it is not version-volatile and a couple of browsers and this and that.) Settled on Online Armor and Avira for now on the security, turned off System Restore (which might confuse an image, I gather) and the Windows Firewall, kept the pagefile for now (the Big PageFile Debate !!)
Oh, I still have the email project to do, restoring the data, probably to a separate partition, and setting up Eudora, checking settings and download. So far I really haven't found any compelling reasons to change from Eudora and the filters are rather extensive. I plan a second-stage c:\ image after some more stuff like that.
One strange thing for later. DiskTune, the defragmenter, triggers the Dell Resource CD prompt. Something a little strange there, the triggering of the Dell Resource CD was a situation I had before and I was trying to track the source.
Shalom,
Steven Avery
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