What do I need for a clean installation

[che77]

Recently I bought the T61p Thinkpad along with the preinstalled Vista Ultimate. I'm most satisfied about the system and its performance. However due to heavy(read crappy) preinstalled software the performance is wors than my other almost 8 years old laptop. Therefor I want to do a clean installation of the system software. My question is, what do I need when it comes to my OS when I decide to choose one partition and do a full format of my hd. I have read several online tutorials on this issue but there's no info on what you need for this other than "a Vista CD" Does this mean I have to buy a new 'retail Vista Windows' or an 'OEM Vista Windows'(from Lenovo or any other shop?) or can I use the discs that came with the system listed beneath? And do I need to make a copy of all preinstalled progams and drivers or are they on the 8 discs?

What do I have already: Along with the Thinkpad there came 8 discs:

- 'Rescue and Recovery CD'

- 'Supplemental Product Recovery CD for type 6480,.....,.....etc.'

- '6x 'Product Recovery CD for ThinkPad T61,R61 Type 6480,.....,......etc'

Furthermore I've read something on this forum about the Intel turbomem and its NV cache??? Is this something to take in consideration when doing a clean install?

Thanks in advance!

Che

[erik Community SuperMod]

the recovery CDs you received are for XP, not vista.   in vista you need to create your own recovery media.   i believe the app to create media is located in the Start > ThinkVantage folder somewhere.

to do a clean install using a vista anytime upgrade DVD then follow this guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

read the entire guide before doing anything else.

good luck!

[Honvon]

Hi, I post this in the other message and it may help you. Here is the steps for clean install for T61p (without Turbo memory):

1. Install you own Vista (you don't need to backup the original, Lenovo Thinkpad has the backup)

2. Install your firewall if you have one;

3. Plug in internet cable and download "automatic system update from Lenovo- system update   

    3.13" (here is the link: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/TVSU-UPDATE.html#hp) and    install it. (The system update software can download all the drivers for you)

4. Before run the System update, adjust internet setting (internet option-->connection-->Lan setup-->disable automatic search (the first one)), otherwise the software'll be interrupted in the middle.

5. Run system update and download the drivers and softwares you need.

6. Download and install Video card driver: Either FM570 from Lenovo (for 3D work) or 8600GT(for gaming).  (I just installed FM570 from Lenovo website cause I am using it for CAD as well)

Then........................

Tips for speed up the Vista (dramaticly~~!):

Control Panel-->System-->Advance system setup-->Advance-->Performence

-->>Advance-->virtual memory (change)-->Choose no page files

The reason for this is that HD almost does the most hard work in the latop and virtual memory will increase the most work load for it. Since we have 4GB ram, we don't need virtual memory and relase HD's load.

[billbolton Community Moderator]

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Honvon wrote:

Tips for speed up the Vista (dramaticly~~!):

Control Panel-->System-->Advance system setup-->Advance-->Performence

-->>Advance-->virtual memory (change)-->Choose no page files

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This is, at best, very questionable advice.  The page file serves a numbver of purposes and disabling it is, in my opinion, not a good idea on any WIndows system environment.

Cheers,

Bill  

[Singtoh]

I agree with billbolton, no paging file is not a good idea, but what I have done is given the paging file 8gigs on a different partition along with the indexing. It works great for me. I realize that is a huge page file but if you have the extra gigs,as I do then, it's ok!!

Cheers