...but I don't _want_ to do a fresh reinstall!!

[tokyo_x40]

There appear to be two camps out there: Group A) those who believe a full, fresh, non IBM Win XP reinstall speeds up their thinkpad (for example, this sticky) and Group B) those who see no benefit, arguing that good software used to maintain the registry and disk defragmentation is much better (for example, the other sticky). I see the validity of both arguments, but I just can't decide.

Arguments for a full fresh reinstall for my X40:

• * Presumably, it'd fix my strange startup errors when the machine is docked. (I think the python.exe errors are a remnant from R&R, trying to deal with no HPA--but I have no clue why they only appear when docked.)
  * Startup time & shutdown times are really long, in the 5-7 minute range, sometimes longer. This is important whenever I try to use my quirky external DVD burner or whenever it needs to reboot after an update. It's just nice to have faster reboot times.
  * a non-IBM reinstall is better than the recovery disks, since I don't want the R&R 4gb HPA partition.
  * I've already paid for Win XP, why should I have to pay for registry cleaners & defraggers?
  * I've done so many driver updates that I have no idea what I have any more. Maybe with a fresh install I'll have better luck with my bluetooth woes.

Arguments against a full fresh reinstall for my X40:

• * In prep for a reinstall, I made a list of must-have apps. ..and that list keeps getting longer... what a pain to build
  * It's not clear which IBM programs I use aren't available for download via IBM. InterWin DVD is not, correct? How about Record This! ?
  * The original 23 step procedure has broken links. I can't get past Step 5 (as of late Jan 2007)
  * I have no clue how slipstreaming works, so I don't know how to make sense of the variety "oh there's a faster way to do all that, just use script __such-and-such___"
  * the X40 has a slow hard drive, and I realize the it is a "mobility over speed" type of machine. Slow does not = broken. (maybe)

A reinstall just seems like killing a fly with a shotgun. ... without the fun.

... What would you do? ... and what did I forget, For or Against?

[sugo]

It took me a whole day to install fresh Windows XP SP2 on a X60s with all the applications and tweaks that I had on another laptop. It was particulary challenging to get the power consumption to as low as the factory image.

I have to say it's worth the effort to me. Bootup is way faster. Number of background processes is around 25. More importantly, I know exactly which process is doing what. I know what applications and drivers machine is using.

[tokyo_x40]

It took me a whole day to install fresh Windows XP SP2 on a X60s with all the applications and tweaks that I had on another laptop. It was particulary challenging to get the power consumption to as low as the factory image.

Do you use IBM's utility for that, is it Battery MaxiMiser? I liked the ease of switching power profiles with that software.

[tom lightbody]

if XP lives on its own partition, and apps live on others, you can reinstall XP without disturbing the apps: I've been
able to install XP-pro on a partition as small as 1.5GB: it seems to shrink itself in accord with space available

[tomh009]

Not quite. Installing a new XP (whether on an existing partition or on a different partition) will lose all app registry settings, from start menu to preferences. Yes, the software images are still there, but it's not quite the same thing.

Now, you could back up and restore HKCU\Software registry but that may lose some of the point of the clean install ...

[K0LO]

I'm a fan of the clean install method. I never even gave the last desktop PC that I bought (from Dell) a chance to run its factory preload. First boot was with the Windows CD in the drive to completely reformat the machine. I really dislike the way that OEMs set up their machines with tons of crapware.

However, I tried to give the IBM preload a chance on my X41T. After a few weeks of tolerating 5-minute boot times I knew it had to go. I tried everything that I could think of to speed things up but was only marginally successful. With a clean install the machine boots in 1 minute and still runs a lot of the IBM/Lenovo utilites (except Access Connections and Rescue and Recovery; they're real performance drags on the machine).

If you really want control of your machine you'll build your Windows installation yourself. Don't leave it to the OEMs who are catering to everyone's diverse needs and wants with the result that their preload images end up containing everything but the kitchen sink.

[bill bolton]

(except Access Connections and Rescue and Recovery; they're real performance drags on the machine).

I can't speak to R&R as I don't use it, but I have never found Access Connection to be a performance drag, and I get great value out of it all the time.

Cheers,

Bill

[egibbs]

There is a third option... rather than relying on mostly brain dead registry cleaners and the like or nuking Windows with a fresh install, take the time to troubleshoot and fix for real the problems you are having. While this takes some investment of time the skills learned will enable you to keep the machine running well forever.

I am not a fan of the clean install method for several reasons. Most importantly a clean install is by no means "clean." Run a registry cleaner after a clean install and see how many thousands of errors it finds. Same with a defragger. Clean installs are a myth - they set the machine up to the base MS released configuration, which is exactly as clean as MS bothered to make it. And as long as the base configuration runs there is not a lot of incentive for MS to go in and clean out all the junk that accumulated over the development cycle or is in there to accomodate every possible hardware configuration.

The only time I do a full install is when I am prepping a machine to give to someone else or installing a new OS. On my own machines I have never resorted to a full install to cure a problem.

I do use registry cleaners to get the low hanging fruit off the machine. But I also often run into problems that they can't fix, and wind up manually cleaning the registry to get rid of the traces of some piece of crapware. It's not really that hard - just learn to type regedit at a command prompt and use the find function to locate keys. Knowing which keys are safe to delete, which are best left untouched, and which are "mostly harmless" is a bit tougher, and you will probably make a few mistakes. Be sure to backup the registry and set a system restore point before starting any serious registry work. The more you work in the registry the more you will get a feel for what is there, how it is organized, and what doesn't belong.

Defragging is a different story - it is mandatory. There is a built in defragger in XP which you have to run manually, and it will make a huge difference in performance. If you get tired of manually defragging get a background defragger like Diskeeper.

Ed Gibbs

[K0LO]

On my own machines I have never resorted to a full install to cure a problem.

Ed, we're basically in agreement here. It's almost always worth the time to troubleshoot a problem and fix it; you learn so much this way. 99% of the time I do just that. My previous comments on a clean install were meant to apply to a new machine or when upgrading to a new OS; NOT as a cure-all for fixing problems.

I've only run into one problem so far that could not be fixed by traditional methods and required a reinstall. That was when I stupidly left Windows Update install a SATA driver for my motherboard. It apparently was the wrong driver and crippled the machine. It also resisted all attempts to roll back the driver to the previous version, remove it manually or to use System Restore. After corresponding with Intel they determined that the only way to fix the problem was to replace the driver with the correct version and the only way to do that was at a certain point in the install process for Windows. So basically my only option was to reinstall from scratch.

For me a clean install is a first-resort for a new machine and a last-resort for fixing problems.