Re-installing Win 7: Use Restore Partition or Ext. DVDs ?

[pmhutch]

Hi

I have a Thinkpad X201T tablet (2985-FXM) with the following parttiions:

C: (Win 7 OS) 156 GB (18 GB free)
D: (Data) 130 GB (4 DB free)
Q: (Recovery) 9.76 GB (2.41 GB free)


Now, three years after buying the machine, Windows 7 has become unstable to the point where I can no longer tolerate it. Most annoying is when the hard drive suddenly becomes continuously busy and the machine grinds to a crawl - this can last five minutes or more.

Have run numerous diagnostics (procmon.exe etc.), uninstalled Avast Antivirus but it still happens sometimes - so I think that re-installing Win 7 is probably the best solution. As well as having the Restore partition I have a set of DVDs from Lenovo from which I understand I can re-install Windows 7.

Q1: Is there any advantage of installing from the Restore partition rather than DVDs? (or vice-versa)

Q2: Is there any easy way of installing or updating all the machine-specific drivers (rather than getting them one by one from the Lenovo support site)?

Q3: I will back up the D: (Data) partition to an external USB drive first. However, I'm wondering whether the Restore process or the re-install of Win 7 from the external DVDs will in fact only reformat and then reinstall on the C: drive, so the D: and Q: partitions will remain intact?

Q4: If I use the external DVDs, I will have to use a USB-connected DVD drive. Is there any tinkering around in the BIOS required to make the system boot from the USB DVD drive to make teh re-installation?

Many thanks
Paul
Melbourne, Australia

[dr_st]

Q1:

The restore partition and the DVDs do exactly the same thing. Strictly speaking, the DVDs simply wipe the drive, create a new restore partition, and install from there.

Personally, I don't like this approach at all - it doesn't give me enough control during installation (for example if I don't want to wipe out the drive) and installs too much bloatware. I'd rather use a vanilla Windows installation disk and then install the drivers/software I need manually.

Q2:

If you use the restore partition / original Lenovo DVDs, all the drivers will already be there, minus perhaps a couple, and those you can get individually.

If you use a non-Lenovo install media, you just download Lenovo System Update and it helps you locate all the drivers and software.

Q3:

As far as I know - it wipes and repartitions the drive completely, unless they changed that recently.

Q4:

Just make sure it appears in the boot order before the main hard drive. Alternatively, press F12 at the BIOS splash screen and select it manually.

[farmall]

You can also load any OS you wish to install to a USB flash drive and drop any other programs you typically install into a folder there if you have room.

This works for me on Windows. There are a variety of tools that do the same job:

http://wintoflash.com/overview/en/

I download .isos from Digital River (a very well-known MSFT VAR, they are legit) and use them for clean installs.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/261085 ... river.html

Daz Loader is a proven activator so if you are licensed to use (whatever version) of Windows then I consider it ethical to activate that way if you are on (for example) a poor internet connection or haven't yet loaded drivers for an aftermarket wifi adapter, or you can activate however you prefer.

I keep my USB Windows and Linux install and diagnostic flash drives in a small clear plastic Walmart fishing lure box. Super handy to have everything in one place.

[dr_st]

If you are licensed to use a version of Windows, why use an activator? Just use your key and activate over the internet / phone.