how'd'ya do a fresh install before activating Vista?

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floete · #1 Post by **floete** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 4:53 am

i'm still trying to figure out how to handle Vista on my shortly-to-arrive T60. It's going to be *preloaded* on the machine. In another forum a guy said:

"Dont Activate. Do A Clean Install With Only The Basics U Need/will Then Remove As Much As You Can. Delete The Temporary Files For Vista. Then Defragment The Hard Drive."

What I don't understand is how can you do a clean install before activation and how can i find out what files it's safe to remove. The fellow hasn't answered me on the other forum, so i thought I'd ask here. Thoughts, anyone?

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 6:18 am

You don't activate a thinkpad pre load like you would a retail install. What I do is turn the machine on let it boot up then start messing with it to see what is on it. You will come to a point when you are asked to register with MS or Lenovo this is not activation. Pretty sure that suggestion was not posted on this forum, correct.?
With a thinkpad you can't do a clean install becasue you do not have a retail copy of the OS just the Lenovo OEM.

floete · #3 Post by **floete** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 7:09 am

gotcha. thanks again for helping me out. nope, that comment was not on this forum.

btw/ ups sez my t60 is out for delivery, so i should be messing with it soon!

chaukap · #4 Post by **chaukap** » Wed Apr 11, 2007 1:44 pm

With a thinkpad you can't do a clean install becasue you do not have a retail copy of the OS just the Lenovo OEM.

I was able to do a clean install using the Lenovo OEM DVD I received from the free XP to Vista upgrade program. I am not sure if the ugrade DVDs are different from the one which comes with pre-installed Vista systems.

#5 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:30 pm

I was able to do a clean install using the Lenovo OEM DVD I received from the free XP to Vista upgrade program

Your're "clean installing" the Lenovo OEM version not the retail version you would buy. That was my point.

i'm still trying to figure out how to handle Vista on my shortly-to-arrive T60. It's going to be *preloaded* on the machine. In another forum a guy said:

"Dont Activate. Do A Clean Install With Only The Basics U Need/will Then Remove As Much As You Can. Delete The Temporary Files For Vista. Then Defragment The Hard Drive."

This does not make sense because like I said the thinkpads don't ship with any CD's, unless like mentioned you get an upgrade CD, and I don't think you can do a clean install with an upgrade CD so what you got was the OEM version of Vista.
To me a "clean install" is a vanilla copy of windows, not the OEM version. When you first turn on the machine it starts the process of loading the OS. If you want to do a clean install you need to wipe the hard drive first then install an OS, whichever one you want. You don't activate the OEM version. You activate the retail version.

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:08 pm

I understand with the ThinkVantage Base Software Administrator, one can Restore Factory Contents and selectively choose which Lenovo programs, patches, and utilities to install. This would in effect give you a clean install of Windows Vista. FTR, I have not personally tried this.

Lenovo blog: "Junk" in the Preload

chaukap · #7 Post by **chaukap** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:09 pm

Your're "clean installing" the Lenovo OEM version not the retail version you would buy.

How are they different in terms of features ? The clean install I did with Lenovo DVD did not install any programs from Lenovo or IBM.

#8 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:15 pm

The clean install I did with Lenovo DVD did not install any programs from Lenovo or IBM.

That's good, then they have changed from the past IBM/Lenovo CD's for reinstalling to factory state. I stand corrected. Did it install a recovery partition?

chaukap · #9 Post by **chaukap** » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:25 pm

No it did not. I got that DVD as a part of upgrade program, I guess if one actually does a upgrade on pre-exisiting XP it might make a recovery partition.

#10 Post by **Kyocera** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:51 am

Johan wrote:I received a T60 w/Vista Business pre-installed about a week ago (type 2007QPG, model UT0QPDK --> http://www5.pc.ibm.com/dk/products.nsf/ ... enDocument) and it came with the usual recovery partition. I made "my own" recovery media from this (one CD and one DVD). No physical recovery media was included with the shipment.

floete, this is likely how your machine will come, with no physical media with it, like I mentioned earlier.

how'd'ya do a fresh install before activating Vista?

how'd'ya do a fresh install before activating Vista?

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