Should I reformat the hard drive when I receive my T42?

Message

rocketman · #1 Post by **rocketman** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 9:52 am

I'm not concerned about freeing up more hard disk space, I'd like to know if reformatting and getting off some of the unneeded software will appreciably increase performance with the 1.8GHz T42 I'm waiting for. I know that Dell loads up their Inspiron laptops with tons of unnecessary bloatware, I don't know if the software IBM loads on the Thinkpads would be considered bloatware or is genuinely useable. I'd leave it alone if there is just a slight performance boost but if there is a major increase in performance than I'll do the reformat.

ian · #2 Post by **ian** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 10:15 am

What a complete and utter waste of time, in my humble opinion, to reformat an unsed drive - simply unload the software you don't want - MSCONFIG will help you to stop programmes loading...

kjarrett · #3 Post by **kjarrett** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 11:17 am

Agree on the waste of time comment. I am a firm believer in simplicity and hate bloatware.

IMHO, the IBM preload is NOT bloatware AT ALL.

I would leave it alone - my T42p's basically untouched. I'm loving everything so far!

-kj-

skanky · #4 Post by **skanky** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 11:44 am

i thought it would be a good idea to reformat my T40 when i got it, but to be honest, the IBM preload image isnt all too bad, i removed things like R&R (i have regular ghost backups), access IBM etc but on the whole, its quite solid.

RCube · #5 Post by **RCube** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 1:18 pm

I don't think it is a waste of time.
1. you can partition the disk to your liking...a system and data drive. Makes reloading windows so much easier in the future.
2. you can change the vm size. If you have a brand new system..you can make sure this is at beginning of the disk(faster access). If you ever change the vm later with alot of program installed.. windows will have to put it at the back of the disk.
3. you can defrag after each step
4. you get to play with the system and learn how it works and what software to install.

the main thing I have with the preloaded disk is the fragmentation.

skanky · #6 Post by **skanky** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 1:43 pm

RCube wrote:2. you can change the vm size. If you have a brand new system..you can make sure this is at beginning of the disk(faster access). If you ever change the vm later with alot of program installed.. windows will have to put it at the back of the disk.

assuming you mean "virtual memory" --i have noticed that even if i change the amont of virtual mem, it still reports IBM's default amount.. weird!

why is that anyone?

hiengu · #7 Post by **hiengu** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 1:44 am

I don't think you would gain much if anything by formatting your drive again. Just uninstall / install the stuff you want and need.

Having said that, I did do a factory re-install using my hidden recovery partition. I did that mainly out of curiosity since I'm one of those guys who likes to take things apart and learn a little bit more about things.

ashleys · #8 Post by **ashleys** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 8:08 am

Only reason I did it was to remove the hidden partition and set the partitions how I like them. Personally, keeping my data away from the system partition is a must.

Don't understand the VM reference ... if you mean virtual memory then that's just the windows page file. The calculations for that are rubbish anyway. Take a look at your performance counters for your paging file and see what I mean

#9 Post by **jdhurst** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 8:24 am

skanky wrote:
RCube wrote:2. you can change the vm size. If you have a brand new system..you can make sure this is at beginning of the disk(faster access). If you ever change the vm later with alot of program installed.. windows will have to put it at the back of the disk.
assuming you mean "virtual memory" --i have noticed that even if i change the amont of virtual mem, it still reports IBM's default amount.. weird!

why is that anyone?

I have that problem with Virtual Memory on my own personal T41 but no other IBM or any other computer. I would like to know as well.
... JDHurst

ashleys · #10 Post by **ashleys** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 10:12 am

Are you saying that on your T41 if you change the size of paging file it doesn't actually change

Mmmm, tried checking the Registry to see if it's correct ? The key you're after is
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PagingFiles

That entry contains the name of the paging file and its minimum and maximum size (in Mb).

Should I reformat the hard drive when I receive my T42?

Should I reformat the hard drive when I receive my T42?

Who is online