Reformatting Dell Inspiron

M

MrMetal_53

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Apr 21, 2006
Messages
1,197
So having recently purchased a subscription to Microsoft Technet, I was thinking of all the things I could do with all the licenses I now have access to, and naturally, reformatting was one of them :D

So I decided that I want to reformat my just-over-a-year-old Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop. It is currently running Vista Home Basic 32-bit. It runs fine, but as a rule of thumb, I like to reformat my PCs every year.

Having never reformatted a laptop, naturally, I have a couple questions:

1) Will the drivers that I found on Dell's website for the 32-bit version of Home Basic work if I were to install Ultimate 64-bit? I don't think they will, but I figured I should ask. In the case they don't, should I go for Ultimate 32-bit? Will it be a waste of the four gigs of OCZ memory I just bought?
2) Is there anything I should watch out for or anything that is unintuitive or different compared to reformatting a PC?

Any responses are welcome
 
Here's what I would do:

1) Look up your service tag number (should be on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop) and go to Dell's site to find the drivers that are specific to your model. They should list every single operating system they supply drivers for.

2) Go to Newegg and buy the cheapest 60gb sATA drive you can find (currently $29.99). Instead of reformatting your hard drive, plan to install your test OSes on that new one. You'll be able to pop the new one out and put the old one back in whenever you feel like it.
 
I can just swap them in an out, and it will still work? That is good to know. Is there any way to get drivers for Vista 32-bit to work under Vista 64-bit?
 
Yes, you can just swap them out. There's only three screws, if I recall. :)

To answer your other question, no, you can't use 32-bit drivers on the 64-bit version. Honestly, you're not missing much besides bad drivers! Vista 64 is still a little behind in that department, but things have been getting better.
 
The only other reason why I want to go Ultimate 64 is to use all four gigs of memory. But Vista 32 uses about 3.5, doesn't it?
 
So, having a look on the Dell website, I can see that my laptop has drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista 32-bit. My laptop came with Windows Vista Home Basic, but there is no reason why I couldn't upgrade to Vista Ultimate 32 (w/ SP1), correct? I mean, as long as I am using some form of 32-bit Vista, I won't run into any sort of driver problems or conflicts, right?
 
mrmetal_53 said:
So, having a look on the Dell website, I can see that my laptop has drivers for Windows XP and Windows Vista 32-bit. My laptop came with Windows Vista Home Basic, but there is no reason why I couldn't upgrade to Vista Ultimate 32 (w/ SP1), correct? I mean, as long as I am using some form of 32-bit Vista, I won't run into any sort of driver problems or conflicts, right?
Click to expand...

All the 32bit drivers will work with all versions of the OS(32bit). So go right ahead!!!
 
Wonderful. Thanks for the reply :D I look forward to getting some use from my Technet subscription ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top