[Nijntje]

Hi, due to some serious messyness on my laptop I'm considering formatting the harddrive. Beginning again from scratch you know.
All of my important programs and documents I have backed up on an external drive but how about drivers and such, how do I go around that? How do I make sure that I have all the necessary drivers after the formatting?

The laptop in question is a Dell Inspiron 9300 by the way.

I would appreciate any tips I could get, thanks in advance.

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Could you tell us what the messyness is? Maybe we can help fix the messyness before you go and format the drive.

[emery]

Could you tell us what the messyness is? Maybe we can help fix the messyness before you go and format the drive.

[Retired Tech]

Try here

http://support.dell..../...=WW1&osl=EN

[Nijntje]

Doh, I should have thought about checking Dell's site myself.

Well, the messiness basically means bits and pieces of old programs still lingering on and slowdowns which most likely have their origin in system instability rather than malware (I've scanned it with various software and I'm using aa anti-virus as well as an anti-spyware program. I get the idea that I might have caused this system instability when I was trying out different programs and whatnot.

As clean re-install really seems like the best solution at this point as I already have backed up my documents and everything.

What I have now is:
-Windows installation disc
-Disc with drivers
-Disc with windows SP2
-Disc with anti-virus and anti-spyware program
-All other programs installationfiles and my own documents safely on an external drive

Am I ready to go?
And are there any more things to keep in mind during the process?
Last time I formatted a computer it was an old piece of junk where it didn't matter so much (turned out fine though) but this time I really don't want to mess up the computer.

[Retired Tech]

Seems so

http://www.theelderg...l_-_graphic.htm

http://www.theelderg...l_-_graphic.htm

http://www.theelderg..._windows_xp.htm

Hope it goes well