Formatting New Dell 15r(s)

[skyryder]

I have 2 new Dell Laptops, and I want to do a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate on both to remove all of the bloatware (but hopefully keep most of the dell specific mechanics/shortcuts intact), and I think I've hit a problem. Here's what models I have:

Dell Inspirion 15r (5520)
Dell Inspiron 15r SE (7520) - the one with the 32GB SSD

In both Dells, there's an OEM partition (around 39 GB) that I can't access, which I assume is the OS+Dell drivers. The 5520, the best I could do was do an upgrade to Ultimate (which is perfectly fine for who's going to get the Dell). However, the 7520, I would rather do a clean install and get it as clean as possible with the OS on the SSD, but I ran in to several issues:

1) Booting from disk resulted in not being able to find any HDD to even install the OS
2) When I tried doing custom install from CD in Windows, I could only install it on the non-OEM partitions, which resulted in the BSOD and a TON of work in recovery in order to get the SSD working properly again...

So I have a few questions:

1) On the 5520, can I boot from disk and do a clean install (afraid to try this) and still keep all of the Dell features working? or do I have to manually find/download all of the dell drivers after the clean install?

2) Searching around has gotten me no where in terms of being able to do a clean install/format of the 7520, so I'm more curious if it's possible or should I just do the upgrade and just manually remove all of the bloatware?

I've never actually tried a format/clean install of Windows on a Dell before, so I'm a bit cautious (considering these aren't for me), so forgive me if I'm being paranoid/stupid. Thanks in advance!

 

[te100]

If you do a clean install(means formatting) you will need to reload all drivers.

That OEM partition is for restoring back to new state when it first came out of factory.

Make sure the bios is set to boot from cd/dvd first and that will let you do a clean install.

Read here it might help http/en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19452285.aspx

 

[skyryder]

I did read that thread actually, and unfortunately, it doesn't seem to give me any idea of whether or not they were actually able to get the clean install of Windows 7 and get the SSD partition to work (problems with the SRT)...