[OT] Create clean install CD from OEM recovery CDs

[REM]

I stumbled upon this page while looking for ways to help people with
"recovery Cds" to make the UBCD4Win:

http://www.easydesksoftware.com/recovery.htm#ME

The instructions are for 9x, Me, XP, 2000, 2003, and NT. They sell a
utility to do this, but it is very easy to follow the directions on
the page.

I've had a HP Pavilion for many years running 98SE. It is very stable,
but it has the cursed recovery CDs. It has all sorts of ads, expired
trial versions of Quicken, McAfee, etc. It was loaded with garbage.
Much of the stuff either did not have an uninstall, or the uninstall
did not work right.

Each time I used the recovery CDs it put all of the crud back on. It
was quite a balancing act to try to remove as much as possible without
mucking up the registry. I left quite a bit just so the machine would
remain stable.

I was getting the old machine ready for my daughter to take to
college. I formatted and applied the recovery CDs and followed the
directions on the link above.

1,296,707,584 (bytes installed from recovery CDs)
- 226,492,416 (bytes installed from the clean install CD)
----------------------------------------------------------------
1,070,215,168 (bytes of reg polluting garbage removed!)

I'll dub that a metric gigabyte of trash! Absolutely ridiculous! My
registry was so hopelessly bloated with the crap they put on it that I
don't see how I ever managed to slim it down and keep it working.

It is a relatively simply copy operation before burning to CD. Boot
floppies might be required.

As soon as I created the CD I reformatted and installed. I had to
track down drivers for the HP Cd-Writer, but otherwise it was perfect!

Some OEM versions might differ, I dunno. I think it would be a good
idea to get Everest and track down drivers beforehand, just in case...

http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en

The Home Edition is freeware.

 

[Italy Anonymous Remailer]

| As soon as I created the CD I reformatted and installed. I had to
| track down drivers for the HP Cd-Writer, but otherwise it was perfect!
|
| Some OEM versions might differ, I dunno. I think it would be a good
| idea to get Everest and track down drivers beforehand, just in case...
|
| http://www.lavalys.com/products.php?lang=en
|
| The Home Edition is freeware.

Why hunt down the drivers when you can get them right from your
computer? You should check out WinDriversBackup
<http://freeware4u.com/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=172>
(last freeware version)

"WinDriversBackup can identify all of your Windows driver files and
save them to a secure location in two simple mouse clicks.

Backing up your Windows driver files means they will be available to
you the next time you need to reinstall the driver or the whole
operating system. WinDriversBackup places the driver files in one
organized location of your choosing.

WinDriversBackup is especially helpful in situations where you have a
computer in your possession and it's internal components are unknown.
WinDriversBackup can identify the hardware on the system and their
associated drivers-then back them up to a specified location."

All you would have to do is burn them to a CD.

 

[Ardent]

X-No-Archive: yes

226,492,416 (bytes installed from the clean install CD)

Then if you install with 98lite (free version) it is only about
131,072,000

 

[REM]

Ardent <[email protected]> wrote:

X-No-Archive: yes
Why?

Then if you install with 98lite (free version) it is only about
131,072,000

I've looked at 98lite. I'm very pleased to get a regular install CD
from the stuff HP sent with the machine though.