Clean install Win7 on external drive on different machine?

I'm going to be rebuilding my wife's Dell Inspiron's Win7 installation because it is just dragging hopelessly (cursor can spin for 5 seconds upon right click of item in Windows Explorer). It will also be an opportunity to blow away all the cruft from the original Dell-supplied software that we never use!

This will take a while, and I'd like to minimize the down time for her.

Can I do the install (including drivers, etc.) on an external drive connected to my Win7 machine and then just image the result over to her boot drive (after suitable backups, of course!)?

A second question: I'm thinking of installing an SSD to speed things up for her, using a hard drive as the backup drive. What kind of capacity do I need to fit all of Win7 easily? Is 64GB enough, or do I need a 128GB to make sure there's enough room for apps on the SSD?

Thanks in advance for the help.

whs said:

1. Installing on another system is possible but iffy. I would not do it. The little time you gain you may lose 10 times in trouble shooting.

2. I run all 3 of my desktops with 64GB SSDs (one since 4 years). But I would recommend 128GB. The price difference is not big. It gives you a bit more room - e.g. if you also want to run a virtual system. I am now upgrading this system to 240GB for that reason. I run Windows 8, Mint and Zorin in virtual on a Windows 7 host.

Thanks for your reply!

(I guess you signature "Keep it simple…" says it all!)

Everything else you need is here to get and KEEP a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

gregrocker said:

Everything else you need is here to get and KEEP a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

That's a great resource! Thanks much!

Thank you SandeepP. I'll take a look to see if I have a Dell backup of this machine.

The computer is out of warranty and is therefore not eligible to get discs from Dell.

SandeepP said:

…

Then clean install the windows as suggested by Greg. Once done install all the relevant drivers:

Updating Dell Drivers

Keep us posted with the results so we can advise you further.

Thanks. I do have a followup question.

When going to the Dell support site for drivers, there are quite a number of "recommended" drivers that seem to be specific for a given hardware configuration. For example, just to pick two:

1. Under video drivers, there are 6 recommended drivers, including nVidia Graphics Driver, nVIDIA Geforce GT530 (M208n) Graphics Driver , Intel Graphics Controller, v.8.15.10.2291, A01 , AMD Turks XT Radeon HD6670 (M208), v.8.812, A00 , AMD Caicos Radeon HD6450 (1G DDR3, M116 & ML116), v.8.812-110104a-112217C, A00 , and nVidia Nvidia M207(D12M2-25) GT420 (1G DDR3), v.263.11, A01 .

Surely it does't make sense that I need them all! Should I install them all or determine what my video card (or onboard chipset) is and just install the driver(s) for them?

2. There are 3 recommended wireless drivers listed: Dell Wireless 1502 WLAN Driver , Realtek RTL81XX PCI-E Network Connection, v.7.038.0113.2011, A01 , Atheros Wireless 1502 WLAN Mini Card Desktops, v.9.1.0.328, A01 . Again, install them all?

Thank you.