I just bought a Dell Inspiron 15, 5510 with Windows 11 Home what all do I need?

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[Rush2112]

I just bought and received my new laptop. What all do I need to do and or purchase before I open up the package and begin using it. I do know that I should invest in an external HD for backups but how many USB drives do I safely need to go along with the external HD. And that begs to question. Should I get a 2TB SSD or the traditional HD?

The laptop has:

Ports

2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports

1 USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 Type-C™ with DisplayPort™ and Power Delivery (Available on i3/i5 processors) / Thunderbolt 4.0 with DisplayPort™ and Power Delivery (Available on i7 processors)

1 Universal Audio Jack<span class=”smart-modal upd-technote” tabindex=”0″ role=”button” aria-haspopup=”dialog” data-close-label=”Close” data-title=”Important Details” data-message=”3.5 mm headset jack functionality varies by model configuration. For best results, use Dell recommended audio accessories.”>*</span>

1 HDMI 1.4 port

1 power-adapter port

<label>Processor</label>

11th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11390H Processor (12MB Cache, up to 5.0GHz with ITBM3.0)

Memory <span class=”smart-modal upd-technote” tabindex=”0″ role=”button” aria-haspopup=”dialog” data-close-label=”Close” data-title=”Important Details” data-message=”1 GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; significant system memory may be used to support graphics, depending on system memory size and other factors.”>*</span>

16 GB, 2 x 8 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz

Hard Drive

512 GB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

Is there anything that I should do when I set up this new laptop?

• This topic was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Rush2112.

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Get a USB3 HDD (not SSD) for your backups. HDDs retain data much longer then SSDs when powered off, plus they are half the price.

You do not need to do anything before setting up the laptop. Fire it up and enjoy. And let us know how you get on with W11.

cheers, Paul

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[Rush2112]

That’s great. If I use the paragon data recovery program. Do I also need recovery USB(s) as well? And if so, which size of USB(s) should I get? Would a 2TB HD be plenty of storage for backups? As another option for about $30 more from Amazon, I can get a 4TB WD external HD.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Rush2112. Reason: Adding additional information

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Paragon’s manual indicates the recovery USB only needs to be 512MB but I’d suggest getting one as least large enough to also hold a single image backup of your drive.

As for what size external USB drive to get, it depends on how large your backups are and how many “different” backups you want to keep.

BTW, the “size” of your backups will not be the same as the “size” of the drive being backed up because Paragon, like other backup programs, doesn’t backup “empty sectors” on a disc and it compresses the backup so its final size will actually be less than the total used space on your drive.

I.e. my main Win10 drive is a 500GB SSD but only 58.2GB is actually “in use” and my Paragon backups are only ~33GB each.

Note: while it’s possible to set the compression level to a higher value to get smaller backup files, doing so causes the backups/restores to take longer to complete.

On my setup using a USB 3 external drive and Paragon’s “default” compression setting, it takes ~8 mins to complete a full image backup and ~15 mins to complete a full image restore.

Of course, YMWV.

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A 2TB USB HDD will allow you to keep half a dozen image backups and loads of document backups. If you have a spare $30 go for the 4TB, or spend it on a couple of >8GB USB sticks for recovery (one for Windows, one for Paragon).

cheers, Paul

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Paul,

Since my new laptop has 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports. Should I stick with 3.2 Gen 1 USB flash drives or will 3.0 work just as well? I never did fully understand the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 other than the color of the plug and the faster and more data transfer. I am wondering if you or someone else could please help me. I know nothing about 3.2 Gen 1 and very little about 3.1/3.0.

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I buy the cheap SanDisk 16 Gb USB 2 flash drives at my local WalMart.

They work just fine for bootable rescue media in my USB 3 ports. No need for USB 3 speed in this usage case. Backwards compatibility… 🙂

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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I didn’t exactly know how the backup process went. I had an idea though.

I do not believe that I need more than 2TB external HD after careful consideration. But then again, I do not know how much space is occupied by W11. I’ll think on it more before making a purchase. I can’t imagine that the amount of space required for W11 would be much more than W10.

Any opinions?

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Rush2112 wrote:

Should I stick with 3.2 Gen 1 USB flash drives or will 3.0 work just as well?

Any USB disk will work in a USB 3.2 port – even USB 2.

Rush2112 wrote:

space required for W11 would be much more than W10

It will be within several GBs, but also depends on what else you install. 2TB will always be enough, but you do have 2 PCs to backup so a 4TB might be better.

cheers, Paul

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Rush2112 wrote:

I never did fully understand the difference between 2.0 and 3.0 other than the color of the plug and the faster and more data transfer.

The data transfer speed is the difference!

Here’s a chart showing the speeds and the plug types for each one.

As you can see, USB 3 Gen 1 is 10× faster than USB 2 while USB 3 Gen 2 is 2× faster than USB 3 Gen 1 (or 20× faster than USB 2)

So, unless you want your backups to take hours to finish, get at least a USB 3.0 external drive.

The “colors” of the USB plugs are different so users can easily tell which is which.

Note:  not all manufacturers have implemented all the above colors yet and on some devices, like my Asus motherboard, the “orange” color that indicates a port supports USB charging is actually red.

BTW, as Paul T pointed out, except for USB-C (which uses a completely different type of plug) the newer versions of USB are all backward compatible with older versions. The catch is, the data transfer speed will only be as fast as the slowest component (i.e. a USB 2 device plugged into a USB 3 port will only run at USB 2 speeds and vice versa)

1 user thanked author for this post.

windbg

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Thanks for the information. It was very helpful. I didn’t know all of the varying types and colors. Very informative.

I have set up my new laptop and I miss Win 10. But in time I’ll get used to it until it’s gone too. One thing: I don’t like the start menu. That’s got to change.

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Is having the desirable 3.2 Gen 2 Port like having a Ferrari in 5 o’clock traffic? Anyone know the latest on (ie) Backup Drives that can benefit from 10 Gb/s Ports?

 

W10 Pro 22H2 / Hm-Stdnt Ofce '16 C2R / Macrium Pd vX / GP=2 + FtrU=Semi-Annual + Feature Defer = 1 + QU = 0

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There’s a lot of them available, my local Best Buy currently has 14 different makes/models in stock, you just need to specify you want USB Gen 2 when looking for one.

BTW, they normally only use USB-C and do tend to cost just a tad more than the slower 5GB USB Gen 1 drives.

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CraigS26

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Sorry all, I got complacent. I have done some reviewing on my new laptop a Dell Inspiron 5510. I am still in the learning stage of getting used to Windows 11. It’s somewhat the same and somewhat not. At first, I didn’t like the Start Menu, but after asking a question in another topic about the task bar. It was suggested to get StartAllBack. After downloading it and configuring my Start Menu to my liking. I have no other concerns at the moment. But then again I haven’t tried to print to my wireless printer yet but I have my desktop for that function. Now that I have things pretty much set up. I am going to use it a lot more than I have been doing with my Chromebook. And that begs to question: Eventually I’ll want to part with the Chromebook. But how long should I wait before getting rid of the Chromebook? 15 days? 30 days? 60 days??

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Rush2112 wrote:

Eventually I’ll want to part with the Chromebook. But how long should I wait before getting rid of the Chromebook? 15 days? 30 days? 60 days??

Consider keeping the Chromebook:

• it works
• you may need files or folders from it
• it makes a good test computer
• if your new laptop has difficulties, you have another computer as fallback

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Rush2112

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Question: If I download Paragon backup & recovery software, do I still need a Windows recovery USB drive? Next question: If I do, what is the procedure in Windows 11 to create one. I have no clue.

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Every backup/image software free/paid has an feature to first create a recovery USB.
It it part of the software and not to do with Windows version.

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In that case, how do I create a Windows 11 recovery USB? Is it similar to Windows 10?

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In Windows 10 you can just type “Recovery” in the search bar, and up pops the Windows Recovery Drive app.

Did you try that?

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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I just did and two options were present. 1) Recovery and 2) Create Recovery Drive. I have found what I need. Thanks JohnW.

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For future reference, you can find the Recovery drive creation in Win11 at:

Control Panel\Recovery

OR

Settings App\System\Recovery

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I had a minor setback. I had ordered a couple of 16GB flash drives. One of which was for my Win 11 Recovery drive. Well I tried to create a Recovery drive last night and it said I needed a 32GB USB flash drive. So I am back to square one. I ordered a 64GB USB flash drive. It may be more than I need, but I want to make sure it’s large enough. Now I am wondering if the other 16GB USB flash drive will be large enough for my Paragon Data & Recovery USB drive. Time will tell.

Thanks PKCano for the tip.

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Rush2112 wrote:

Now I am wondering if the other 16GB USB flash drive will be large enough for my Paragon Data & Recovery USB drive.

As I’ve pointed out before, the manual for Paragon indicates it only needs a 512MB drive (mine, which I set to use Linux instead of WinPE, only uses ~65MB for the Linux boot engine and Paragon recovery S/W.)

Of course, that’s only for the actual recovery program itself and doesn’t include any backups you might want to add to the drive (in your case, you now know 16GB wouldn’t be enough to also include a system backup on the same drive.)

BTW, the Paragon recovery drive boots into a “scaled down” version of Paragon that allows you to backup/restore a disc without the OS being active and getting in the way.

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[Rush2112]

I received an error twice on two different USB flash drives when trying to create Recovery Media. I’m not sure what to do at this point. If someone could either explain why or have a solution, please let me know.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Rush2112.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Rush2112. Reason: Adding additional information

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can you tell us which USB flash drives (and their sizes) you were using when you encountered that error message, Rush2112?

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[Rush2112]

I tried two SanDisk 16GB USB 2.0 flash drives. And with both USB drives, I got the same error message. I have been wondering if my trial McAfee antivirus software had interfered with it. Both USB drives were scanned upon inserting them.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by Rush2112. Reason: Adding additional information

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https://kb.paragon-software.com/article/1299

RMB error code 55

Error message: Can’t lock target volume

RMB2_CANT_LOCK_VOLUME = 0x37,

Possible root causes:

Device file system is locked by another process and can’t be handled.
Device can’t be mounted – can’t assign drive letter or unmounted – locked.
Device is not suitable for RMB recovery media.

How to troubleshoot for HDM:

Format USB flash to FAT32.
Mount device volume to another letter.
Disable Antivirus and other software protection.
Make sure no software uses the USB flash. Usually problem could be caused by monitoring and scanning software.
Check if you have necessary readwrite permissions to access the device.
Run RMB from express mode.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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Thanks once again JohnW. The first thing I tried after checking the format was to disable the antivirus software. I had a funny feeling that was the case. I was able to create 2 Recovery media USB’s without incident after I disabled the antivirus software.

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Time to reconsider your AV software choice. 🙂

cheers, Paul

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I have been wanting to switch AV software. I just have been hesitant because of the trial 30 day AV given. I don’t know if I were to switch now if it would affect the warranty from Dell or not. Otherwise I do have another option of Total Defense that is free from my internet provider as long as I am a customer. I think I’ll wait a week or two before switching AV, providing I have no further issues with it… Knock on wood. But regardless, switching I will do soon enough. I don’t care too much for McAfee, but it did come pre loaded with this laptop.

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You have Windows Defender Security built in to Win 10/11. You do not need another third-party Anti-Virus.

Uninstall the McAfee Trial. It has nothing to do with the Dell warranty.

To remove McAfee, go to Task Manager and on the Startup Tab, disable run at startup. Reboot. Go back into Task Manager and stop all the Processes associated with McAfee. Go to the Control Panel\Programs & Features and uninstall McAfee associated programs. Reboot the computer.

Finally, go to the McAfee website and download McAfee Removal Tool (MCPR) and run it as Administrator on your computer. Reboot, then run it again. (Hopefully it will be gone).

2 users thanked author for this post.

Rush2112, JohnW

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After many years of paying for AV protection, the current Windows Defender is doing me just fine now! 🙂

I will add that I also run a couple of free “on-demand only” scanners (not real-time) on a weekly basis. This is just for a “second opinion” scan in case something slipped past my primary AV.

So far Defender is 100%.

Malwarebytes free: https://www.malwarebytes.com/mwb-download

Emsisoft Emergency Kit (*Features the complete dual-scanner technology of the Emsisoft endpoint protection software): https://blog.emsisoft.com/en/17657/an-in-depth-look-at-the-emsisoft-scanner-technology/

*Comprised of Emsisoft’s proprietary scanner as well as a Bitdefender scanner, a two-pronged approach to detection minimizes the chances of malware slipping past your system’s defenses. https://blog.emsisoft.com/en/17657/an-in-depth-look-at-the-emsisoft-scanner-technology/

There are others, but I like these two!

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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How do I use Defender, or does it work automatically? It has been years since I used it and I mean several. I was able to successfully remove McAfee from my laptop.

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https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=how+to+use+windows+defender+in+windows+11

Windows 11 security overview: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/comprehensive-security

Defender documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/defender-endpoint/microsoft-defender-antivirus-windows?view=o365-worldwide

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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I just reread the AskWoody plus newsletter from this past Monday. Since I have Win 11 on my laptop. I would like to get ExplorerPatcher to bring back the old Win 10 file explorer experience again. In doing so, which program/option do I chose to download? Can anyone help??

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See the “How to?” section halfway down the GitHub page and click on the “setup program” link:

How to?

1. Download the latest version of the setup program.
2. Run the installer. It will automatically prompt for elevation, after which it will install the necessary files.
3. When done, you will be greeted with the familiar Windows 10 taskbar. To customize the options offered by the program, right click the taskbar and choose “Properties”.

That’s it. It’s that simple.

ExplorerPatcher

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Thanks, and that will set the file explorer to that of Win 10 style??

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No. To get that; right-click Taskbar, select Properties (ExplorerPatcher), click File Explorer on left, select Control Interface: Windows 10 Ribbon instead of Windows 11 Command Bar (default), then click the bottom link to Restart File Explorer.

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I have downloaded and already installed StartAllBack. Is there a difference between StartAllBack and ExplorerPatcher??

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Several.

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Can they be used together? Or am I stuck with StartAllBack?

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You are not “stuck” with StartAllBack. You can uninstall it any time.
Go to Control Panel\Programs and Features and choose “uninstall.”

If you decide you want it after all, simply reinstall it.

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I figured I could uninstall it. I am just wondering if I did, is the trade off worth it? I like having the task bar to the right side of my screen. Is it possible to have both ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack? For instance, I uninstall StartAllBack then install ExploerPatcher and then install StartAllBack after?

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I use StartAllBack in Win11 and OpenShell in Win10.
I have no knowledge of ExplorerPatcher.
Install one, see if it does what you want. Uninstall it and install the other. See if it does what you want. Install both, see if they do what you want. Uninstall the one you don’t like, or both, or not. Look out for conflicts. I have no idea what the two will do together.

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Hello,

It’s been a while since I posted anything in here.

I have a question concerning StartIsBack/StartAllBack. I now have a second display. Is it possible to have my StartIsBack Task Bar on both monitors if I paid for just one license as a single user?

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In Win11 Settings\Personalization\Taskbar there are selections for this

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I have that option checked. But am I not allowed to have both task bars in the same position. I have my main screen set to the right. In the second display it’s in the default bottom position.

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Slightly off topic, have you run our “Bitlocker Status” utility to make sure you are not in danger of being locked out?
BitLocker on my new machine, is the disk encrypted?

cheers, Paul

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I had BitLocker disabled about two months ago using the method through my settings.

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