When I got my G74 the first thing I did was download and burn three things: Hiren's BootCD 14, Windows 7 w/SP1 (seeJRd1st's sticky at top of posts on these forums), and Chastity's ASUS Driver and Application disk (
http://pcaudio.ath.cx/stuff/g74sx_driverapps.rar). Boot with Hiren's BootCD, load gparted under the mini-linux boot on Hirens, and delete all partitions on both HDDs installed in my system (including the 25 GB ASUS recovery partition: useless). Make new partitions the way you want them. Boot the Windows CD, format partitions NTFS and install windoze.
Then install drivers from ASUS Driver and Application disk. Be very picky here and don't just install everything: fewest is best for lean fast system. For a good guide describing what each app is on this disk, look at
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus...are-guide.htmlTheres a good discussion in the thread below which shows a list of which drivers and other "polluteware" not to bother installing:
http://www.asusrog.com/forums/showth...-Got-the-g74sx!
And of course, use some common sense too: if you have never had a bluetooth nor ever plan on getting one, do not install the bluetooth driver and software.
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G74SX-CST1-CBIL, i7 2630QM 2GHz
32GB DDR3 RAM @1333MHz
GTX560M 3GB DDR5 (192 bit)
17.3" LED 1920x1080
Sentelic TP, BIOS 203
Debian Linux Wheezy (Testing) Kernel 3.2, NVIDIA 295.40