Dell Disks?

[Ron Hardin]

My July-bought Inspiron 1200 came with reinstall disks for XP
and Dell Diagnostics (they since have stopped shipping systems
with CD's)

Question : does the XP disk (and Dell Diagnostics for that matter)
also work on the pair of Inspiron 2200's I've bought since then?

I'm wondering if I in fact have a backup, in effect, of a way to get
back to the original condition even if I wipe out the HD following
some half-understood procedure.

I have XP disks (had to pay an added $10) for the subsequent systems
but have not been keeping straight which is which; none for the Dell
diagnostics though, on subsequent systems.

They don't have the same sealing-printed bar code but look the same
inside the wrapper.

Wondering if Security is going to wind up wiping out a last chance at
recovery, when (not if) I get there, assuming they'd get me back to
the beginning in the first place.

 

[Gunther]

You may have trouble activating XP if thats the operating system your
trying to install to the two inspirons. The XP activation, I believe is
dependent on the amount of memory you have. How much memory do each of
the notebooks have?

 

[Ron Hardin]

You may have trouble activating XP if thats the operating system your
trying to install to the two inspirons. The XP activation, I believe is
dependent on the amount of memory you have. How much memory do each of
the notebooks have?

XP is already there. I'm just considering in advance the almost certain event
that I screw up and wind up with something I have to start over with, because
I have no idea what I'm doing.

Each of the Inspirons has 1.3gb (256mb native + 1gb chip purchased elsewhere).

 

[Gunther]

Go to this webpage which gives detailed instructions on what you need
to do. Basically on each computer you will need to make a backup of two
files on each computer. The two files on each computer contain
information on product activation, and since both are running XP and
are all ready activated, if you reinstall later and restore those
backed up files then there will be no need for product activation. Be
sure to save the files else where not on your hard drive, save to a
disc or somewhere like http://briefcase.yahoo.com

http://netsecurity.about.com/od/windowsxp/qt/aaqtwinxp0829.htm

 

[Ron Hardin]

Go to this webpage which gives detailed instructions on what you need
to do. Basically on each computer you will need to make a backup of two
files on each computer. The two files on each computer contain
information on product activation, and since both are running XP and
are all ready activated, if you reinstall later and restore those
backed up files then there will be no need for product activation. Be
sure to save the files else where not on your hard drive, save to a
disc or somewhere like http://briefcase.yahoo.com

http://netsecurity.about.com/od/windowsxp/qt/aaqtwinxp0829.htm

Valuable info. Among other things, it suggests that reinstallation
itself might work, which is not nothing.

What does tbe reinstallation bring back? The bare XP and the restore
partition ahead of it (presumably empty)?

 

[Gunther]

Depends, i'm not sure what you really have or what's availible to you.
I have one of those purple Dell Discs, when you do a reinstall you have
many options availible. You could format the entire hard drive and
start from scratch. You can format a particular partition and leave the
others. If you start from scratch the Dell disc has nothing but the OS,
internet explorer, movie maker, etc. And there are some Dell help
utilities. Pretty much nothing.

 

[Ron Hardin]

Depends, i'm not sure what you really have or what's availible to you.
I have one of those purple Dell Discs, when you do a reinstall you have
many options availible. You could format the entire hard drive and
start from scratch. You can format a particular partition and leave the
others. If you start from scratch the Dell disc has nothing but the OS,
internet explorer, movie maker, etc. And there are some Dell help
utilities. Pretty much nothing.

Lessee

The Dell Disk is blue (``For reinstalling Dell Inspiron System Software'')
and says contents : device drivers Diagnostics and utilities

The diagnostics might be the dignostic partition? I found that handy once
in proving my 1gb added memory faulty.

The XP disk is purple (``Reinstallation CD Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service
Pack 2'')

Between the two it might reproduce all 3 partitions, or it might not. I can't tell.

I'm curious about formatting partitions as opposed to the whole disk. Doesn't the
whole disk have to be formatted for partitions to exist at all? I'd thought formatting
gave sectors their particular locations. Setting up an empty filesystem on a partition
then might be a separate thing, maybe also took on the name of formatting? Or maybe
disks no longer need sectors set up?

 

[PA20Pilot]

Hi Ron,

........Doesn't the whole disk have to be formatted for partitions to
exist at all?

Nope. A disk can also have unallocated space. Some softwares and resize,
format, or delete partitions without disturbing other partitions.


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