Help reinstalling XP on laptop

[Jeff]

Hi

I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop whose HD died. I bought a new HD and do
have the OEM provided "Reinstallation CD" for XP Home.

Problem: I cannot access the CD to boot from it. Even if I boot to DOS from
the 3.5 diskette drive I cannot see the CD drive - probably because the
drivers to see the CD drive are not installed. What to do? How to
re-install from the re-install CD?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The Windows XP CD (or Dell CD) is bootable and contains all the tools necessary
to partition and format your drive. Follow this procedure and allow
Windows XP to partition and format your drive:

NOTE: It would be best to physically disconnect all your peripheral hardware
devices, except the monitor, mouse and keyboard, before installing XP.

NOTE: If you have an internal Zip Drive installed, physically disconnect the
EIDE and power cable to it before proceeding, otherwise your main
hard drive may not be assigned the customary C: drive letter.
After installing Windows XP, you may then reconnect it.

1. Open your BIOS and set your "CD Drive as the first bootable device".

===> Accessing Motherboard BIOS
===> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm

2. Insert your Windows XP CD in the CD Drive and reboot your computer.
3. You'll see a message to boot to the CD....follow the instructions.
4. The setup menu will appear and you should elect to delete all the existing
Windows partitions, then create a new partition, then format the primary
partition (preferably NTFS) and proceed to install Windows XP.

5. Clean Install Windows XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

[Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP]

6. ==> Immediately after installing Windows XP, turn on XP's Firewall.
==> http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

7. After Windows XP is installed, visit the Windows Update website
and download the available "Critical Updates".

8. After installing the critical updates, be sure and visit the support website
of the manufacturer of the computer to download and install any
available Windows XP compatible drivers, such as video adapter
and audio drivers.

9. If you happen to run into any installation difficulties, use the following resources:

How to Troubleshoot Windows XP Problems During Installation
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;310064

Troubleshooting Windows XP Setup
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_setup.htm

[Courtesy of MS-MVP Kelly Theriot]

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.aspx

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi
|
| I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop whose HD died. I bought a new HD and do
| have the OEM provided "Reinstallation CD" for XP Home.
|
| Problem: I cannot access the CD to boot from it. Even if I boot to DOS from
| the 3.5 diskette drive I cannot see the CD drive - probably because the
| drivers to see the CD drive are not installed. What to do? How to
| re-install from the re-install CD?
|
| --
|
| Jeff Williams
|

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hi Jeff,

Enter BIOS Setup by tapping the F2 key when your system is first
starting/restarting, then change the Boot Device Order in BIOS Setup so that
CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive is before Internal HDD. You should then be able to boot
from the Reinstallation CD.



Regards,

 

[MowGreen [MVP]]

Jeff.

http://support.dell.com/support/top...n/document?dn=1035144&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19#3
" Inspiron 4100 or 8100 Systems

To change the order of your system boot devices, perform the
following steps:

Power on the computer.

When the Dell logo screen appears, press the <F2> key to enter the
System Setup.

Press the <Alt> and <P> keys simultaneously to proceed to the second
page.

Press the <Down Arrow> key until CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive is highlighted.

Press the <U> key until CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive is at the top of the list.

Insert the CD-ROM you intend to boot from into the CD drive.

Press the <ESC> key to Save and Reboot.

Your computer will now boot from the CD in the drive. "


MowGreen [MVP]
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

 

[Guest]

Jeff,

I am not an expert on these issues but you may want to try Bootdisk.com.
They have a number of Bootdisks you can download with universal CD-Drivers.
This allowed me to access the CD from a formatted Hard Disk. I hope this
helps.

Matt

 

[Jeff]

Thank you all for your kind responses. I did try to set the CD drive as the
first bootable drive but it still would not boot. It is not a defective CD,
because I also tried it with another XP reinstall CD from my Toshiba laptop
and it would not boot up from that one either. When it first lights up,
after the screen with F2 at the bottom, it tells me "no HD" (which I know
because I did not yet insert the new one) but also "no optical drive". Yet
the CD drive was fine till the last minute before the HD died. I know,
because I had used Nero to burn some files to a CD just before the HD
started
making funny noises.

Not sure how to proceed now.

 

[Jeff]

I hasten to say that I solved the problem. To change the HD I first
disconnected power and removed the battery. Even though I attached the
power cord to try booting from the CD, the Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop would
not recognize or find the CD drive UNTIL I actually inserted the new HD AND
the battery. Must be some sort of quirk.

With the new HD in and the battery in, it boots up fine from the re-install
CD and I am installing the system now (It's formatting the new partition
now). Thank you all VERY much.

I might as well ask the next obvious questions:
1. Where do I call to get this reinstall re-authorized or whatever the word
is?
2. I have the SP-2 CD that MS sent out. Does this include all the updates
to that point? I think this original XP home was not even S-1. (This is my
daughter's laptop).

Thank you all again.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks. I solved the problem. For some reason this Dell laptop would not
boot from the CD drive if a working HD AND battery was inserted (in addition
to the power cord).. Works now. Thanks for helping.

 

[Patti MacLeod]

For your first question, have a look at this MSKB article, "How to activate
Windows XP":
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=307890

For your second question, yes, it includes all the updates to that point,
including the updates in SP1.



Regards,

 

[Jeff]

Thank you again.

The install went smoothly. I have installed many OSs (from ancient Dos to
OS/2 to Linuxes) and this was the absolutely smoothest. Thought you would
like to hear that.

 

[Patti MacLeod]

You're very welcome

I, too, have found XP to be one of the smoothest installations that I have
ever done.


Regards,