I bought new win xp sp3 CD for dell laptop

[John]

If you follow this thread from the beginning you'll find that she does not
have Dell CD.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Who worked on the computer?

Chances are that there's a hidden Recovery partition that can be used to
reinstall Windows, Judy. If you use the CD you bought, you might be up the
proverbial creek without the Dell-specific drivers on hand.

 

[Bennett Marco]

Who worked on the computer?

Chances are that there's a hidden Recovery partition that can be used to
reinstall Windows, Judy.

Even if there was NO operating system on the new drive????

She wrote: "It was sent back without the OS which had been xp home."

 

[Jim]

I was describing the Dell driver and chipset disk (which I thought that she
ordered).
Jim

 

[BillW50]

In Don Phillipson typed on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:58:22 -0400:

For most everyday purposes, users prefer:
1. Diskette Drive
2. CD drive
3. USB device
4. Internal HDD

The rationale of this is that an everyday reboot will
quickly find no diskette, no CD, no attached USB
and thus boot from the hard drive. For special
purposes we just put in a disk (or connect some
USB gadget) and at reboot the laptop will attempt
to boot from it. But most days we do not need these
(yet do not need to reset boot device order again.)

Not me. 99.999% of the time I want my internal drive to boot, regardless
if something is in my floppy, CD, or USB ports. For the rare times I
don't want that to happen, I evoke a hotkey that activates the boot menu
so then I can make another choice.

 

[John]

All computers that I manage (at the office and home) are set to boot off
HDD, period. I don't want them to boot off an infected media.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

All computers that I manage (at the office and home) are set to boot off
HDD, period. I don't want them to boot off an infected media.

I disagree, and think that the hard drive should be kept as first in
the boot sequence. You should change to some other device *only* when
you need to, and then change back again when you're done.

I say this for two reasons:

1. It takes care of the situation where a CD or diskette is
accidentally left in the drive, and trying to boot from it will
therefore fail.

2. A floppy accidentally left in the drive could be infected with a
boot-sector virus (these are less common than you used to be, but they
are still around); if so, and you boot from it, you will get infected.

 

[John]

I disagree, and think that the hard drive should be kept as first in
the boot sequence.

Eh? That's what I said.

You should change to some other device *only* when
you need to, and then change back again when you're done.

I didn't mention that in my reply but that is exactly what I do. Reorder
boot sequence only when needed. Change them back to boot off HDD only when
I'm done working on it. If necessary, password protect the BIOS so no one
can change the settings.

1. It takes care of the situation where a CD or diskette is
accidentally left in the drive, and trying to boot from it will
therefore fail.

.... and get some "my PC does not work" calls from end users.

2. A floppy accidentally left in the drive could be infected with a
boot-sector virus (these are less common than you used to be, but they
are still around); if so, and you boot from it, you will get infected.

that's also what I said.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Eh? That's what I said.

Yes, you did. My apologies. I meant to reply to Don Phillipson's
message, not yours.

 

[John]

Thanks for clearing that up.

Yes, you did. My apologies. I meant to reply to Don Phillipson's
message, not yours.