Installing a new HD in a Dell that doesn't have a HD. Was: Who has the license for XP, he or I?

[mm]

As I said in a previous thread, a friend gave me a DELL Inspiron 9600
without the hard drive. It has the Product Key on the side, and it
came with XP Pro** SP1, but so far my friend hasn't found the original
OEM Dell reinstallation CD.

I found one that is for XP Pro, but it's SP2, not SP1. Will it
still work?

Thanks for your help.


**For some reason I thought it had had XP Home on it.

BTW, I learned a lot in the previous thread about the ease and
difficulties of taking a Dell Ccomputer without a hard drive and
fixing it up.

New questions and possible problems keep rearing their head!

 

[Richard in AZ]

The SP2 status is not the issue.
It will work fine if the installation XP Pro CD was issued by DELL.
It may work if the installation CD is a non-Dell OEM version, but I would not count on that.
If you can find a friend with a Dell XP Pro CD (any SP version), you are in fat city.
Dell installation CD's were meant for use when replacing a hard drive.
You won't have the hidden diagnostics partition, but that is a plus, not a negative and you won't
have any of the crapware.

 

[mm]

The SP2 status is not the issue.
It will work fine if the installation XP Pro CD was issued by DELL.

Yes, sorry. The CD is Dell.

It may work if the installation CD is a non-Dell OEM version, but I would not count on that.
If you can find a friend with a Dell XP Pro CD (any SP version), you are in fat city.
Dell installation CD's were meant for use when replacing a hard drive.
You won't have the hidden diagnostics partition, but that is a plus, not a negative and you won't
have any of the crapware.

Well that is cool!

Thanks a lot.

 

[Daave]

As I said in a previous thread, a friend gave me a DELL Inspiron 9600
without the hard drive. It has the Product Key on the side, and it
came with XP Pro** SP1, but so far my friend hasn't found the original
OEM Dell reinstallation CD.

I found one that is for XP Pro, but it's SP2, not SP1. Will it
still work?

Yes.

Better yet would be a Dell-branded OEM XP Pro installation CD at the SP3
level. ;-)

So make sure you install SP3! Post back if you need pointers. One thing
to consider is that you should upgrade to SP3 *before* upgrading IE6.

And get all your drivers ahead of time!

 

[mm]

Yes.

Better yet would be a Dell-branded OEM XP Pro installation CD at the SP3
level. ;-)

I could buy one for 10 to 20 dollars. Or I could make one if I could
ever get that slipstreaming to work (please, no suggestions about
that.)

So make sure you install SP3!
OKay.

Post back if you need pointers. One thing
to consider is that you should upgrade to SP3 *before* upgrading IE6.
Okay.

And get all your drivers ahead of time!

I have them, all 382 megs of them. I guess I should put them on a CD.
But I can do that anytime since I'll still have this computer.

Thanks a lot.