Reinstalling Win XP

[Bill in Co.]

I'm sure you could do it different, but I had a need to reload

Oh. OK, I missed that (or forgot about it).

and took
the opportunity. Kinda like this thread. Besides, I'm retired and
have a few minutes spare on my side.

Me too, but I'd rather not do a reinstall. I've got way too many things
customized and set up just the way I want them now.

I don't have that expertise in boot.ini etc, and in my opinion the C:
drive was the 2nd partition and using Partition Magic was even a bad
idea.

I don't have expertise on boot.ini, but just seem to recall reading about
that.

I agree now with Ken Blake (I think he said it) that reloading may fix
the problem but does not tell you what you did wrong to begin with.

True enough. OK, you were having some problems to begin with.

 

[Rick]

Several DELL CDs are not true XP install CDs. They appear to be some
type of recovery CD, which will only install XP back to the factory
original XP set up.

This is correct. This is what a Restoration CD looks like:

http://dsnimg.dell.com/images/external/images/OS/SRCD-2.jpg

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have a question that's related: I
have a RESTORE CD.
Can I delete the partitions on the HD so, I can partition it? It
seems the hidden partitions
are keeping me from partitioning the disk with Partition Magic. Will
I need anything in
those 2 hidden partitions? Oh, will I have a problem with booting
in the future, as
mentioned in another post?

Rick

Rick

 

[Richard in AZ]

| Daave wrote:
| > | >
| > Several DELL CDs are not true XP install CDs. They appear to be some
| > type of recovery CD, which will only install XP back to the factory
| > original XP set up.
| >
| > This is correct. This is what a Restoration CD looks like:
| >
| > http://dsnimg.dell.com/images/external/images/OS/SRCD-2.jpg
| >
|
| Sorry to hijack this thread, but I have a question that's related: I
| have a RESTORE CD.
| Can I delete the partitions on the HD so, I can partition it? It
| seems the hidden partitions
| are keeping me from partitioning the disk with Partition Magic. Will
| I need anything in
| those 2 hidden partitions? Oh, will I have a problem with booting
| in the future, as
| mentioned in another post?
|
| Rick
|
| Rick
Please do not hijack a thread. Start a new thread, you will get your answer just as fast.
You do not say what make and model PC you have. This would help.
With some PCs the hidden partitions have only diagnostic programs, with some they have a mirror
image of the OS.
Start a new thread and give more information.

To the OP.
For a short period, on some models, Dell provided only Restore Disks. Yours is that type.
A phone call to Dell and you can get Disks with Windows Installation and Drivers. There may be a
small fee.

 

[Daave]

To the OP.
For a short period, on some models, Dell provided only Restore Disks.
Yours is that type.
A phone call to Dell and you can get Disks with Windows Installation
and Drivers. There may be a small fee.

That's not the impression I got. (Then again, I've never used one of
Dell's Recovery CDs.)

Still, what makes you think this is what the OP has? He has described it
as a "reinstall" CD (Dell calls the installation disks "Reinstallation
CDs" -- close enough) and he indicated there was a Repair (R) option.

FWIW, the SRCD process is described here:

https://support.dell.com/support/to...E14F50&docid=F1CAF70CBAA94797B3F60FFE4A2FE346