Want to format an old Dell - possible?

Scam

Scam

Scam

Soldato
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Apologies if this is a bit of a daft thread, but i want to format my sisters old Dell machine as she no longer uses it, and my mother could do with an upgrade from her 350mhz whatever-it-is she's currently using.

Firstly, i've always been a bit confused as to whether you can even do this with pre-built machines like Dell's etc.. :confused: Secondly, if you can, my sister has lost all her useful discs that came with it. Which leaves me with just my own disc of XP Pro. The sticker on the side of the Dell case has a key for XP Home. Can i use my XP Pro and her XP Home key together to do a fresh format/install?

If not, i'm assuming i can borrow an XP Home disc and use that, right?

Thanks for any advice -- i always kinda wing it whenever i need to do fresh installs etc..! :)
 
Theres a massive chance that the Dell machine might have all its installation files on another partition which means you can put the PC back to the day it was bought.

I've just done a PC where you pressed F10 on boot up and it gives a menu of re-installation and it saved me a lot of time.
It may not be F10 on the Dell but try that first, if not then work your way down from F12.
 
Ooh interesting. I knew there was always something 'funny' about prebuilt machines like that. I shall have a look. Will i not need the Dell disc though?
 
Scam said:
Ooh interesting. I knew there was always something 'funny' about prebuilt machines like that. I shall have a look. Will i not need the Dell disc though?
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Just put a fresh copy of XP onit and then look on dell website for drivers ;)
 
won't work

you need a dell xp oem disc, they have the key built in, the one written on your case can not be used at all, the dell oem keys all use the same key, it uses something in your bios to verify it

i have a dell xp oem cd here
 
Hmn well i managed to find a partitioned utility program, but it wasn't the restore thing you were on about dmpoole - it seems the PC is too old to have that. I just formatted with my XP Pro disc and tried to continue instal but it wont let the key on the side of the machine work - presumably because it's a Home key and i'm using a Pro disc :(
 
bledd. said:
i have a dell xp oem cd here
Click to expand...

Which you're willing to send over to me, right? :p

So i guess i need to beg Dell to send me a spare disc? What kind of info/backup story do i need to hand?! :confused:

EDIT: My Dad's work uses Dell, could they send me any Dell OEM disc to borrow? Or does it have to be the same disc with the same key?
 
I have done reinstalls on Fujitsu systems in the past and they come with a pre installed copy of windows xp home.Your copy of XP PRO will NOT work with an XP HOME serial code.
The dell xp home serial code should work no problem with an oem copy of xp home. BUT the one problem I did find was when I did the same on the Fujitsu it would NOT ACTIVATE online as the code was for a pre activated copy of xp home.
Eventually I had to use the xp home cd that came with the system. There are ways to make the system think it has been activated online BUT technically this may not be legal and the microsoft windows update I think may now stop you downloading certain updates even though you are using a genuine licence code.

Best bet is to borrow a genuine dell cp home cd and use your serial code. Also you could make a backup of the cd as with windows what you are buying is a licence code rather than the software itself.
 
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firewallblocked said:
The dell xp home serial code should work no problem with an oem copy of xp home. BUT the one problem I did find was when I did the same on the Fujitsu it would NOT ACTIVATE online as the code was for a pre activated copy of xp home.
Eventually I had to use the xp home cd that came with the system.
Click to expand...

so it doesn't work.


you need a dell xp home oem disc if you want this to work with no hitches (its legal then too, dell just don't send out the xp discs unless you ask for one when you buy the pc now)
 
Scam said:
Ooh interesting. I knew there was always something 'funny' about prebuilt machines like that. I shall have a look. Will i not need the Dell disc though?
Click to expand...

If the installation is on another partition then you won't need a disk.

Just try my suggestion first -
Turn on machine and immediately keep pressing the F10 button.
If that doesn't give you a menu then try F12 and slowly work your way down the F numbers.
F8 will definitely give you a menu but not the one you want.
If all fails then you only lost a bit of time.
 
Yeah, i did already try all that, thanks though. I'm sorting out getting hold of a Dell CD now, fingers crossed :)
 
I dont think you'l find the image on that partition- It usually only holds diagnostics.

Like has already been said, you will need a Dell OEM XP CD. All of the drivers are on the dell Website.
 
I have used data recovery software before to recover the software on a hidden partition and in one of the folders was a .gho image and I was able to burn it on to a dvd, it was basically a norton ghost image so with norton ghost I could reinstall without the dell recovery software working. :) :)

I think this was a Dell 5000, whether or not you can recover a usable image will depend on the model.
 
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If the dell has the image on it you can restore from it

One thing to check this is after the del loading screen does a blue bar appear at the top of the screen. If it does you can restore from there within 15 minutes.

Once the blue bar appears quickly press atl and then f11, of f11 doesn't work its f12. If that doesn't work google the right combo :p

Once you do that, you will then get the restore option, and in 15 minutes you have a factory clean system.
 
Any OEM Winxp Home disk will do just fine,i had no problems with the last 8 Dells i re-installed in the past couple of weeks.Although you may have to activate by phone and waste 5 mins of your life listening to the microsoft robot.
 
I use Dell PCs at work and can confirm you don't need the Dell CD to reformat the machine and install XP. You may just want to make sure you've got the network card drivers on a memory key/cd because it can be a complete pain to get drivers on an older machine.

The dell site is great for having all the drivers you would need.
 
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