Re-format and reinstall?

st4rk

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Joined
7 May 2006
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Hi, i decided to completely reformat and reinstall my dell dimension after reading about all the bloat ware and the fact that my second hd is faster, i installed xp pro from a friends disk, i have home edition but i thought pro would be better. installation went fine but then i realised it was for a laptop and it seemed to be able to do less... i don't know if that is correct - but device manager showed no monitor so i thought that this was not right. now i want to reinstall home edition to the same disk and i'm wondering how to do it best, i need to reformat it and reinstall but you cannot reformat the boot drive... I don't know if there is a best way to do this, the only way i can think off is to install xp to my D drive and then boot from that and then uninstall on c drive then repeat that process.... i hope someone has a better suggestion :)
 
st4rk said:
Hi, i decided to completely reformat and reinstall my dell dimension after reading about all the bloat ware and the fact that my second hd is faster, i installed xp pro from a friends disk, i have home edition but i thought pro would be better. installation went fine but then i realised it was for a laptop and it seemed to be able to do less... i don't know if that is correct - but device manager showed no monitor so i thought that this was not right. now i want to reinstall home edition to the same disk and i'm wondering how to do it best, i need to reformat it and reinstall but you cannot reformat the boot drive... I don't know if there is a best way to do this, the only way i can think off is to install xp to my D drive and then boot from that and then uninstall on c drive then repeat that process.... i hope someone has a better suggestion :)

First off, the amount of support supplied within this thread should be limited. The fact you ran into problems installing XP from a "friends disc" can't be addressed too thoroughly because that is not legal use of the software. XP is not meant to be shared, each person should legally obtain their own license by purchasing it.

That being said, the main differences between XP Home and XP Pro, can really only be found if the PC in question is used in a networked environment. If it is a stand-alone rig in a house/apartment where it won't be accessed or accessing other machines, XP Home will do just fine. Also, there isn't a version for "laptops" or "desktops" for that matter, XP is XP, period.

If you are looking to re-install XP Home, which is the software I assume you own, pop in that CD and boot to it directly. As part of the wizard, XP will blow away your current C drive (boot), and you will be able to re-create the partition and install to it.
 
Ummm, Dell does not provide bootable CD's...

st4rk
You will have to contact Dell customer support and try to obtain a copy of the XP Home CD from them. MS will refuse to supply one because of the deal they have with Dell. You will also need to find and make copies of all the drivers required for the hardware in the Dimension. Again, Dell usually does not provide an install CD so that will require web searches and possibly more time with Dell support.

You must reformat the HD from a Windows Install CD to go from Pro back to Home. Windows may resist this process since it knows Pro is a more advanced version than Home and assumes you are making a mistake. If you have a problem use the Utility disk that came with the HD to reformat. If you don't have the utility disk you can download and burn a copy for your drive type from most drive manufacturer's websites.

The planned way to recover a Dell is to use the hidden System drive image on the HD. But if you formated the original that is gone. If you did not format the original pull out the new drive put the old drive in as C: and follow the instructions to copy the image over to the root of C:. (this may require a call to tech support they don't publish the instrucitons.)

After you recover the original bloatware install you can image the old drive to the new drive, swap them and then go in and disable all the bloatware. The details are in a link on a thread about the XPS machines here at OSNN. Probably the thread you saw that gave you the upgrade idea in the first place.
 
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They may have provided a re-installation disc for XP Home, seems to be luck of the draw with their systems lately. Although from what I hear they are going to be stopping to do that, as well as not packing manuals with them either :eek:
 
dell's usually come with a special partition (atleast our servers do before we blow them into oblivion :p) so i'd look for something like that unless it was blown to oblivion in a fit of "I knmow what I'm doing" mania :D
 
kcnychief said:
They may have provided a re-installation disc for XP Home, seems to be luck of the draw with their systems lately. Although from what I hear they are going to be stopping to do that, as well as not packing manuals with them either :eek:

heh I wish thwey would not pack manuals with servers when you order a few pallete loads :)
 
LordOfLA said:
dell's usually come with a special partition (atleast our servers do before we blow them into oblivion :p) so i'd look for something like that unless it was blown to oblivion in a fit of "I knmow what I'm doing" mania :D
I would assume that was blown away when the XP Pro install was done, but I could be wrong.

LordOfLA said:
heh I wish thwey would not pack manuals with servers when you order a few pallete loads :)

I feel your pain there, you should see the boxes of stuff that I have piled up :D
 
LordOfLA said:
heh I wish thwey would not pack manuals with servers when you order a few pallete loads :)

Why not? They make good kindling in the winter...
 
Yes, i did reformat the old drive after installation of pro on the new one, i have a reinstallation cd but even when i go stop the hd from booting so it can only boot from the cd i still cannot reformat the new drive in recovery, so i am not sure if i am doing something wrong by typing:

format [c:] [/fs:ntfs]

this i believe should format the new drive but i think because it is the primary installation it will not allow me to reformat. i have decided to go the long way around by installing xp on the old drive and then reformating the new before reinstallation again. the reason i want it on the new drive is because its a hell of a lot faster.

Regarding me thinking there was a laptop version, it's funny because this pro version has very strange grapics capabilities comparied to home edition, when i scroll it is not smooth at all it jumps as if it is lagging, the same happens when i drag a window. also what led me to think this is that there is no option in device manager to update the monitor driver, it doesn't even show a monitor? Maybe it it justs my computers conscience telling me i should stick with home edition :p

Also another question what is the 71mb being taken up by FAT in my old drive? It says healthy eisa configuration.

I will try the western digital boot tool first that may be able to do it :)
 
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All sorted now after alot of file transfering and reformating and reinstallation :)
 

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