A "?" for WinXP users?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey folks,

I've got my Dell laptop and it DIDN'T come with any OS disks, everything was pre-installed on the hard drive! All I got was a few driver discs, but nothing says anything about RECOVERY discs or OS discs!?!? I don't need to do a re-install, but IF/WHEN I do need to, I know I'll need an OS disk! I've been told that I need to request a disk. I've been told that I can/should contact MicroSoft for it?? Just provide them with the "Key" number and they will send me one, for a nominal fee?

Then again, I wonder if I'm supposed to request it from the OEM manufacturer=DELL?

What do any of you Real Computer Gurus know about this??
Thanks in advance!
T.C.

[Geezer]

Re: A "?" for WinXP users?

Microsoft won't help you with OEM versions of Windows. If there isn't a directory of OEM software on HDD to back up, then you'll have to contact Dell.

Geezer
(formerly of Microsoft tech support)

Originally posted by TopCatGr58
Hey folks,

I've got my Dell laptop and it DIDN'T come with any OS disks, everything was pre-installed on the hard drive! All I got was a few driver discs, but nothing says anything about RECOVERY discs or OS discs!?!? I don't need to do a re-install, but IF/WHEN I do need to, I know I'll need an OS disk! I've been told that I need to request a disk. I've been told that I can/should contact MicroSoft for it?? Just provide them with the "Key" number and they will send me one, for a nominal fee?

Then again, I wonder if I'm supposed to request it from the OEM manufacturer=DELL?

What do any of you Real Computer Gurus know about this??
Thanks in advance!
T.C.

[planedick]

Contact Dell

I understand it is illegal to sell MS OS without the original disc. Contact Dell for the OS sisc.

[81xsproject]

My mother in law had a HP crash prefab computer and she had to call HP and they sent her a recovery version OS which is essentially just a cut and paste image of the C: drive, all the crap that comes loaded on prefab computers, and some kind of pragram that loads the image to the drive. So basically you STILL don't get a copy of an actual OS.

Just my experience,
JEss

this is the reason I build my own and anyone on this site could handle building a PC themselves.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Jess,

Yeah, I'm driving my homebuilt from scratch system desktop now, it's about 3 years old!! But this was for my laptop, can't build those very easily or cheapily!! I don't/won't mind an image disc, as long as I get a copy of the OS, since it's registered with MS, and I paid for it! Thanks all for the info, I'll try contacting DELL and see what they say!
T.C.

[graybird78]

Dell Windows XP

hello Topcat,

i'm graybird78's wife. i worked for HP, and also have had a lot of dealings with Dell. it doesn't matter where you bought your computer, or if it was Dell or HP. All discs ship with the computers. even if everything was already pre-installed. we also have a dell - our discs didn't come with our computer either. after speaking with dell, we were informed to go back to the store we purchased from and demand all of the discs that shipped with our computer. i did so, and was given the discs. it should be no different with a laptop. try going back to the place you purchased your laptop from, and request all the discs that shipped with it. have you spoke with Dell yet? their customer service # is 1-800-822-8965 ext 6640. you'll also need your service tag #, from your laptop, when you call them. they won't be able to get your discs for you - but when it happened to us, they requested the name of the place that we purchased our computer from, so that they could note it for future reference for them.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Graybird's SWMBO,

Thanks for the contact info. I ordered the DELL laptop ONLINE, and so it was delivered to my door from their processing plant in Texas!! With XP being registered with MS with it's specific key # means that they(Dell) couldn't use that particular copy of XP for any other computer, so I don't know why they didn't include it with the computer? I'll try contacting them soon! Thank goodness it's an 800 number, wouldn't want to pay for that call to INDIA on my own !!!
T.C.

[sermn8ter]

Check this out

I don't know if Dell is the same way as Compaq, but the Compaq I bought a couple of years ago also did not come with recovery discs. What it did come with was a program that you ran to create your own backup/recovery discs. It had a CD burner installed, and you had to have 6 CD's, then run the program and create the discs. I did so and have used them. They worked great. Check with Dell and see if they have some utility installed to do that.

[thumperjsa]

If the O/S is loaded on the drive, find the i386 directory and burn it to a CD. I think it is about 36 mbs. If you have the I386 directory, then all you need it to download the latest drivers from the Dell Website.

You should be able to contact Dell though and request a rebuild disk with the O/S on it. They don't send them with laptops and systems if you get XP Home edition I believe. Every system I ordered with Pro came with a CD.

[sermn8ter]

More to it than that

Isn't there? I mean if you copy the I386 directory you do get the cab files that are used during the install. But there is no executable as far as I can tell. There is a runW32.bat file there. Does that kick off the install, or is there another file that would be recognized if you booted to the CD?

[thumperjsa]

Actually, there is a setup file. But it is called winnt32.exe for a windows setup and winnt.exe for a dos based setup.

It would recognize the CD and do a setup if you were doing an install from a bootable XP install CD.

[TopCatGr58]

Well,
After some research on Dell.com, I found out that since June 2004, they put a Symantic recovery utility and hidden partition on the hard drive, and so during the BIOS sequence you hit Cntrl and F11 and it brings up this utility to RESTORE the laptop to OEM configuration.....whoopee! So I loose all of my updates, SP2, etc!

I've yet to contact them via email yet to ask about a recovery disc, or replacement OS disc, they probably won't give me one though!

The more I learn about XP, the more I like 98SE !!
T.C.

[Geezer]

Originally posted by TopCatGr58
The more I learn about XP, the more I like 98SE !!
T.C.

I almost agree. The more I use XP, the more I like WinME. I installed XP on what I thought was a fast computer and now it's a dog...

Tony

[sermn8ter]

Get more memory

I can't believe that you would go back to 98SE or ME. They both were bad OS's. XP is a good OS, but it does require a lot memory. I think the recommendation is 128 min., but I would at least double that if not more. If you have plenty of memory XP runs great, although I do much prefer the Pro version over the Home version. I work in the IT field and I am glad to see them go to XP. I did not see a winnt32.exe file in my I386 directory, although there were a number of exe's that I suspect would kick off if you had a system that would boot to the CD and run an install. You can probably run a recovery program off of that partition that was mentioned and create a set of recovery CD's, although I would call DELL and make sure. That is the way Compaq is going now. It passes on more hidden cost to you. It takes six CD's, that of course you have to supply, not them.

[Geezer]

I'm running 256 megs of DDR RAM with my AMD Athlon running at a true 1.7 gigahertz. It was fast ran well under WinME, it’s doggy and slow under XP Pro with all the service packs.

I was the head of back line support for a now no longer existing software company before 9/11 and the computer industry crash. Before that I was with MS windows and network support for 3 years. Win98se had a few bugs that I couldn’t live with but were fixed in ME. MS has problems with ever version of windows, for me WinME is the least objectionable. However I plan to return to the computer industry and so I use XP to stay familiar with it but it SUX.

Geezer