Restoring a Dell (i know)

woody84

Baseband Member
Messages
97
OK I know how dumb this is so I'll try to be quick......

The partition that does this automatically is gone so that's a no go.
I DO have both the driver recovery disk AND the windows disk that came with the computer.

How do I do a full "system restore" wipe everything and start over.

do I just go into "my computer" and format the hard drive, then boot from the windows disk, then install drivers from the dell disk?

I tried to boot from the windows disk already and it tells me that I should not install two operating systems on the same partition. so I tried to "repair" and it wants to know the installation number and then an admin password?????

will formatting and then booting from the disk as described above work?
Dell Inspiron 9300
Windows XP
 
I tried to boot from the windows disk already and it tells me that I should not install two operating systems on the same partition. so I tried to "repair" and it wants to know the installation number and then an admin password?????
You need to delete the partition first - in the installation process it should give you a basic rudimentary partition manager. Delete all the partitions that you've got on the drive currently until you're just left with unpartitioned space. Then create a new partition to the entire size of the drive (unless you want to create more than one for whatever reason) and tell the setup to format that partition and then install windows on it.

Once windows is on it, you can then use your driver disk to put all the drivers back on, and then you should be done :)
 
You need to delete the partition first - in the installation process it should give you a basic rudimentary partition manager. Delete all the partitions that you've got on the drive currently until you're just left with unpartitioned space. Then create a new partition to the entire size of the drive (unless you want to create more than one for whatever reason) and tell the setup to format that partition and then install windows on it.

Once windows is on it, you can then use your driver disk to put all the drivers back on, and then you should be done :)

perfect thanks! it's formatting now.
 
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