Formatting a dell pc (SATA issues?)

Horlock

Just bought a brand new dell pc.

Now I want to scrap all the crap that it came with - ie format the hard disk completely and start from scratch. I have the windows disk - but my question really lies regarding the sata hard drive.

In the past when I reformatted my old PC which also had a sata hard drive on installation of windoze I was told that I needed to insert the sata drivers disk - (a floppy) which fortunately I had - now I have the new pc I wasn't sent a sata drivers disk (and the computer doesn't even have a floppy drive).

Has anyone successfully installed windows onto a dell machine - I know I can use the F11 menu etc, but I don't want the dell crap and I'm looking at installing linux too etc etc.

Should I expect difficulties or have Microsoft done away with Sata driver disks etc? I'm about to install windose media centre (from a dell disk).

electron_3

I wouldnt bother formatting a new PC its not worth it.

Just uninstall from add/remove programs and anything else like MSN from
Add/Remove Windows Components, Because if you reload from the XP disc you
will in all likely hood have to reinstall certain drivers seperately, and that can
be a long process.

Then delete any leftover folders via Windows Explorer.

Greensprout

Horlock wrote:

Has anyone successfully installed windows onto a dell machine - I know I can use the F11 menu etc, but I don't want the dell crap and I'm looking at installing linux too etc etc.

Should I expect difficulties or have Microsoft done away with Sata driver disks etc? I'm about to install windose media centre (from a dell disk).

I recently installed Windows XP on to a Dell PC and had no problems at all.
There was no mention of a Sata disk?

All of Dells Drivers are easily available from their website too.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
I formatted my dell 5150, installed xp and partitioned the hd, no problems with the Sata drivers whatsover.
The only thing I would say that the dell drivers are on a seperate partition on the hd, so copy to disc before you format.

Hope this helps