reformat old PC

chipp

I've been given an old Dell desktop PC that I was hoping to be able to reformat and configure just for standalone gaming, but although I've managed to change the boot order to try to boot first from cd (XP system disc), and even disabled the HDD from the boot list so it doesn't look at it at all, it still thinks it's a corporate machine and boots to the standard corporate desktop. Have I missed something obvious? It must be getting its boot instructions from somewhere.

glentoran99

Your Xp disk may not be a boot disk, they aren't all, Can you not install from windows menu?

Big_Graeme

glentoran99 wrote: »

Your Xp disk may not be a boot disk, they aren't all, Can you not install from windows menu?

Any Dell supplied restore/OS disk will be bootable.

chipp

Thanks glentoran99, unfortunately the machine is "locked down" good & tight so previous (corporate) users couldn't change anything.

The disk I'm trying to use is one I created as a system restore disk from an XP Dell I used to own (since Dell ship pre-installed and don't give you the disks). I've used it successfully in the past to install XP on an even older machine (a laptop) running an even earlier version of Windows. I can't remember how, I suspect I just fed it the disk and the old laptop got on with it. But the corporate machine just doesn't want to play.

If I put the disk in my "normal" pc (the one I'm writing this on) I can see all the files on it, so the disk isn't physically damaged. It is possible it isn't a proper boot disk if such a thing differs from a system restore disk (I labelled it "XP OS backup cd" which really isn't helpful at all) but if so, and I've changed the bios settings on the corporate machine so it doesn't look at its internal HDD, surely the machine should just fail to boot, rather than load corporate settings?

Just had a thought, might there be a hidden partition holding the boot info? If so, how do I reveal it so I can tell the machine not to look there for its boot instructions? F2 to enter bios works but F12 (Boot menu) seems to be disabled.

NiftyDigits

chipp wrote: »

I've been given an old Dell desktop PC that I was hoping to be able to reformat and configure just for standalone gaming, but although I've managed to change the boot order to try to boot first from cd (XP system disc), and even disabled the HDD from the boot list so it doesn't look at it at all, it still thinks it's a corporate machine and boots to the standard corporate desktop. Have I missed something obvious? It must be getting its boot instructions from somewhere.

Do you imagine the description, "old Dell desktop PC" is in any way helpful to you?

LHW99

Is this any use?
https://neosmart.net/wiki/dell-recovery-partition/

pendragon_arther

Also try tapping Ctrl + F11 on bootup for potential access to recovery partition, which may or may not take it back prior to corporate interference in which case you should be okay.

chipp

corporate interference

:rotfl:

Will give it a go tomorrow (weekend in the garden!)

macman

Post the Service Tag and meaningful advice can be given.