Installing HardDrive

joel5200

I have just spoken to Dell customer Support and they were insistant that I buy a new copy of Windows XP, when I explained I had paid for the software licence the chap said that perhaps I should borrow a copy of the XP Home CD from someone.

So my question now is is there anyone out there who is willing to lend me their XP Home CD to enable me to load windows on my laptop, I will, of course, be willing to cover all expenses?

albertross_2

how old is the laptop

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=219379&forumid=16

joel5200

Albertross,

I purchased it in 2004 !!!

The first link would appear to be for USA as it won't let me input my Postcode??

albertross_2

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=856806&postcount=404

I know, I am just trying to persuade you that they are obtainable, (or were in the past), and usually Dell send them out without any hassle. Ring them again, and point them to their own website with the policy in black and white.

You have after all paid for the license already, the media used to cost a couple of quid from Dell, not the £60 for a full XP oem disk.

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=uk&dl=false&l=en&s=gen&docid=3A1C590C9132AB20E040A68F5B28350B&doclang=en&cs=#2

isofa

If you want the direct line to their Irish call centre (rather than the Indian one) it is:

00353850 333 200

Open Hours: 8am - 8pm Monday - Friday
9am - 6pm Saturday, 10am - 5pm Sunday

Dell Products c/o Cherrywood Science & Technology Park, Dublin 18

Computer_Addict

Hello there,
Be careful when messing about with formating HD's since nowadays computer suppliers have done the dirty on the consumer and tend not to give out installation disks! They say that the installation disk is on the hard drive in a hidden partition which you can use by pressing an "F" key at boot up so they don't need to give you something which you can keep safe in case of emergency etc. Of course if the HD stops working you have to buy a new set of OS disks which can be expensive! Some suppliers will give/sell you what they call recovery disks if you contact them but some just flatly refuse.
This is a bug bear of mine since I just bought a new machine but no disks or even info about how to recover the OS. The supplier flatly refused to give me any disks so I had to learn how to do this myself - a steep learning curve for even an addict like myself and I would say impossible for a novice. I now have something which I keep aside for that promised day when I have to "reinstall" which will happen sooner than you think.