Zid

also Dells with the regular harddrive have a self restore in them (CTRL F11 at boot up)

gives your default system of course this is formatting though.

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Cappy

well from what i was told, OEM software can only be installed on the same machine, its fine for a re-install but!!! if something were to happen to the motherboard then yes the eula would then be void, but if the same motherboard that came with the machine is still in use install away.

ive done 4-5 reinstalls on my dell,,, and windows validation has never had a problem

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|TG-6th| Cappy

KestrelZ17

You could always use the other XP disc to install on the SATA, fix your old boot drive, install the Dell XP on your old boot and then wipe the other drive. Technically a violation of the EULA, but people do much worse than just using it to fix another lawfully owned OS.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you get 30 days before you have to activate it or is that for programs and not Windows.

Of course, you could try building a BartPE disc with the other XP disc or the Dell one if possible.

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rammajamma

Well, in duh wee haurs of duh mornin', I gave up on the crap I was tryin' and disconnected the old boot drive, connected the newer SATA drive, reformatted it and loaded my Dell/XP disk. I reconnected the old drive and it appears intact. Now I have to weigh my options if I have any:

1. Can I copy documents on the old drive and paste them in a folder in the new drive successfully? Not programs, but like Word documents and pictures. Then I would just reformat the old drive and use it for extra storage like games.

2. Is there some way of doing a restore of the old drive only? From what I remember, you only have the option of doing a restore to the boot up C drive but I'm not at home to check that. If I do a restore, do I lose all my stuff? If this option works then I could wipe out the newer drive and go back to having the old drive as my boot up and the 160gb as my storage for big programs like BF2, etc.

Now, I have read through the Dell forums and many there said that when you add an SATA HD it has to be your boot drive. I didn't find that to be the case, but is it possible that this was my problem even though it worked for 3 weeks? Maybe to be safe I should just go for option 1.

What would you guys do?

Thanks for all the help so far.

sgt fetterman

if I remember right, only an OEM disk {dell, HP ext.} is tied to the machine, a retail disk {newegg, staples} can follow you from rig to rig, only if it's installed on one machine only at a time. and yes you need to call and explane why it is on a different machine now. upgraded mobo/vid/hdd or a new rig.

I might be wrong tho. having a bad day today.

KestrelZ17

Option 1 will work. As for option 2, I don't know. IMHO I would play it safe and go with Option 2. In theory having SATA as your boot should make everything move along quicker anyway.

Glad that you finally got things up and running.

KZ17

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rammajamma

Did you mean to say go with Option 1? I think I will. 80gigs is enough for a gaming only disk, right?

By the way, I can copy and paste Word files and stuff like pictures from HD to HD without problems right?

Thanks for the guidance.

KestrelZ17

Yeah, I meant option 1. Sorry for the confusion. HD to HD transfer is no problem at all. Copy and paste works fine. 80GB drive will be fine for gaming only. It's music, video and photographs that take up the space (on mine at least). I would be careful putting irreplaceable stuff on the old drive. You never know when it can go down the tubes.

Good luck with everything.

KZ17

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rammajamma

Superrrrr. Thanks so much for all your help Kestrel (and all you other guys too).

rammajamma

EDIT: had a couple issues which have been resolved.

Dell C.A.

From the sounds of it, everyone here has already given you the help you need. I wanted to double check anyway that the problems you were running into with the hard drive have been fixed.

Just for clarification, the operating system reinstallation CD that Dell sends out with computers is a full Windows reinstallation disk. The specific version will depend on what operating system was shipped with the computer. While you can reinstall Windows using a "standard" CD, I believe you would run into a problem with it if you tried to use the Windows Product Key on the computer as it is for the Dell "version" of Windows (the only difference is Dell slipstreams some Dell specific updates to ensure it will boot and support the hardware on the system it ships with).

For the drivers, you can either use the Dell Resource CD, or go to support.dell.com and download the latest updates for your system. If you get the drivers from the support site you will need to know what hardware is in your system, as it will list all hardware options for the model, and not just those for your particular order. If at anytime you are unsure what drivers are correct for your system you can contact Dell technical support as they can look up your system to see what was on the original order.

If you had any other questions about the system I will be happy to answer them.


Larry
Dell Customer Advocate

todesengel

That is IF he has a system restore from that time. mine PC is weird like that where i have to go WAYYYY back to get it right

rammajamma

Everything is good. Installed XP on new HD and re-formatted old HD--which I'm using just for games like BF2. I have a hunch that I got into problems by using the old IDE drive as my boot up cuz posts on the Dell forums said if you add a new SATA drive the SATA drive MUST be your boot up drive. I left the IDE as my boot up cuz I didn't want to move XP and it worked for awhile. Who knows. But thanks for all the input everybody.