Dell D600/D505 Laptops

[StephenF10]

I have recently bought two Dell D600 and D505 laptops at an auction. They came with Windows XP Pro licenced and installed but no setup disks, so if there's ever a problem with Windows I won't be able to re-install it.

Does anyone have the setup disks for these laptops that they would be willing to sell or copy? (I cannot see any problem in copying as the laptops would have come with these disks anyway).

[Blknight.aus]

there should be an option in the software on the laptop to create rescue disks.

[abaddonxi]

Check out the last post on this thread
Restore a Dell Latitude D600 without a recovery disk? - Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20061019205257AAomkB8)

Looks like if you have a partition on your hdd then you've got it set up, if there's been a reinstall without you'll have to look elsewhere.

Cheers
Simon

[StephenF10]

I don't have a setup partition :( . It looks as if the HDD has been repartitioned to a single Windows partition. The installation is straight Windows - no Dell stuff at all.

[abaddonxi]

Download a hdd ghosting program, something like Symantec Ghost and make an image of the system now. With this you can make a complete bootable image of your system to restore from. You also have no problems with serials, etc. when restoring.

I'm trying out IBM Rescue and Recovery 4.2 as we speak, but 400+mb download is a little big.

Cheers
Simon

[HangOver]

Download a hdd ghosting program

this is your best option is your HDD has only one partition ie not recovery files.

The problem with someone copying a CD for you is that it may or may not work 50/50 chance I would say. Although you have XPpro installed and licensed there are several types of install disk even for XPpro.
The is the general release retail, OEM, student,(the student one is a guess, i'm not too sure) corporate, MVLS, and thats just the ones i know about. Even if you have the CD key, (on the XP sticker on you computer) the keys are not interchangable with each CD.
MS will sell you replacement media, (install CD) but only to the original purchaser. Most people do not realise that MS is non-transferable. So ask them but don't tell them you got it from auction.
Also if it's a Dell it will have a service tag number.
Call Dell quote the number and they may either sell you a CD or tell you where to download the image. Be vague with Dell & MS so maybe they won't realise you didn't buy it new.

So your options:
get several copy CDs of XP install CD, one might work
contact Dell/MS try to get relacement media and/or an image from dell
take an image(ghost) now while it still works

good luck

[p38arover]

Would an image of the set up partition off my Dell D610 work (assuming I knew how to make an image)?

[Pedro_The_Swift]

probably,, but then there would be two copies of YOUR XP key on the net ,, and next time it trys to update--- WGA will swoop!

hmm,, wont XP ask for reactivation when it starts up and finds all the hardware has changed?

(you Pro's step in here anytime:p)

[HangOver]

hmm,, wont XP ask for reactivation when it starts up and finds all the hardware has changed?
(you Pro's step in here anytime:p)

XPpro doesn't do that, well the corporate edition doesn't So I assume the retail version of Pro won't either. AFAIK once it's registered that's it.
I'm sure some one with XPpro retail will pipe up and let you know if I'm wrong;)

[StephenF10]

I managed a practice installation of Windows on the Dell (with a spare HDD) using a Win XP Upgrade CD that I had used on my desktop last year and with the help of a Microsoft Technet article "Preserving OEM Pre-Activation when Re-installing Windows XP". I expected a dummy-spit from Microsoft when I went to activate the installation as I had used the same product key on the desktop but it went through ok.

Thanks for all your help.

[Dougal]

Here's a hot tip.

All Dell XP Pro installation CD's are the same. It's a generic dell version of XP which when autorun installs with Dell's corporate key (no need to enter a license number).
The drivers can be downloaded from the Dell website, even if you had the original discs the newer versions on the dell website are better. The service tag on the bottom can be used on the Dell website to give all your applicable drivers in a list for download.
It's a couple of hundred mb total.

I have two Dell inspiron 600m's (same as the D600). Nice little computers, I just upgraded recently as I need more graphics grunt for solidworks (laptops with 512mb of open-gl graphics are quite rare).

The drivetrays on these computers are compatible with all the current dell laptops too. I bought a removable second hdd tray which is fantastic for backups. Also an internal bluetooth device cost me a princely $30 from Dell.