Installing WinXp on a Laptop: Question?

[Super Warrior]

Just got my new Dell Inspiron B120 Laptop in. Had a ton of stuff already on it from Dell, lots of offers and other crap,like pre-loaded programs i won't even use.

Tried to Reinstall WinXP with my Xp disc, but it would not let me saying because its an older version of XP than whats already installed on the laptop.

I then went into the bios,made sure my disc drive was set first in boot sequence and attempted to start the reinstallation process on startup. It looked like it was working, but i ended up getting some kinda dumb error and the process gets stopped.

Any advice? Any programs out there that can wipe my hard drive clean and allow me to clean reinstall my XP O.S disc like i want?

[redwudz]

If it has a floppy drive, get a copy of the W98 startup disk and boot from that. Type 'fdisk' and repartition the drive. It may have a second diagnostic partition, usually small. Don't format the drive, just partition it.

This wipes the drive. Then go ahead and use your XP disc to reformat in NTFS mode and install the OS.

You can also make a Bart PE CD disc and do the same thing if you only have a CD drive.

Either way, it's easiest to repartition because XP won't let you put an older version over a new one.

[Super Warrior]

If it has a floppy drive, get a copy of the W98 startup disk and boot from that. Type 'fdisk' and repartition the drive. It may have a second diagnostic partition, usually small. Don't format the drive, just partition it.

This wipes the drive. Then go ahead and use your XP disc to reformat in NTFS mode and install the OS.

You can also make a Bart PE CD disc and do the same thing if you only have a CD drive.

Either way, it's easiest to repartition because XP won't let you put an older version over a new one.

Thats silly about not putting an older one over a new one.It does not have a floppy, and i have no idea what a "Bart PE" disc is.

I've heard of programs out there that can wipe the HDD clean,making sure when selling a computer that no personal data can be extracted. Then allowing a clean O.S install. But nothing yet on my google searches...

Any software suggestions would be nice.

[jimmalenko]

Super[/url] Warrior]It looked like it was working, but i ended up getting some kinda dumb error and the process gets stopped.

Any chance of letting us know what this kinda dumb error was, or should we start drawing straws to see who has to guess blindly ?

AFAIK you should be able to blow away any partitions if booting off your XP disc. From then on it should be like a fresh, clean install.

I wonder if the old trick of typing format c: at a DOS prompt causes the PC to reboot and format before it tries to preload windows ?

Google a Bart PE disc and you'll find out what it is.

http://www.duxcw.com/dcforum/DCForumID7/661.html might have some answers for you also.

[thevoelk]

You should be bale to formtat the parition. When it tells you that there's already an OS, hit C to conitinue. Select the current parition and hit D to delete it. I think you have to hit L at the next screen to lose everything. Then you should be ready to go.

[MJA]

I formatted my dell laptop.no issues at all

[MJA]

"Put win xp cd in computer
restart
when the boot screen shows up press f12
Then selected CD/CDRW
Then it will say press any key to boot from cd rom, press a key
then it will load it up
Press Enter to install windows
then Press Enter again to install fresh copy of windows
Then it will show you the partions
It will look like
:FAT 32MB
C:NTFS About the size of your hard drive
then 8 mb

dont delete the 8mb or the 32
delete the NFTS by pressing D, then L
then go to unpartitioned space and press C to create a new one. after you create select Format NTFS and once u do that its pretty much simple after that."

[smearbrick1]

Super[/url] Warrior]It looked like it was working, but i ended up getting some kinda dumb error and the process gets stopped.

Any chance of letting us know what this kinda dumb error was, or should we start drawing straws to see who has to guess blindly ? :shock:

As always Jimmy, you nailed it immediately.

You should be careful when completely formatting a drive in a new Dell computer. If you do not have backup discs, you will lose all of your driver files. These are all house on a separate partition from the main partition for recovery purposes.

If you format the drive completely, just prepared to do some searching for drivers (soundcards, wireless cards, video cards... etc). Unless, of course, you had the foresight to purchase the backup discs along with your laptop, then this shouldn't be a problem.

What is the dumb error?

[dcsos]

I've had a lot of problems loading RETAIL build of XP purchased over the counter at COMP USA onto some DELL laptops
Some DELL BRANDED laptops will not boot to the retail XP Disc no matter what bios settings are used

It seems, after FDISKING and FORMATTING the DRIVE,
even while loaing XP in DOS (by typing WINNT.EXE to start loading setup of XP) the "copying files" process times out without an error message..

Thus the original poster may have had NO ERROR MESAGE to post

In otherword, "the process just gets stopped"

My work around,
BOOT TO A: prompt
COPY *.* every file on the XP install disc (in the I386 folder ) to
the laptop's hard drive and start the DOS install from the HD directly

HTH (by the way, you must use FAT 32 to do this method, but can convert to NTFS after loading XP)

[Super Warrior]

"Put win xp cd in computer
restart
when the boot screen shows up press f12
Then selected CD/CDRW
Then it will say press any key to boot from cd rom, press a key
then it will load it up
Press Enter to install windows
then Press Enter again to install fresh copy of windows
Then it will show you the partions
It will look like
:FAT 32MB
C:NTFS About the size of your hard drive
then 8 mb

dont delete the 8mb or the 32
delete the NFTS by pressing D, then L
then go to unpartitioned space and press C to create a new one. after you create select Format NTFS and once u do that its pretty much simple after that."

Yeah i know how to do all that and tried several times already. Problem is after the first screen where it looks like it is working, everything stops suddenly with one of those errors saying something like: "Windows has been shut down to prevent further damage to your computer, please restart, etc"

Then thats it. The XP disc i'm useing is still good btw.

[Super Warrior]

Super[/url] Warrior]It looked like it was working, but i ended up getting some kinda dumb error and the process gets stopped.

Any chance of letting us know what this kinda dumb error was, or should we start drawing straws to see who has to guess blindly ?

As always Jimmy, you nailed it immediately.

You should be careful when completely formatting a drive in a new Dell computer. If you do not have backup discs, you will lose all of your driver files.

I know. The Dell website has all the available drivers for my laptop for download, which i also plan on making a backup CD for later on.

[ROF]

Is the WinXP CD an OEM disc or a Retail version? If it's OEM your unlikely to be able to install using that CD on your Dell.

[smearbrick1]

Is the WinXP CD an OEM disc or a Retail version? If it's OEM your unlikely to be able to install using that CD on your Dell.

Unless, of course, it's an OEM Dell disc.

Just a little addendum.

[ROF]

@Smearbrick1

True or you happen to be able to disobey the laws of physics.

[dcsos]

Have you tried to load in DOS?
or don't you have a floppy drive (Laptops don't have floppies anymore, eh)?
So create a bootable cd and try to load XP in DOS

[Super Warrior]

I've had this disc since 02, i've used it load XP onto all the comps i've built/had since then(about 4). Even loaded XP onto an old Pentium I laptop.

Don't know why it won't work on my new Dell laptop. Everytime i try it hits the same error:

"Windows has encountered an error and has shut your Pc down to prevent possible damage.Please restart,blah,blah,etc"

Not sure i'd want to reformate the comp with another program now, considering the possibleity that i'd still run into the same error when i try to install XP and then would have nothing.

Oh well, i don't really NEED to reformat/Reinstall XP on the comp, but i'd like to be able to if i ever wanted.

[ROF]

I'm going to guess that the B120 uses a specific version of the WinXP OS which is been manufactured by Dell to provide direct driver installation. Without their CD version of the OS you may not be able to reinstall using a different disc or if you are able to reinstall you may have issues with certain proprietary hardware(sound, video, etc.)

If you have an older MS-DOS based version of windows you may want to try installing it first. I've had success with gateway computers that wouldn't accept or properly utilize a fresh install of Win XP, yet if I upgraded from Win 98SE I was able to install the Win XP OS with all hardware recognized. This may work for you as well.

[thevoelk]

Dell's OEM copies, at least the ones we get at work and throw away for licensing reasons, seem to have every driver available for every model. Most of the hardware is similar across the models they offer.

SuperWarrior, are you getting a Blue Screen of Death, with an error that says:
STOP: 0x000000XX, where the lat 2 XXs are a hex code?

If you are, especially during the install of XP, my guess is you have either an incompatible BIOS, which XP should have told you before the partitioning of the disk (unlikely, but possible), or faulty RAM. If you've tried it several times and you're getting different hex codes, pull one of the RAM modules and try installing again.

I'd recommend backing up any data you've saved, which doesn't sound like much, and blowing away the paritions. It sounds like something with the later version is interfering with the version you, probably SP2. I've never seen a Dell complain about any XP disk once there arent any partitions on the drive. Also, don't worry about that 8MB partition in fron of your C: partition. It has disagnostics which can run from the CD. It's pretty much available for Dell Support to determine if hardware is failing.