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Dell Desktop - 818GM
My friend purchased this in 2005 with XP Media Center Edition 2005 installed. She did not get the accompanying software disk. In 2013 an ATT&T service tech tried to install internet software and ended up "conducting a faulty recovery process" according to one analyst. It now boots to: "invalid partition table" and freezes. Subsequent analyst says we need "a recovery dvd".
Question; is this something that is available? Friend did not run an initial recovery or backup dvd from her computer.
While restoring the computer to work would be really great, out real goal now is to get access and copy all personal files from the hard drive to another.
Advice and feedback?
RoHe
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January 19th, 2014 16:00
Keep in mind that Dell doesn't provide "recovery media". They only provide a Windows Reinstallation disk and drivers disk. You probably should wipe the hard drive and start clean. Everything will be lost from the hard drive unless backed up first on external media.
And Dell may or may not charge for the Windows Reinstallation disk.
RoHe
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January 19th, 2014 16:00
The registered owner of the PC can request the Windows Reinstallation Disk by starting here. Note- that this is only for US and Canada.
The latest drivers for this system can be downloaded from Dell's support page on any PC and then copied onto USB stick or burned on CD/DVD for installation, in the correct order on the other system.
Good reinstallation tutorial here.
Philip_Yip
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January 19th, 2014 17:00
The system is not Dell it is Gateway:
https://support.gateway.com/product/default.aspx?modelId=2617
http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Gateway-memory/800Gx+Series/818GM+Media+Center-upgrades.html
Therefore Dell won't supply a Reinstallation DVD for a non-Dell system.
In addition Windows XP reaches End of Life in April so there is no point in installing Windows XP and if you do then you should be aware there are associated risks of running a legacy OS. For more information see:
This system will likely run Windows 7/8.1 32 Bit okay. You can follow my Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean Install of Windows 7 using a 32 Bit Digital River .iso without a product key or the Windows 8.1 Enterprize trial in order to evaluate how well one of these OS runs on this machine and whether it is worth purchasing a Windows Upgrade.