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Inspiron 5150 Start From Scratch
I am obviously not a computer whiz by any means, but I know the basics of gettin' around.
This computer was purchased before July15, 2004 which I read somewhere was when Dell started including Symantec DSR. It was purchased in May of 2004. So, apparently there is no DSR on this system. Never is a CTRL+F11 option, just f2, f8, and f12.
What I'm looking to do is get this computer back to basics. After realizing that I apparently cannot do a factory restore, I figured I'd just re-install Win XP. I was under the impression that it would delete everything on the hard drive and just start me fresh with a new copy of XP. At which point, I'd re-install software and drivers etc...
After re-installing XP, all of the old programs were there under Program Files, but not "installed" if that makes any sense. There's a bunch of stuff still hanging out on the hard drive and I can't do a Add/remove programs uninstall to any of them because they don't show up. Yet the folders and most of the files are still there under C:\Program Files. Does that make any sense? Folders for Itunes, microsoft works, etc etc. None of them work anyway. Yes, I could just right click, delete, and empty recycle bin, but so far this is wreaking havoc and causing all sorts of errors.
All I care to keep are pictures in "My Pictures" which I have backed to a cd. Plus, they weren't deleted when I re-installed win xp anyway. The computer has a 40gig hard drive and other than about 3 gigabytes of pictures and music, there is only 9 gigs remaining free. How is the other 28 gigs used??? Is it just all the junk that's still on here? It's all staying on the hard drive, just inaccessible other than straight up deleting them, which like I said, is causing errors for everything else.
I desperately want to start clean. Apparently this computer has no recovery partition? Any software I got from Dell was a disc to re-install a few basic programs like norton anti virus, music match, sonic record, microsoft money (big whoop, of course no word processors other than notepad and wordpad) and an XP disc.
What can I do to start as clean as possible?
Thanks,
Brandon
Philip_Yip
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March 20th, 2009 03:00
Well you have not selected the format option.
Best to install xp via this route, insert your xp disc into your machine and power down. Then press F12 while powering up, at the BIOs screen.
Here is the BIOs screen:
Select boot from cd/dvd and then follow the instructions.
You should use a flash drive or an external harddrive to back up data. As they are faster then a cd/dvd especially for installing and copy files over and to from, if you have both back up on both always good practice to make several back ups.
You will see a few screens like these:
Note your screens will be similar but different. The first screen you select the C: Partition and leave the rest alone.
The second screen it asks you to format, most likely you will only have the NTFS option, select a full format of this (as highlighted).
Note I would download the drivers from here: http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&ServiceTag=&SystemID=INS_PNT_P4_5150&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=
Instead of using ones you have on disc as they are later revisions.
Input your dell service tag 7 digit code on the base of your laptop into the driver page to get the specific ones note do not type it into this forum. I would also download xp service pack 2 and 3 from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=68c48dad-bc34-40be-8d85-6bb4f56f5110&displaylang=en
Note it says for IT professionals but it is the standalone version. Install the latest service pack and then the drivers in this order:
Dell Notebook Software under system utilities (Note internet scaling utility will be included in the service pack)
Chipset
Communication Drivers - Conexant
Network Drivers - Broadcom then wireless
Touchpad under input devices
Audio
and then Dell Quickset under Applications.
Note you may have other discs supplied such as windvd. You can install these after the drivers, then get the patch under applications. Although most of them I would not install, except windvd because I like that.
I would not recommend touching anything under cd/dvd as it is firmware updates that are unecessary and when I tried installing one of them before my cd/dvd drive broke. Also would stay away from BIOs updates as if these go wrong (most the time they don't) then your computer is completely broken.
Sardonia
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March 20th, 2009 03:00
Strange. I guess I had tried doing that before, but it was from the window that appeared in XP when I inserted the cd, and for whatever reason, never let me actually format the partition. Some error would always occur. Now, I booted from cd like you said, and it's formatting now. I don't know why I didn't try that.
Thank you very much! Hopefully, I can get it all squared away this time!
Brandon