Unfortunately, that doesn't work. I went into the bios and made the cdrom the first boot device, inserted the Windows XP restore cd provided with the dell system and nothing happens.
It acts like it starts to read it, but then eventually goes to a blank screen and sits there.
If you have two optical drives try inserting the XP Reinstallation CD in the other one. Some users have encountered problems when the wrong device is specified in BIOS.
It's not quite that easy, but you can make a bootable cd with Roxio or Nero . . and include the boot discs on it, but if your machine will not boot to the cd using the XP disc, it won't using a homemade one either.
My son's computer has Windows XP Home Edition as well, so I think what I'm going to do is create a floopy boot disk on his machine and then install his floppy drive in my father-in-law's machine. That should give me access to the c: drive.
You can check the CD boot by using the DELL Drivers & Utilities (Resource) CD witch is boot-able.
It the Computer boots from it , it will load DELL Diagnostics from the Resource CD..
If that doesn't work you could try getting the latest version of the DELL BIOS file from "Downloads" link at top of Forum , just select OS for DELL Computer Model/Type.
Go to Dell Hints & Tips - Back Up Your System at http://service.dell.com/dell/step/1,,pop-27163+27366+27367,00.html for backing up the computer.
Also if you not have the backup program on Windows XP Home.
(To install it in XP Home Editon doubleclick this file on your XP cd:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP\NTBACKUP.MSI)
Start>run>NTBACKUP
Message Edited by Abrandoned on 05-13-2004 09:33 AM
Rus_B
6 Posts
0
May 10th, 2004 14:00
Unfortunately, that doesn't work. I went into the bios and made the cdrom the first boot device, inserted the Windows XP restore cd provided with the dell system and nothing happens.
It acts like it starts to read it, but then eventually goes to a blank screen and sits there.
jmwills
2 Intern
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12K Posts
0
May 10th, 2004 14:00
Denny Denham
2 Intern
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18.8K Posts
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May 10th, 2004 16:00
If you have two optical drives try inserting the XP Reinstallation CD in the other one. Some users have encountered problems when the wrong device is specified in BIOS.
Rus_B
6 Posts
0
May 10th, 2004 23:00
simpswr
2 Intern
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3.2K Posts
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May 11th, 2004 00:00
It's not quite that easy, but you can make a bootable cd with Roxio or Nero . . and include the boot discs on it, but if your machine will not boot to the cd using the XP disc, it won't using a homemade one either.
wrs
Rus_B
6 Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 10:00
That's a good point.
He has a zip drive. Is it possible to make a zip disk a DOS boot disk?
Rus_B
6 Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 13:00
My son's computer has Windows XP Home Edition as well, so I think what I'm going to do is create a floopy boot disk on his machine and then install his floppy drive in my father-in-law's machine. That should give me access to the c: drive.
Thanks everyone!
gryjhnhpe
2 Intern
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2K Posts
0
May 11th, 2004 20:00
It the Computer boots from it , it will load DELL Diagnostics from the Resource CD..
gryjhnhpe
2 Intern
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2K Posts
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May 11th, 2004 22:00
http://www.bootdisk.com/nero.htm
Abrandoned
211 Posts
0
May 13th, 2004 15:00
Go to Dell Hints & Tips - Back Up Your System at http://service.dell.com/dell/step/1,,pop-27163+27366+27367,00.html for backing up the computer.
Also if you not have the backup program on Windows XP Home.
(To install it in XP Home Editon doubleclick this file on your XP cd:\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP\NTBACKUP.MSI)
Start>run>NTBACKUP
Message Edited by Abrandoned on 05-13-2004 09:33 AM