Full Install of XP Pro on Inspiron 1501 with SATA Drive

Mary,
Thank you for your reply.

The copy of XP Pro with SP2 that I have is a brand new, legal copy (i.e., I purchased it), complete with COA, still in shrink wrap. It's never been used before, so activation should not be a problem.

I'm a little confused about the rest of your reply. You say that there is no Dell version of XP, yet my Inspiron came with XP Pro SP2 factory installed, along with what I believe is a recovery disk, a driver disk, and a miscellaneous programs disk. The recovery disk is not a "clean" version of XP; by that I mean, it will return my comuter to "factory original" if used, complete with all the bloatware that Dell loaded when it shipped the machine. Am I wrong about this?

If the disk that Dell provided is indeed a "clean", full install version of XP Pro Sp2, rather than a Dell recovery CD, how can I tell? I know of no other case where Dell provides such a disk.
If that is not the case, then I'm back to my original question; will my purchased, full install version of XP Pro work on this machine with a SATA hard drive? And if not, is there a way to obtain the required SATA drivers, or some BIOS setting that will allow a work-around?

My reason for wanting to have a usable full install disk is not important; maybe I'll need to use it, maybe not. But the first time I run across a problem that requires a full recovery installation, my preference would be to use the Microsoft disk, rather than the Dell recovery disk. However, if the Microsoft disk won't install on my machine, I'd just as soon sell it, unopened.

Thanks again. I'm looking forward to your reply.

Mary, PCGeek,
Well, I happily stand corrected!
I was always under the impression that a system recovery using the recovery partition was identical to a system recovery using the recovery CD. Apparently, then, this is not the case.
Does this mean that the recovery CD will work on ANY computer capable of running XP (it does have a Dell label on it)? So... will it work on an HP, a Gateway, a Toshiba...? Assuming, of course, that I have the correct drivers available. And before you ask, no, I don't intend to install it on another machine, just curious.

Just to address the cause of my original concern, what about the many posts on several forums addressing the issue of the XP installation (using a Microsoft install disk) hanging because the installation disk could not find the SATA hard drives? And why, then, would the Dell disk work where the others failed? As you can see, my curiosity is insatiable.

Thank you both again

simpswr,

" . . "Does this mean that the recovery CD will work on ANY computer capable of running XP (it does have a Dell label on it)? "

Nope . . The Dell disc looks for a Dell BIOS, and if it does not fine it, will not install.. That is why you will not normally be asked for the Product Key nor have to activate the installation."

AHA! So the Dell restore disk is NOT equivalent to a Microsoft full install disk. Mary, pcgeek, this was what I was alluding to when I asked my questions.


". . "And why, then, would the Dell disk work where the others failed?" . .

Probably the difference between using a install disc with SP2 and one without."

Nope. This was with Microsoft XP with SP2 full install disks on HP computers. Your first answer above explains this one. Dell disk won't work on non-Dell computers, and the MS full install disk appears to not work on computers with SATA drives, unless the drives can be set to IDE mode in the BIOS, or SATA drivers can be identified using the F6 option during installation. At least that's what I've gleaned from my surfing. And I can't find a way to disable SATA in my Inspiron BIOS setup.


jmwills,

"Depending on how recent your Dell/XP Retail disc is, you may or may not need to load the SATA drivers separately."

Yes, but how will I KNOW whether it will work or not BEFORE I get to the point where it freezes and I can't recover? That's the entire purpose of this post: to anticipate the problem, locate SATA drivers if needed, and feel secure that I can do a clean install from the MICROSOFT installation disk on ANY computer with a SATA hard drive.

Again, thanks all for your responses. I think I'm homing in on the possible problems; now if only I had solutions...

pcgeek,
Thank you once again for your reply.
Let me be clear. My intention for this disk is to install it ONLY on the machine for which it was intended (i.e., my Inspiron, using the key that is on the machine, should the need arise. However, if at some point in the future, my Dell becomes unusable (or obsolete), would I then have the legal right to uninstall the OS from the Dell and re-install it on another system, using the key that came with the original installation? Since the OS would still be used only on a single machine, it seems that this would be within the terms of the license, but I'm not sure about that.

I understand, thanks to your previous responses, that bloatware is not an issue with the Dell installation disk.
I also understand that I'd need the Dell driver disk (or drivers downloaded from Dell) after re-installing the system. That was never my question. In the interest of clarity, let me re-state my original concern (based on information from various posts to other forums):
There are others who have attempted to install XP Pro (full install, legal copies I assume) on systems that have SATA drives. It seems that the installations hang owing to the fact that the SATA drives are not recognized during the installation. Several solutions to this problem have been proposed: obtain the SATA drivers on a floppy disk and hit F6 when prompted during the installation, to load these drivers; create an installation disk that incorporates the drivers (various instructons provided for doing this); go into the BIOS and disable SATA while installing (using normal IDE), then re-enabling SATA after the installation (this seems to be easy to do on HP machines, but not obvious to me on a Dell machine). But the root problem (i.e., that the Microsoft XP installation disk does not recognize SATA hard drives) remains.

This leads me to ask:
1. If the Microsoft full install disk cannot recognize a SATA drive, how is it that the Dell installation disk can, assuming that the only difference between the two is that the Dell installation does a BIOS check at the start of the process? It seems to me that the Dell disk must also include SATA drivers for this to work, leading me to wonder what other differences there might be.
2. Assuming that that the above problems, as reported, are real, if I want to install XP Pro using my Microsoft disk (and the accompanying key) on my Dell machine, where can I obtain the specific Dell SATA drivers for my Inspiron?

I've tried to express my concerns as clearly as I can (without "alluding" to anything - sorry if my tone came across too harshly).
Thank you for taking the time to respond, and for your patience.

simpswr,
My chipset is ATI SMBus. I have no idea how old my MS installation disk is (I purchased it about a month ago, but I have no way of telling how old it actually is), and even if I knew, I have no way of ascertaining that the correct DATA drivers have been added. Is there a way to find this out from the installation key (some cross-reference between the key and the production date of the disk)?
I'm thinking that those drivers should be available from Dell on their driver download page, but I certainly couldn't identify them, if they are there.