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March 4th, 2009 10:00
Re-Installing drivers & utilities
Hello, and thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. Let me begin by saying that I am a real novice and have untaken the daunting task of reformatting my grand-daughter's PC. To the best of my knowledge, Windows XP Home Edition, re-installed properly. I am currently attempting to re-install the drivers and utilities CD. The instructions I've been able to locate indicate that I must boot from this CD. I have tried everything I know to try (most noteably re-assigning the boot sequence in the BIOS area) but no matter what I do or how I respond to options, I now get the Windows XP screen and cannot figure out how to make it boot from the CD. Once this issue is resolved, I also have a CD labeled "Application" that I'm 'assuming', yes, I know about that :-), will work with the same instructions I hopefully receive from some of you that know much more than I do. Any help or suggestions would certainly be sincerely appreciated.
Janet
RobinBredin
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March 4th, 2009 11:00
Hi JanetLeaLee. If you booted off the dvd to reinstall your operating system, you do the same way with the drivers dvd. HERE is an journal on how to do it, and in what order ( very important ). If you did not use an dvd to reinstall XP, rather to install using your D Restore partition, then you wont need the drivers, as they are already in you D Restore partition.
JanetLeaLee
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March 4th, 2009 12:00
RobinBrendin - thank you for such a quick response. I did reinstall the operating system from a CD/DVD. However, regardless of what I do the system goes directly to the Windows XP screen. Forgive the length here but let me explain what I'm seeing. When I restart, I have two options F1 sends me to the set up utility or F12 which brings me to the Boot Device Menu. Under the device boot menu, I have 7 options. Options 1) normal 2) Primary Master Drive 3) Hard *** Drive C: 4) IDE CD-ROM Device 5) System Set UP 6) IDE Drive Diagnostics 7) Boot to Utility Partition. Each of these options gives me the choice to F1 to continue which sends me directly to Windows or F2 which puts me back on the Seup Utility. I have tried rebooting with the Driver/Utility disk in the crive but the system is ignoring it and booting right to Windows. I'm sure it's something simple I must be missing but I'm at a loss. Thanks.
Janet
JanetLeaLee
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March 5th, 2009 08:00
Thank you so much for the welcome. I am always hesitant to request help on a forum since I don't have anything to offer in return. I appreciate your relpy and help. I'll try that this evening. Actually the 'where' of my instructions about booting from the CD comes directly from the CD itself. I had to get the CDs from Dell in order to begin this process and on the CD labeled "Drivers and Utilities" it reads: "Your must boot your compouter from this media to run the diagnostics, which may require changing your computer's boot sequence." See how much trouble I can get into even with following the instructions (or maybe I simply don't understand the instructions)? LOL I would NEVER have attempted this project if this unit hadn't been totally beyond hope. Since it was/is, I figured, what a chance to get my feet wet.
Again, thank you so much.
Janet
TheRealFireblad
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March 5th, 2009 08:00
First of all Janet... a belated "welcome" to the forums :emotion-21:
No no. I don't know where you've read those particular instructions, but you don't "boot" from the 'Drivers & Utilities' disc?
Simply boot to the desktop, then insert the disc/install the drivers :emotion-55:
After they've installed, most everything should work as it should, but visit the 'Drivers & Downloads' page for your system on the Dell website anyway, to check for updated drivers :emotion-5:
Larry R
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March 6th, 2009 09:00
The Resouce (aka Drivers & Utilities) CD has always been bootable. You would only boot from it to run the Dell Diagnostics, however.
TheRealFireblad
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4.6K Posts
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March 6th, 2009 09:00
How strange, because as far as I know (I've never actually tried it), the 'Drivers & Utilities' disc isn't bootable?
As anyone else with a Dell system has, I have a 'Drivers & Utilities' disc here myself, and there's no mention of having to boot from it?
The only disc with any similar advice, is the Media Direct CD, but that's because Media Direct has to be booted from/installed before the OS.
Anyways Janet... follow the advice offered in this official Dell guide, and you shouldn't have any problems: How to re-install Windows on a Dell computer :emotion-5:
JayO4
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March 21st, 2009 02:00
Just wanted to write a big THANK YOU to RobinBredin! My harddrive died last week and I got the replacement installed yesterday and loaded the OS. Then I was stuck on the Drivers & Utilities order. Your posted link was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again.
RobinBredin
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March 21st, 2009 06:00
Your Welcome.