Recovery with no CD

Question

I have a client with a Dell notebook. For a variety of reasons it needs a rebuild upgrading to XP Pro. God only knows why but his previous IT guy took the XP Home Dell Recovery CD though his CD key is on the bottom of the computer. If I could rebuild with the Home version, then upgrade to Pro he’d save $100 on the Upgrade version versus the full version.

So….is there any reason I can’t take a spare XP Home Dell Recovery CD, use his CD code and have it activate, then upgrade to SP Pro? Can I use the Dell Recovery CD without the CD key and just save his wpa.dbl and copy it back into windows\system32 before I upgrade?

simpswr · Answer

Why not buy a OEM Version of XP Pro  for about the price of an upgrade version and forget the loading Home first?   To answer your question . . yes . . you can use another  Dell Recovery CD to install Home.   wrs

Denny Denham · Answer

mtrox,

There is no need to install XP Home. During a clean install using the XP Professional Upgrade CD you will be prompted to insert the CD of a qualifying operating system. Insert the XP Home CD at that point then remove it when directed by the installation procedure and continue to install XP Professional. If XP Home is currently installed the upgrade should detect it and not even prompt for the insertion of the XP Home CD (assuming the current installation of Home is not so bollixed up that it cannot be identified).

Message Edited by Denny Denham on 01-23-2005 09:38 AM

Denny Denham · Answer

mtrox,

I've never done it with XP but have with earlier Microsoft operating systems (doing a clean install with a Window 98 Upgrade over Windows 95). All Microsoft upgrade CDs contain the entirety of the operating system to which they are upgrading.

mtrox · Answer

The OEM XP is what you and I might do. But this is a client, very bright guy but knows nothing about computers. I'm just going with what he wants to do as long as I know it's going to work well for him. I've found it's not worth it to propose something that's going to require a big educaiton process. It takes time and energy that I can't necessarily bill, and gives computer-phobic clients yet another reason to delay the whole thing.

Thanks for the tip though. I'll just use an old Dell XP Home recovery disk I've got lying around.

mtrox · Answer

That makes sense to me Denny....though I've never been in a situation that would show that.  Have you seen that?

Windows General

Recovery with no CD

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