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September 5th, 2006 13:00
Reinstallation CD and total reformat
Reinstallation CD and total reformat
Hi
I would like to completely reformat my Dell laptop.
I have windows XP and the reinstallation CD.
This is the first time I will be reformatting and I am a bit confused by the posts I have been reading.
Once I turn the computer on with the reinstallation CD what options should I pick to do a complete reformat?
I do not want any partitions.
Do I need to type any codes while reformatting?
After that CD is finished should I load the “Drivers, Utilities and Applications CD?
Then add the Mouse CD and other CDs like printer and Office CD?
Please excuse my inexperience.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
(There wouldn’t be a full page instruction sheet online would there?)
Thanks
Cindy
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simpswr
2 Intern
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3.2K Posts
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September 5th, 2006 13:00
leastmanjr
23 Posts
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September 6th, 2006 07:00
The precess is actually quite simple. First of all don't worry about the drivers disk. Download all the drivers from Dells web site. Enter in your service tag to get all the latest drivers. Download them and burn them onto a cd. Make sure you save a copy of the Dell Notebook system software.
Restart your computer and hit F2 at the Dell logo. This will get you into the system setup bios. Hit alt + P until you reach the boot device sequence page. follow the directions on the screen to move the cd drive to the top of the list. Exit and save your changes. Make sure your operating system disk is in the drive before the computer restarts. pay close attention and hit a key when the display comes up advising to hit any key to boot from the disk.
Setup will start and find your current operating system. Follow the directions on the screen to delete the partition. Make sure to delete all partitions if there are some present (since you dont want any). Create a new partition and allow setup to format the partition.
Setup is pretty self explanatory from there.
When the operating system is fully installed, make sure to set automatic updates to off for now.
The first thing you should install is the Dell Notebook system software. If you do not install this first, you will have overheating and power save issues. Install this before any drivers.
Install the drivers in the following order.
1. Chipset
2. Video Card
3. Sound Card
4. touch pad
5. ethernet card
6. wireless network card
After all the drivers in in, connect to your internet and put in all the windows updates. Then install your antivirus.
Thats it! Post more questions if you still need help.