XPS600 Restore CD question..

I've just upgraded from an E310 to the XPS600 (should arrive in a day or
two). And was wondering how one could go about making a physical Restore
CD/DVD from the data in that hidden drive the Dell likes to stuff with your
drivers, OS and other stuff. I have Ghost 6, can see the partition and
what's on it (to an extent), but can't do anything with it because of the
version difference.

Or is the best way to go about this is to badger Dell's semi-English
speaking tech support for one and cough up the $10 they want to dig it out
of their archives and mail it to you?

Don't mind me, just thinking out loud..

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
I've just upgraded from an E310 to the XPS600 (should arrive in a day or
two). And was wondering how one could go about making a physical Restore
CD/DVD from the data in that hidden drive the Dell likes to stuff with
your
drivers, OS and other stuff. I have Ghost 6, can see the partition and
what's on it (to an extent), but can't do anything with it because of the
version difference.

Or is the best way to go about this is to badger Dell's semi-English
speaking tech support for one and cough up the $10 they want to dig it out
of their archives and mail it to you?

Don't mind me, just thinking out loud..



Just curious. Why didn't you order the CD with the machine? That's when it
costs $10.

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
I've just upgraded from an E310 to the XPS600 (should arrive in a day or
two). And was wondering how one could go about making a physical Restore
CD/DVD from the data in that hidden drive the Dell likes to stuff with
your
drivers, OS and other stuff. I have Ghost 6, can see the partition and
what's on it (to an extent), but can't do anything with it because of the
version difference.


Snip.

Fair question.

My response? Why bother? Who would want an image loaded with all of the
trialware/bloatware that's present?

You'll do far better with a clean reinstall of the OS and building it the
way you want than to perform a restore.

The only immediate benefit of the restore image (so far as I can imagine) is
time, and especially for a new user.

Beyond that I can't imagine why anyone would wish to duplicate it.

jmo.


Stew

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
I've just upgraded from an E310 to the XPS600 (should arrive in a day or
two). And was wondering how one could go about making a physical
Restore
CD/DVD from the data in that hidden drive the Dell likes to stuff with
your
drivers, OS and other stuff. I have Ghost 6, can see the partition and
what's on it (to an extent), but can't do anything with it because of
the
version difference.

Or is the best way to go about this is to badger Dell's semi-English
speaking tech support for one and cough up the $10 they want to dig it
out
of their archives and mail it to you?

Don't mind me, just thinking out loud..



Just curious. Why didn't you order the CD with the machine? That's when
it
costs $10.

I didn't see it until after I had the order in.

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
I've just upgraded from an E310 to the XPS600 (should arrive in a day
or
two). And was wondering how one could go about making a physical
Restore
CD/DVD from the data in that hidden drive the Dell likes to stuff with
your
drivers, OS and other stuff. I have Ghost 6, can see the partition and
what's on it (to an extent), but can't do anything with it because of
the
version difference.

Or is the best way to go about this is to badger Dell's semi-English
speaking tech support for one and cough up the $10 they want to dig it
out
of their archives and mail it to you?

Don't mind me, just thinking out loud..



Just curious. Why didn't you order the CD with the machine? That's when
it
costs $10.

I didn't see it until after I had the order in.




Call'em. With a machine at that price, I wouldn't think "badgering" them
would be necessary.

They'll probably send the disc at no charge.


Stew

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...

[snip]

Call'em. With a machine at that price, I wouldn't think "badgering" them
would be necessary.

They'll probably send the disc at no charge.

Sent an e-mail late last night... CD's are on the way! And it didn't cost a
dime!!

It's the little things in life.. Ya know?

But I still want to make a copy of that reserve partition.. Only, if for no
other reason, so I can say I have it.

Less then 18 hours to go and I'll have my new system.

I'm salivating like Pavlov's dog...

On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:47:49 -0500, "Dusty" wrote:

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

[snip]

Call'em. With a machine at that price, I wouldn't think "badgering" them
would be necessary.

They'll probably send the disc at no charge.

Sent an e-mail late last night... CD's are on the way! And it didn't cost a
dime!!

It's the little things in life.. Ya know?

But I still want to make a copy of that reserve partition.. Only, if for no
other reason, so I can say I have it.


If you're buying an XPS600 you don't get a restore partition.

2. Why does my Dell XPS gaming system not have PC Restore?

At Dell, we understand that gamers like more control over their PC
configuration and we built our service offerings around those needs.
Unlike other system oferings from Dell, the XPS gaming systems ship
with all of the media needed to perform a full reinstallation of the
operating system and all other factory installed programs. This allows
XPS gaming system owners more control over their software
configuration allowing them to install or omit individual software
applications to maximize their system performance.

At the time this document was authored, the XPS gaming systems that do
not ship with a PC Restore partition include:

* Dimension XPS Gen 1
* Dimension XPS Gen 2
* Dimension XPS Gen 3
* Dimension XPS Gen 4
* Dimension XPS Gen 5
* XPS 600


http://support.dell.com/support/topi... 5&l=en&s=dhs

or http://tinyurl.com/axwve

My XPS600 didn't have the restore partition and included the OS DVD.
When buying an XPS 600 there is no option to purchase an OS CD or DVD
for $10 since it's already included.

You'll probably get 2 OS disks then.

Dave

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
...

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
...

"Dusty" wrote in message
...
I've just upgraded from an E310 to the XPS600 (should arrive in a day
or
two). And was wondering how one could go about making a physical
Restore
CD/DVD from the data in that hidden drive the Dell likes to stuff with
your
drivers, OS and other stuff. I have Ghost 6, can see the partition
and
what's on it (to an extent), but can't do anything with it because of
the
version difference.

Or is the best way to go about this is to badger Dell's semi-English
speaking tech support for one and cough up the $10 they want to dig it
out
of their archives and mail it to you?

Don't mind me, just thinking out loud..



Just curious. Why didn't you order the CD with the machine? That's
when
it
costs $10.

I didn't see it until after I had the order in.




Call'em. With a machine at that price, I wouldn't think "badgering" them
would be necessary.

They'll probably send the disc at no charge.


Stew

They do. Especially when they tell you to do that freaking system restore
crsp. I told them, do you know how long it takes to reconfigure everything
after that? Any backup may replace the new files with the old ones that
were causing the problem. I don't have that kind of time.

And of course, logic will prevail....with the system CD you can do a "repair
installation"......

"Dave" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:47:49 -0500, "Dusty" wrote:

"S.Lewis" wrote in message
.. .

[snip]

Call'em. With a machine at that price, I wouldn't think "badgering"
them
would be necessary.

They'll probably send the disc at no charge.

Sent an e-mail late last night... CD's are on the way! And it didn't
cost a
dime!!

It's the little things in life.. Ya know?

But I still want to make a copy of that reserve partition.. Only, if for
no
other reason, so I can say I have it.


If you're buying an XPS600 you don't get a restore partition.

2. Why does my Dell XPS gaming system not have PC Restore?

At Dell, we understand that gamers like more control over their PC
configuration and we built our service offerings around those needs.
Unlike other system oferings from Dell, the XPS gaming systems ship
with all of the media needed to perform a full reinstallation of the
operating system and all other factory installed programs. This allows
XPS gaming system owners more control over their software
configuration allowing them to install or omit individual software
applications to maximize their system performance.

At the time this document was authored, the XPS gaming systems that do
not ship with a PC Restore partition include:

* Dimension XPS Gen 1
* Dimension XPS Gen 2
* Dimension XPS Gen 3
* Dimension XPS Gen 4
* Dimension XPS Gen 5
* XPS 600



http://support.dell.com/support/topi... 5&l=en&s=dhs

or http://tinyurl.com/axwve

My XPS600 didn't have the restore partition and included the OS DVD.
When buying an XPS 600 there is no option to purchase an OS CD or DVD
for $10 since it's already included.

You'll probably get 2 OS disks then.

Dave

Cool, I'll update my laptop then!