In plain English - how do you wipe these Dell partitions and restore points!?

Bob Levine wrote:

The Dell OEM CDs are effectively the same as any
retail CD with possibly some Dell drivers and installation info so
that it doesn't need to be activated.

Well, not quite. Dell has two types of Dell-branded 'generic' XP CDs: One
will not install on anything except a Dell PC, the other installs on any PC.
Both need to be activated, neither has any special drivers that any other
OEM XP CD has.

Dell also makes Recovery XP CDs that don't require activation and have
special Dell stuff on them, but those CDs aren't even close to "the same as
any retail CD".

"DatabaseBen" wrote in
:

If by chance the hidden drive was wiped away, you may
want to download the restore program from dell via another pc that can
help restore the hd with the cd's. But I think it is unlikely that
the hidden drive was wiped away, as an "extra and specialized effort
has to be made to do this.

As a temporary fix, you could use another windows cd to setup the
computer. Because you should not activate it, you will have a limited
number of times that it is usuable before it stops functioning. This
can provide you with the ability to get the harddrive back into its
original state with the OEM you have..... (If you use this method, be
sure not to be connected to the internet when installing someones
elses cd to repair your oem version)


Between what you wrote above (and what I've read elsewhere about the
activation keys being burned into the motherboard (don't know if that's a
joke or not), you seem to be saying that unless I buy a completely new
Windows XP package, the only way I can reinstall the Dell OS disk (even if
I order one from them to replace my system created one) is if I restore the
hidden partition!


What a pain in the neck! Remember - this isn't my computer. I'm trying to
do this for a friend who bought it as an extra machine for his office.

No wonder these machines are so cheap. They probably have someone making
$.50 an hour in a foreign country pre-installing these drives, so that the
novices are indebted to Dell customer service when something goes wrong.
The cases and the boards are proprietary, the chips are Celeron's, the
power supplies are weak. No wonder PC Mag recommends the e-machines over
this.

Bob Levine wrote in news:rh1Gg.3702$E_.851
@trnddc06:


That is total crap. The Dell OEM CDs are effectively the same as any
retail CD with possibly some Dell drivers and installation info so that
it doesn't need to be activated.


Great. Now everything I read and responded to in the previous post is
worthless!

Has anyone here ever rebooted from a Dell Dimension 3000 (recreated or
restored using the Dell utility) OS disk?


Btw, the Dell system is programmed to remove the option to create the disk
right after you burn it!

"Rebecca" wrote in
:


Dell also makes Recovery XP CDs that don't require activation and have
special Dell stuff on them, but those CDs aren't even close to "the
same as any retail CD".

are these the same as the OS restore disk that the Dell utility creates as
a "one time" option?

If so, do you know whether you can boot directly from the cdrom drive using
this atrocious invention of a disk?!

wrote in message
...
"DatabaseBen" wrote in
:

If by chance the hidden drive was wiped away, you may
want to download the restore program from dell via another pc that can
help restore the hd with the cd's. But I think it is unlikely that
the hidden drive was wiped away, as an "extra and specialized effort
has to be made to do this.

As a temporary fix, you could use another windows cd to setup the
computer. Because you should not activate it, you will have a limited
number of times that it is usuable before it stops functioning. This
can provide you with the ability to get the harddrive back into its
original state with the OEM you have..... (If you use this method, be
sure not to be connected to the internet when installing someones
elses cd to repair your oem version)


Between what you wrote above (and what I've read elsewhere about the
activation keys being burned into the motherboard (don't know if that's a
joke or not), you seem to be saying that unless I buy a completely new
Windows XP package, the only way I can reinstall the Dell OS disk (even if
I order one from them to replace my system created one) is if I restore
the
hidden partition!


What a pain in the neck! Remember - this isn't my computer. I'm trying
to
do this for a friend who bought it as an extra machine for his office.

No wonder these machines are so cheap. They probably have someone making
$.50 an hour in a foreign country pre-installing these drives, so that the
novices are indebted to Dell customer service when something goes wrong.
The cases and the boards are proprietary, the chips are Celeron's, the
power supplies are weak. No wonder PC Mag recommends the e-machines over
this.
I haven't followed all of this thread, but this statement of yours is
incorrect.
Dells can be restored from the hidden partition OR they can be bare
installed
from either the DELL XP disk OR ANY XP disk . Only in the last case is
activation required. The DELL disk checks the BIOS to see if its a DELL.

"Rebecca" wrote in message
...
Bob Levine wrote:

The Dell OEM CDs are effectively the same as any
retail CD with possibly some Dell drivers and installation info so
that it doesn't need to be activated.

Well, not quite. Dell has two types of Dell-branded 'generic' XP CDs: One
will not install on anything except a Dell PC, the other installs on any
PC.
Both need to be activated, neither has any special drivers that any other
OEM XP CD has.

Dell also makes Recovery XP CDs that don't require activation and have
special Dell stuff on them, but those CDs aren't even close to "the same
as
any retail CD".




Rebecca,

Sorry, but absolutely none of this is correct. Dell has ONE kind of XP CD,
which is a standard XP CD with Dell drivers slipstreamed. It is BIOS locked
and does NOT require activation on a Dell, but will if used as a OEM CD for
another brand.

Dell does not have ANY Restore CDs that include the applications.

Tom

Don't talk rubbish. DELL CDs are complete versions of MS products
without any of their own stuff. When did you last buy a dell product?
You really need to think before making any more false statements. You
are worst than MVPs on this NGs!



DatabaseBen wrote:

Yes, you have to understand that if you don't want nothin of the Dell O.S.
installed, then you need to get / buy a Window CD from the store. If you
use the Dell OEM Windows CD's, you will get all that stuff you are trying to
avoid. But any unwanted software can be unistalled later. Some PC's have a
hidden partition that has a dos restore program. This hidden program then
instructs you to provide the cd's in numerical order so that the system
partition can be rebuilt.

To access the hidden partition, you need to press somekind of f key during
the booting. The instructions should be found at the Dell site. If you
simply cannot get beyond the cmos/bios screen, then you need to obtain
emergency boot up disks from another computer. Then use them to repair or
setup your harddrive. If by chance the hidden drive was wiped away, you may
want to download the restore program from dell via another pc that can help
restore the hd with the cd's. But I think it is unlikely that the hidden
drive was wiped away, as an "extra and specialized effort has to be made to
do this.

As a temporary fix, you could use another windows cd to setup the computer.
Because you should not activate it, you will have a limited number of times
that it is usuable before it stops functioning. This can provide you with
the ability to get the harddrive back into its original state with the OEM
you have..... (If you use this method, be sure not to be connected to the
internet when installing someones elses cd to repair your oem version)

Hopes this provides additional fyi with everyone elses......

wrote in message
...
I don't know if I was clear in a previous post, but I want a clean reformat
and reinstall on a Dell Dimension 3000. I haven't bought a Dell in years
and this is a friend's unit. I'm just getting into their method of
loading
an XP OS, and as I stated before, I can't boot from the system created OS
backup CD-rom (no matter how often I change the BIOS settings).

I"m not even sure the MS site download for creating a set of floppy boot
disks will work with Dell's series of tools and utilites.

All I want is a nice simple install with a set of programs of my choosing
and none of Dell's utilities (and spyware).

(Please excuse the crosspost. After reading the Dell forums and seeing
how
many experienced users have problems with this Dell interface, boot up OS
disks and OS setup), I thought it might be useful to have as many
responses
as possible for future net searches).

Whatever happened to the days when you would load your own OS and they
provided the disks. Can you request it? Don't they charge extra for the
bloated utility and restore partition load they send out now? Please
don't
tell me that McAfee's memory intensive, resource heavy software suite is
pre-loaded, too?

Rebecca wrote:

Bob Levine wrote:

The Dell OEM CDs are effectively the same as any
retail CD with possibly some Dell drivers and installation info so
that it doesn't need to be activated.


Well, not quite. Dell has two types of Dell-branded 'generic' XP CDs: One
will not install on anything except a Dell PC, the other installs on any PC.
Both need to be activated, neither has any special drivers that any other
OEM XP CD has.

Well, I've got a stack of CDs that don't require activation on any Dell
machine but install just fine other OEM machines and activate fine with
an OEM CD Key.

Dell also makes Recovery XP CDs that don't require activation and have
special Dell stuff on them, but those CDs aren't even close to "the same as
any retail CD".

Where are you? How many Dells have you owned, worked on?

Bob

For dell support, you can post and get free advice from he

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums

On MS Newsgroup, there are some who dislikes everything about DELL and
there are some who sleep beside a DELL system. The arguments will
invariably lead to insults and contradictions. Best thing is to go to
DELL'w own forum which is moderated and insults are not tolerated.

Just make sure you create your own account (FREE) and use a web based
email such as AIM (http://info.aol.co.uk/email/index.adp) which can be
read using Outlook or Outlook Express.

hth


wrote:

"Rebecca" wrote in
:


Dell also makes Recovery XP CDs that don't require activation and have
special Dell stuff on them, but those CDs aren't even close to "the
same as any retail CD".

are these the same as the OS restore disk that the Dell utility creates as
a "one time" option?

If so, do you know whether you can boot directly from the cdrom drive using
this atrocious invention of a disk?!

Tom Scales wrote:
"Rebecca" wrote in message
...
Bob Levine wrote:

The Dell OEM CDs are effectively the same as any
retail CD with possibly some Dell drivers and installation info so
that it doesn't need to be activated.

Well, not quite. Dell has two types of Dell-branded 'generic' XP
CDs: One will not install on anything except a Dell PC, the other
installs on any PC.
Both need to be activated, neither has any special drivers that any
other OEM XP CD has.

Dell also makes Recovery XP CDs that don't require activation and
have special Dell stuff on them, but those CDs aren't even close to
"the same as
any retail CD".




Rebecca,

Sorry, but absolutely none of this is correct. Dell has ONE kind of
XP CD, which is a standard XP CD with Dell drivers slipstreamed. It
is BIOS locked and does NOT require activation on a Dell, but will if
used as a OEM CD for another brand.

****ing incredible! Where do you get your information? Don't get it there,
it's wrong.