9300 help

Hi all,

I would like to do a complete reinstall of windows xp pro on my new 9300. Since at Dell they now have a policy of not sending out the O/S cd with orders I was looking for one somewhere else. Actually i was told to contact Dell and see if they will send me out the cd as sometimes you get lucky, I wasnt one of the lucky ones in the end.

I do have my old xp pro cd which is already used and only has SP1 and ive heard I will need one with SP2 to be able to re-format all of it so if i am able to 'strip' it down so to speak instead of a complete format then that would be best.

The reason I would like to reinstall/format myself is, 1, to get alot of the programs Dell pre-install of there that i know i will never use, and 2, because for some reason when i Shut Down/Restart my computer it takes a long time, but for some reason i dont know, is fine at starting up originally.

But I am a little worried about formatting/installing with a different O/S cd.

This is my first laptop and I didnt get a cd with it with all the drivers on it (should i have?).
Will i need to get the drivers for using the touchpad after reinstalling xp or will i be able to use it without?
Should I download them from the Dell website and burn them onto a cd before i format?
Anything else i should/need to do before i go ahead with this?


Any advice is much appreciated.

 

Go to the first post in this forum. read the sticky, follow it point to point and say thanks to southern girl...

You can make an xp pro cd yourself from your 9300, that is, if that is the OS you ordered it with.

go to programs and it should say 'dell backup' or something....this should be sp2 cos you say yours is a new 9300...

Also, back up your C:/dell folder to a cd...that's your drivers...these drivers get updated from time to time, well, not ALL of them, and you can download them from dell's site anytime, too.

 

Thanks, didnt check the stickies before i posted.