Dell Vista Reinstallation Question

My brothers Dell Inspiron laptop has a corrupted Vista operating system and needs reformatting, however he seems to have lost all the disks that came with the PC (except for the Media Direct 3.5 disk). My question is can I use a standard (non dell branded) Vista disk to install Vista on his laptop (using the CD key on the bottom of his laptop?) or do I have to use the original dell branded vista CD that came with the laptop? Cheers in advance for any help.

Andy

 

You can use a non-Dell branded installation disk to load Vista since you do have a valid key and CoA. You may have to call up Microsoft to activate the install, but they shouldn't give you much hassle about it. One benefit of using the Dell branded media is that you won't have to activate.

 

You can use this guide if you don't want to use the COA key.
This method should work on all the OEM computers.
And a standard vista disk can be used.

 

Cmdr. Wolf is right, you will need to download the drivers and install them. Drivers are here: http://support.dell.com

Input your service tag to get the exact drivers for your system.

If your system is under warranty, you may be able to get discs sent to you. Assuming a US system, you can check your warranty here: http://support.dell.com/support/top...stems_info/details?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~ck=anavml

I believe that you can purchase a Dell disc as well.

 

If you're still under warranty you don't even need to purchase it; Dell will just mail you the disk.