OLD dell laptop fresh install

jason_carolan

looking to get my hand on win xp operating system CD to do clean install on old dell laptop, any ideas where i would get same......:)

Verres

To be honest - no. Not unless you have one lying around your house. The vast majority of WinXP discs were issued with OEM machines as back-ups in case the owner needed to reinstall.

If you haven't got the original discs, there's not many legit ways to get a copy of the OS. And apart from the legal considerations around pirating, using a "cracked" OS is a fairly dumb thing to do nowadays. The OS is the basis of your entire user experience and unless you are 100% sure it has not been tampered with you have to assume that everything you do on your machine can be compromised.

Thus, (and I know this is not what you were looking for) your options seem to be limited to open source distros. If you're machine is old, it's probably low spec so I would consider installing Puppy Linux or Damn Small Linux.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear.

Capt'n Midnight

look on the bottom of the PC

it will have a serial number and will be either XP HOME or XP PRO
you need to borrow the right CD

but first what model is it ? , since many Dells had recovery partitions where you could restore to factory settings (goodbye data :eek:) by pressing something like F11 (which model is it ?) on startup


IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN XP SERIAL NUMBER ON YOUR LAPTOP YOU WOULD HAVE TO BUY A LICENSE FOR XP, IT WOULD HAVE TO BE NON-OEM TOO, (AND FAIRLY SURE VOLUME LICENSE WOULD NOT BE VALID EITHER) OR YOU COULD BUY A NON OEM BUSINESS VISTA OR WINDOWS 7 LICENSE.

shannon_tek

Im not trying to brake the rules here. But as posted above if you have an XP laptop the serial number should be on the bottom.

If not you will need to get the XP CD
If any of your friends have an old XP laptop worth for the dumb you can take off the serial number off the bottom and match the correct cd.

Technically this is not pirating. as you are using a validated XP version licensed by Microsoft. As pointed above you may loose your data if you dont have a dell cd. But if your like myself. HP, Toshiba or any version will do as long as you can match the disc and version eg home, professional, bussiness .....

Then when you are asked validate the serial key. Microsoft will pick it up as a valid key. There is more to validating read up on it. Some of my posts ppl have told me to ring up and its all done. I done this with Windows 7 from a laptop to a desktop. The laptop is fuzzed but i took the vista that was on the laptop and also put it on the computer. and i can pass it on to someone else(i dont want to loose a good operating system)

I hope thats not against B.ie T+C everything is on-board legit as Microsoft have not claimed im pirating cause everything is only one copy.

Capt'n Midnight

shannon_tek wrote: »

Im not trying to brake the rules here. But as posted above if you have an XP laptop the serial number should be on the bottom.

If not you will need to get the XP CD
If any of your friends have an old XP laptop worth for the dumb you can take off the serial number off the bottom and match the correct cd.

Technically this is not pirating. as you are using a validated XP version licensed by Microsoft.

No it's not pirating

But only because piracy is a totally different crime that involves taking over ships on the high seas and any nation can prosecute you if they don't kill you first.


However what you are saying means that if you have ever bothered to read an EULA (end user license agreement) then you didn't understand it.

An end user does not have the rights to MOVE windows OEM software to another motherboard.

shannon_tek

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

No it's not pirating

But only because piracy is a totally different crime that involves taking over ships on the high seas and any nation can prosecute you if they don't kill you first.


However what you are saying means that if you have ever bothered to read an EULA (end user license agreement) then you didn't understand it.

An end user does not have the rights to MOVE windows OEM software to another motherboard.

Lol....

Na i never read the EULA. But i bought the disc and it was not assigned to any computer so therefore Microsoft are not to know what computer it is registered for. As for vista yes its tied. But the computer is in the bin. why waste a good operating licence. like you paid €900 for the lot lol:pac: why not transfer it to a good home. when i say that i mean family members. Not going on ebay and passing it on. or then your in doo doo. but now i see the point. that anyone can do it.

Capt'n Midnight

shannon_tek wrote: »

Lol....

Na i never read the EULA.

:eek:
Ignorance is no excuse in the eye of the law.


Microsoft have about $50 Billion in petty cash thanks in part to the windows monoculture tht exists because of the unreal amount of illegal installations.

if you can't afford windows, you can pick up MAC OSX for €30 or BSD/Linux etc for free.

shannon_tek

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

:eek:
Ignorance is no excuse in the eye of the law.


Microsoft have about $50 Billion in petty cash thanks in part to the windows monoculture tht exists because of the unreal amount of illegal installations.

if you can't afford windows, you can pick up MAC OSX for €30 or BSD/Linux etc for free.

Thank you but i can afford my instillations hence i went out of my way to buy windows 7 twice. i do believe that you pay for what you get. meaning im getting a good service. Anyway im out cause im drifting off topic on this thread. But thank you C'nM i'll read the EULA when i get time.

MarkR

Dell OEM discs seem to work on all dell machines. Interesting fact. I've installed on laptops from disks that came with a tower pc. No licence key required as it was already activated and was compatible hardware.