Clean XP install on a Dell?

beaker

I've searched and found variations on this question, but...

I'm going to format my 2 year old Dell 4500 and do a clean install of Windows XP. My Dell XP disc is SP 1.

Can I use the new XP disc that I've bought for my new system instead? (Which is SP 2 - would be easier than downloading SP2)

How does Windows confirm its licence on a dell machine? I reckon it is not by activation. Is it bios-related? Do you think I need to use the Dell disc?

(Just to be clear - both licences are legit - I'm not trying to pull any kind of fast one )

Orion

It should be fine. The system restore disk just checks the bios to make sure that it's a dell pc that it's being installed on. You'll need to use the serial number from the machine that you're installing it on. If it doesn't work you're no worse off than before anyway.

If you have probs dloading SP2 I can send it to you on a cd if you like.

Orion

Actually - just re-read your post. Is the new disk not from Dell? Did you buy it separately or get it with a pre-built system. If you bought it from the likes of Komplett or another retailer you can use it on the Dell box no problem using the serial on the dell box.

RicardoSmith

You have a licences version of SP1. Its simple to install that and patch it to SP2. Why replace it with a non licensed version? XP is licensed to the ONE machine. You can't install it onto two machines. Well you can illegally but you shouldn't. No point if you have two licenses to begin with.

BoB_BoT

There should be absolutely no problem using another install disk once you have the xp cd key that came with your dell 4500. the only problem being that the dell xp cd is probably just a recovery cd.
With recovery cds they install everything you should need, i.e. drivers apps etc... using a windows xp install disk only installs windows xp and you may need to install drivers such as graphics, sound etc... this will be no problem as dell supply all the drivers you need on their site.
Go to the download section of the dell site select what you need, burn it all to a disk, wipe your machine and reinstall xp then your drivers.

However, you cannot use a windows xp home serial key with a windows xp pro install disk, this will not work. if it's an xp home key and an xp home install disk there will be no problem.

beaker

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I wasn't 100% clear.

The new disc is not from Dell - it's from Komplett. Both discs are XP home.

If I now understand it correctly, it is a trade-off between:

a) Use dell disc. Download SP2 but avoid having to download drivers.

or b) Use new disc. No need to download SP2 but have to download drivers.

Given that it will be a HTPC (and I will want very few apps installed) and that I would want to update drivers anyway, it seems to me that there are few advantages to option (a) and I should go with (b).

What do you think?

Capt'n Midnight

RicardoSmith wrote:

You have a licences version of SP1. Its simple to install that and patch it to SP2. Why replace it with a non licensed version? XP is licensed to the ONE machine. You can't install it onto two machines. Well you can illegally but you shouldn't. No point if you have two licenses to begin with.

Have a look at the last line on the original post

beaker wrote:

(Just to be clear - both licences are legit - I'm not trying to pull any kind of fast one )

As long as you aren't installing pro on a machine with a home licence :eek:

Have a look for slipsteaming for info on what to include/remove from the install - www.nu2.nu/pebuilder - http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

MrGoogle also found this
http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t1019.html

halkar

Why waste your license ? Use your Dell disk to install xp sp1 and install sp2 after. Keep your other copy for another pc or sell if you don't need it.

RicardoSmith

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Have a look at the last line on the original post As long as you aren't installing pro on a machine with a home licence :eek:

Have a look for slipsteaming for info on what to include/remove from the install - www.nu2.nu/pebuilder - http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

MrGoogle also found this
http://www.flexbeta.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t1019.html

If two different keys work on the same disk then theres no problem. But I think that they won't. The keys are really whats licenced. So he'll end up with two PC's using the same key.

Capt'n Midnight

RicardoSmith wrote:

If two different keys work on the same disk then theres no problem. But I think that they won't. The keys are really whats licenced. So he'll end up with two PC's using the same key.

That's and interesting one the Key on the Dell not being SP2. XP activation is supposed to make using the same serial on two machines more difficult so if the Dell key don't work with SP2 then it's install the Dell CD and service pack it because Microsoft will be using authentication for more downloads in the future.

The CD's should take either serial, BUT the original Office 2000 SBE did use serial numbers that didn't work with Office 2000 SBE Service Release 1 (the version with the hologram on the CD's)

RicardoSmith

Nearly all the CD's I have seen had Keys that only work with the specific CD they were supplied with. Thats with 98, XP, W2K Office 97 to 2003. In large companies we usually just used a select version of Office or the OS that had a site license and which didn't need a key, mainly to get around the problem os matching CD's with their supplied keys.

Of the CD's I have at home none of the keys work with the other disks. Which is a pain because I built a slipstreamed XP disks with all the latest patches and updates. So I wouldn't have to install SP2 over SP1. Just to clarify. The key is not failing because its a later version of XP but because its not the same physical CD.

That said there may be keys that work across batches of CD's.

SickBoy

CD keys come down to the type of XP you're installing (OEM, Retail or Corporate) and not the provider.
The Dell CD is an OEM version of home/pro. That means that any other OEM key of XP home/pro will work, obviouslly the home keys wont work for pro...
If the version purchased from Komplett is OEM then it will be fine.

beaker

Wow. I've really opened a can of worms here!

RicardoSmith wrote:

If two different keys work on the same disk then theres no problem. But I think that they won't. The keys are really whats licenced.

I was operating under the assumption that because the keys are what is licenced, that I could use the new disc on two PCs so long as I have a key for each machine (which I do).

It now sounds like it is not worth the hassle.

I reckon I will use the Dell CD, download SP2, update drivers and then rummage around and see what I can un-install to streamline things a bit for it's new life as a HTPC.

Thank for all the input.

RicardoSmith

SickBoy wrote:

CD keys come down to the type of XP you're installing (OEM, Retail or Corporate) and not the provider.
The Dell CD is an OEM version of home/pro. That means that any other OEM key of XP home/pro will work, obviouslly the home keys wont work for pro...
If the version purchased from Komplett is OEM then it will be fine.

All I know is that in my experience, different keys do not work for other CD's even if they are of the same type. But maybe in some batches the keys are transferrable.

All I know that in the past where ever I worked if you lost the key for a MS CD none of the other keys from identical CD's (all of the same type) would work. So you you had to chuck the CD. We always had hundreds of them, as we uninstalled the supplied OS and imaged the PC's with our own XP image. So we had couple of boxes of MS CD's. That said I've never experienced any activation or registration problems. So its never been an issue.

Orion

RicardoSmith wrote:

All I know is that in my experience, different keys do not work for other CD's even if they are of the same type. But maybe in some batches the keys are transferrable.

All I know that in the past where ever I worked if you lost the key for a MS CD none of the other keys from identical CD's (all of the same type) would work. So you you had to chuck the CD. We always had hundreds of them, as we uninstalled the supplied OS and imaged the PC's with our own XP image. So we had couple of boxes of MS CD's. That said I've never experienced any activation or registration problems. So its never been an issue.

That's not right. MS don't do a different edition of XP for every key they generate - think of the logistics. But the keys will only work with the flavour of XP that it came with.

beaker: there is another issue. The Dell XP Home is an OEM edition. The Komplett one is the retail edition. Which means that the key from one may not work with the other. Unless you got an OEM version from Komplett. If you did then there is no problem using that disk with the Dell key. The Dell machine should also have come with a separate disk with all the drivers on it.

RicardoSmith

Macros42 wrote:

That's not right. MS don't do a different edition of XP for every key they generate - think of the logistics. But the keys will only work with the flavour of XP that it came with. .....

Its an automated process, nothing complicated about the logistics at all. But I have CD's front of me that are the same "type" retail and OEM and the keys are definately not transferrable between CD's of the same type. I suspect that there are ranges of CD's that work with specific ranges of keys. So its likely that there are some keys which will work on more than one disk.

When I worked in MS every product was updated on a regular basis. So the minor version ID on the CD's changed on a regular basis. So maybe thats whats different between CD's.

Its easy to try. Simply install it and see if it the keys work...

dub45

I recently installed an 'up to date' version of XP including SP2 on an older computer and used the old serial number no problem. I was doing a reinstall (I had purchased the older version originally so it was all legit).

Dont forget lots of people have SP2 problems and doing the updated install was a way of getting around this.

Sparky

ive noticed that when i installed XP home from a microsoft disc onto a dell machine it doesent ask for a key nor does it start the activation wizard.

Now the thing is i shouldnt of used my laptop install disc on my outdated dell desktop, but i had lost my new disc but had the key, but since i did'nt need to enter it i hav'nt used it.

colin300

In my opinion if u can get away with using the install cd from Komplett then do it as long as the key works on it.
There is nothing special about the Dell windows cd it aint a recovery cd its just the install in OEM format nothing new or different about that. You dont have to use the Dell cd for drivers and stuff cause all dell computers have always come with separate cd's for drivers and the odd anti virus software. So if you are in need of drivers they are either in windows driver database or on the dell cd's from dell. If by chance the drivers aren't then at one stage u either downloaded them or they came with the product u need them for.

In all use the SP2 version if u can its much easier then running through the sp2 upgrade. On the other hand if the Komplett SP2 version doesn't except it then you can get the SP2 cd free of charge from microsoft HERE

Hope that helps.

RicardoSmith

Some OEM CD's will only work on that type of machine. i.e. a Dell.

Orion

RicardoSmith wrote:

Some OEM CD's will only work on that type of machine. i.e. a Dell.

All of them I think do this now. The first thing an OEM restore disk does is check the bios for the manufacturers code. All the major makes anyway - Dell, Gateway, HP etc.

DemonOfTheFall

Any Dell Windows XP CD that I've seen will work on any PC at all. Ive tried tons of them, made slipstreamed this that and the other out of them, no problems. Theres no BIOS check or anything at all unusual about them as far as I can see.

Bottom line, if the Komplett CD is an OEM, use the komplett disk with your dell's serial number. If the komplett CD is retail, use nlite with your old dell disc to make a new dell OEM with SP2 streamlined onto it. Very easy.

RicardoSmith

I'm amazed how contradictory everyones experience is.

beaker

RicardoSmith wrote:

I'm amazed how contradictory everyones experience is.

Me too! Thanks for all the responses, though. Nothing like a good bit of argy-bargy!

On a (hopefully!) less controversial note, I presume that my driver disc will be horribly out of date and pointless and that I should download the latest drivers from Dell?

Is there any automated process or do I trawl through each and every bit of hardware and search the dell site?

colin300

Dell are just simply CD's nothing special.
HP and all the Retail brands have stupid restore cd's which in my opinion are stupid and the most thick invention ever thought of.
Dells have never ever had restore cd's. They label their restore cd's but in fact the restore cd's are just drivers and stuff nothing to do with the windows install.

As long as the cd from Komplett is a home version use the key on the side of the box if u have to if its oem then u have nothing to do.

colin300

On the drivers note just log onto the internet then open windows update service and windows will search for the drivers u need and download them for you in one go.

Capt'n Midnight

beaker wrote:

Is there any automated process or do I trawl through each and every bit of hardware and search the dell site?

You might as well use the drivers on www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com as they should be more stable. Then if anything else needs drivers goto the Dell site.

Gateway used to have a nice util to pull updated drivers from their site based on your hardware. Would be nice if Dell had one.

If you don't connect via a router with NAT put a firewall like zonealarm on before you connect to the internet