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Reformatting

#1 johnnycakes

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 01:17 PM

With a system with a lot of problems (XP), is it better to reformat and load XP as a new installation or would it be better to just reload XP over the existing version in there?

#2 Animal

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 01:34 PM

With the mention of "a lot of problems", my personal suggestion would be a format prior to the re-installation of the OS. Sometimes there is something to be said for a 'clean slate'.

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#3 Allan

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 01:57 PM

Agree 100%. Reinstalling over an installation laden with problems serves no purpose.

This post has been edited by Allan: 13 October 2011 - 01:58 PM

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#4 Eyesee

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 01:57 PM

Agree totally!
If you do a repair you may still have the same problems, depending on what they are.

If you post the make/model of the system we can point you in the driection of the drivers that you will need.

Just remember to back up your personal data before formatting.

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#5 johnnycakes

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 04:24 PM

Windows XP Media Center Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 3. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 16400

#6 johnnycakes

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 05:16 PM

How do I get in to the BIOS on this Dell Inspiron 16400? I read the owner's manual and it said to restart and hit F2 before Windows loads.....it takes me to a screen where the only choices are "Windows Recovery Console" or "Windows XP"????????

#7 Allan

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 05:44 PM

Immediately after booting you will see a message on the screen that says something like: Press F2 to access setup. At that point you press the F2 key - do not wait until after the POST

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#8 buddy215

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 06:19 PM

What Allan said or Press F2 when the Dell logo appears. Press every second or two until the message Entering Setup appears.

Your Dell drivers: Drivers & Downloads
Suggestion....download and burn to a CD all of the drivers. Once you have reinstalled XP, just move the
drivers to the computer and install by double clicking on each.
If you haven't made any hardware changes such as graphics, then those drivers should work.

#9 Eyesee

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 06:36 PM

Just to add to what has been said, make folders for each driver. IE chipset, video, audio, nic etc
Download the drivers to the appropriate folder so that you know which is which.

Install the chipset first then the order of the rest doesnt matter but I always do video, audio, nic modem.
Back in the old days it used to make a difference so that the proper IRQ's DMA channels and memory addresses get allocated correctly. Now it really doesnt matter.

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#10 johnnycakes

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Posted 13 October 2011 - 07:54 PM

Thank you'all for the info (I finally got into the SETUP and Bios...everything seems to be set correctly... I guess I'll go the REFORMATT route.
Thanks. John