Help with XP restore discs

[roanoke]

Hello,
I understand that it's better to partition your drive to have 5-8gb for the C and to leave the rest for storage in D. My problem is I have a compaq laptop that comes with 2 restore discs instead of the regular XP. And I dont know how to partition and format with these restore discs. I would greatly appreciate any advice, thank you.

 

[roanoke]

follow up:

when I put these discs in, everything is too simplified and I believe the only option the user has is to keep clicking "next" at the commands. It just restores the OS to the factory settings, using all of the hard drive as 1 partition. How do I get around this? This is XP Pro.

 

[CTho9305]

Call compaq (HP?) and fight with them for a REAL XP CD. Usually if you're persistent enough, you'll end up getting one.

 

[roanoke]

really. that would be too nice! i think i will do that then. you are certain they have done this before though?

 

[Harvey]

You might want to try a utility like Partion Magic to set up your disk the way you want it after you install the OS. Then, install your apps on your D: drive. If you want to leave your apps on C:, as well, you can go with the default installation and set all your progs to save on a separate folder on D:

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: roanoke
really. that would be too nice! i think i will do that then. you are certain they have done this before though?

I did it with Gateway for my mom's laptop a few years ago... and I've heard of successes with most OEMs. Remember: you have a legal license for your OS. If they say no the first time, ask to speak to a manager and so on.

 

[NogginBoink]

Originally posted by: CTho9305

Originally posted by: roanoke
really. that would be too nice! i think i will do that then. you are certain they have done this before though?

I did it with Gateway for my mom's laptop a few years ago... and I've heard of successes with most OEMs. Remember: you have a legal license for your OS. If they say no the first time, ask to speak to a manager and so on.

You have a legal license for the OEM version of the OS that they ship with the computer. You do not have a legal license for MS version of WinXP.

You can try, but by no means are you entitled to MS media. You got the OS on their restore CD. It sucks, but that's the rules of the game.

 

[DigDug]

...and people wonder why XP is pirated all over the net.

 

[Doomer]

People are like cows. They don't care about the details of the milking as long as they have grass to eat. 🙁

OEM restore CD's is something that should never have been allowed to happen but people, being the cows they are, turned a blind eye to this and many other ripoffs. When you buy a name brand PC, you are buying a disposable OS along with your disposable computer. 🙁

 

[CTho9305]

Originally posted by: NogginBoink

Originally posted by: CTho9305

Originally posted by: roanoke
really. that would be too nice! i think i will do that then. you are certain they have done this before though?

I did it with Gateway for my mom's laptop a few years ago... and I've heard of successes with most OEMs. Remember: you have a legal license for your OS. If they say no the first time, ask to speak to a manager and so on.

You have a legal license for the OEM version of the OS that they ship with the computer. You do not have a legal license for MS version of WinXP.

You can try, but by no means are you entitled to MS media. You got the OS on their restore CD. It sucks, but that's the rules of the game.

The OEM version as MS produces it: fine. The hacked-apart OEM version: not fine, because it is MUCH less useful than the real product. OEMS don't advertise a "less-than-functional" copy of XP, they advertise MS Win XP.

 

[lowtech1]

Originally posted by: roanoke
Hello,
I understand that it's better to partition your drive to have 5-8gb for the C and to leave the rest for storage in D. My problem is I have a compaq laptop that comes with 2 restore discs instead of the regular XP. And I dont know how to partition and format with these restore discs. I would greatly appreciate any advice, thank you.

Have you try booting with a Dos/Win9.x disk, and del & create a partition, then boot up with your OEM XP CD & chose the primary C: partition that you have created to format & install. Use Disk Management to create the rest of the empty drive into a new partition & format it into NTFS. (much faster & better than fromat fat32 & convert to NTFS).