reinstalling windows xp on dell laptop

[warriorfan23]

i recently purchased a dell 710m and i would like to format the hard drive and install a clean copy of windows xp. for those of you that have done this before, which drivers do i need to download? i have the system restore cd. does that have all the drivers i need on it? TIA

 

[bruceb]

System restore cd's will put it back to an "as shipped" condition, complete with all the Dell extra
bloatware, junkware, trial garbage .. etc .. other than that it will do fine ... you could use a
program such as ISOBUSTER to read the restore cd & create your own with just the OS,
Drivers & other programs that you really want or need on it (haven't tried this yet, but it
should be doable)

 

[engineereeyore]

I just downloaded all the drivers for my system and burned them onto a custom disk. That way, I don't have to reload with the restore disks which put all that crap back on that bruceb talked about. That way, you can just use a regular XP CD to install, and then use youre custom driver disk to put all the drivers back on. Much easier than removing all the stupid programs that come with the computer, unless you want them. You can always just put the restore disk in and install the ones you do want afterwards as opposed to installing all of them.

 

[warriorfan23]

thanks for the responses. enineereeyore thats exactly what im going to do. sweetness.

 

[MrChad]

I install XP, go to http://support.dell.com, enter my service tag and download the latest drivers.