What do Dell Laptops come with OS-wise?

[AgentZap]

Dell laptop owners, did your notebook come with a full copy of Windows XP or some fake OEM licensed recovery type cd that other manufacturers have been putting out (ie compaq)?

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

This brings up another question: Do those OEM system-recovery disks (as used by Compaq, Gateway, and probably others) suffice to use an upgrade to XP, or do they obligate the user to buy a full version?

 

[ElFenix]

if its the same as the desktops, its sort of a recovery disc. i'm not sure if theres a regular full install of XP on there since all i really did was a repair (which uses the upgrade method and takes for frickin' ever when you're just trying to get ntloader back on there). it does require and OEM key, since it is an OEM product, but i haven't tried putting it on another computer to find out. maybe i'll do that this afternoon?

 

[Derango]

Dell laptops come with a Operating System CD...which is a full Windows Install CD locked into a dell bios, so you can only install it on a dell computer. It does not have a restore CD.

 

[AgentZap]

Are you free to format the hard drive and still be able to reinstall XP off of that restoration cd if necessary? Does dell take away a portion of the hard drive to put various recovery files on like compaq does?

 

[Derango]

Originally posted by: AgentZap
Are you free to format the hard drive and still be able to reinstall XP off of that restoration cd if necessary? Does dell take away a portion of the hard drive to put various recovery files on like compaq does?

Except for the fact that there is no restore CD....you can reformat and reinstall whenever you want. there is a small partition at the front of the drive, but you can delete that easily...its only like 20MB or so. Dell does not use Restore CDs with their laptops. You get an OS CD, a Driver CD and an application CD...plus other CDs for whatever software you ordered with the laptop.

 

[AgentZap]

Originally posted by: Derango

Originally posted by: AgentZap
Are you free to format the hard drive and still be able to reinstall XP off of that restoration cd if necessary? Does dell take away a portion of the hard drive to put various recovery files on like compaq does?

Except for the fact that there is no restore CD....you can reformat and reinstall whenever you want. there is a small partition at the front of the drive, but you can delete that easily...its only like 20MB or so. Dell does not use Restore CDs with their laptops. You get an OS CD, a Driver CD and an application CD...plus other CDs for whatever software you ordered with the laptop.

Hearing that made my day

 

[CrazyDe1]

I reformatted my inspiron 8200 w/ xp home on it as soon as I got it and tossed xp pro on it...no problems so far. It comes w/ a nice driver CD so I just installed drivers off that.

 

[MWink]

The newer ones (Inspiron 8200) come with real Windows XP CD's. The older ones (Inspiron 8000) came with restore CD's.