Dell is Sending Me a New Computer Comparible to What I Have Now

Disk 0 reads: 63mb, healthy (EISA Configuration/Recovery (D) healthy
(primary partition)/OS (C) healthy (System, Boot, etc)
D's size is 15gb with 9.66gb free. C is 283gb with 260 free. I want one
large single primary partition. My plan is/was to remove Vista tonight.
Here's a screen capture:
http://www.pbase.com/monicakm/image/110000208

 

Nothing less

 

Monica,

There are 3 partitions to be deleted. The 63 MB Dell Diagnostic partition,
the Dell restore partition and the Vista OS. You can't delete these
partitions from Windows.

There are several free partitioning apps. You can get a one month trial of
BootIt NG, an app which I use.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

Disconnect all external HDs and flash drives. Download the app and this is
how you make the boot CD...

double click makedisk.exe, next
dot in I accept the agreement, next
no tick for Registration, next
dot in Mouse Support Enabled, next
dot in VESA Video, next
dot in Partition Work (Don't put a dot in Normal), next
don't choose any Default Device Options, next
leave Registration strings blank, next
select your CD burner drive letter (you can use a CD-RW or a CD-R disc)
Finish


Boot from the BootIt NG CD.
Your CD boots to the Work with Partitions window
select each partition in turn and click Delete
put a tick in Clear Boot Sector and click Yes.
When you have finished, the Partitions area will show a single line of
"Free Space"
remove the CD and power off.

Don't be afraid of messing it up. You are deleting all partitions. What
damage can you do? Don't bother creating a new partition. This will be done
during the WinXP install.

Questions?

Anyone have a different approach?

 

Boot disk is made, directions copied. I'll be back...maybe!
Thanks Brian.

 

I hope you are now installing WinXP. I forgot to say "Don't" choose Wipe
Partition. Not unless you have a spare year or two.

 

In typed on Sun, 8 Mar 2009 21:56:11 -0500:

Hi Monica! If you don't want anything on that drive anyway, it will be
very easy. And you don't need a partition manager or anything either. As
when you install Windows from scratch (make sure you have drivers first
before wiping anything out), you will have the option to delete
partitions. Thus delete all of them and then create one that takes up
the whole drive.

--
Bill
2 Gateway MX6124 - Windows XP SP2
3 Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
2 Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 1GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2 ~ Xandros Linux - Puppy - Ubuntu

 

Wellllll, that was interesting. Got to bed about 3:30. Your directions
were perfect. Burned the CD, then discovered I had to change the boot
sequence to the CD-ROM. Deleted the partitions and started the XP install.
Everything was going peachy while the drivers were loading (about the first
3 minutes or so). When it came time to install Windows, I got a
bsod...STOP: 0x0000007B and a few other strands of meaningless mess. Tried
it again with the same results. Changed computers and Googled 0x0000007B.
This is common to those trying to install XP in a Vista machine. I had to
make a change in the Bios setup to the SATA operation changing it from
RAID/Auto/AHCI to RAID Auto/ATA. It worked, but apparently it will "turn
off the high performance features of the controller and put it in
compatibility mode" Setup then went without a hitch BUT TOOK ABOUT 2+
HOURS! Don't remember if I chose Wipe Partition. I haven't added SP 3 yet.
Will do that as soon a I can get an Internet connection (I'm on Hughes
satellite). Right now, I can't. It was simply a matter of plugging in one
cable to the back of the 420 (same with the 8400), but after installing XP
SP2 on the 420, it's not working for me. Anyone have any ideas?
Monica

 

The required steps immediately after installing XP SP2 are:

1. Install Intel(?) chipset drivers (ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL FIRST STEP!)
2. Install Ethernet drivers

Thereafter, the computer should have internet access. Next, in any order:

3. video drivers
4. audio drivers
5. other hardware drivers

In other words, before doing much else, make sure that all of the
hardware has the appropriate drivers installed. The typical
pre-installation job is to gather all the required drivers together on a
flash stick (best) or burned onto a CD (OK, but a waste of a CD).

.... Ben Myers

 

Ben, is the chipset the one listed at this link?
http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19242664.aspx

Intel X38 (Bearlake X) Chipset ?
Should it be installed before I update to SP3?

Is "Network", in the same list above, the Ethernet driver I'm looking for?

My video card is the Radeon 2400 (not Pro). Pro is the only driver listed.
Will it work?

Monica

 

1) X38 chipset, and yes. Install it first.

2) Yes, that is the correct network driver for the Intel 82566DC-2 Gigabit.
Same version driver I have.

3) Your video card is, in fact, the HD 2400 Pro, same as mine was. Yes, it
will work.


HTH

Stewart

 

Thank you!

 

When it came time to install Windows, I got a

Your WinXP CD is over 4 years old and it doesn't have drivers for your
current storage controller. The WinXP CD that came with my 8400 didn't even
have drivers for my 9150's storage controller. I found that out when I tried
to set up a dual boot. If you want to have RAID/Auto/AHCI mode, you need
these drivers. I don't know whether they can be easily installed at this
stage so you can revert to RAID/Auto/AHCI.

 

I don't think I need a RAID system/drive. I'll be putting my internal
backup drive in the 420. I do a backup every day..not of the system, just
selected files/folders. I'm ok with that. But, are my two SATA drives no
longer going to be seen as SATAs? I guessthis means slower drives? I just
removed the Barracuda SATA internal backup drive from the 8400. It was
connected to the mb with one blue cable. With the newer mb, will it connect
with the same cable?
Installed the Monitor driver found on the website for XPS 420/XP drivers. I
couldn't finish the setup. I was to go to Desktop
Properties/Settings/Advanced/Monitor/Properties. The monitor Properties is
grayed out. I have an UltraSharp 2005FPW that is connected with a DVI
cable.
Device Manager shows the following problems:
http://www.pbase.com/monicakm/image/110032852
The drivers I downloaded from the XPS 420/XP page that S. Lewis posted were
for the
chipset
Audio
Monitor
Network
SATA (does this mean I can rest the SATA operations in the BIOS?)
The others didn't seem to apply to me.

Monica (who can see the light at the end of the tunnel)

 

In Monica typed on Mon, 9 Mar 2009 14:28:04 -0600:

Yes Monica, you need the Dell's SATA driver. Otherwise you have to live
with the slower performance.

--
Bill
2 Gateway MX6124 - Windows XP SP2
3 Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
2 Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 1GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2 ~ Xandros Linux - Puppy - Ubuntu

 

Probably the easiest way of getting Dell's drivers for the raid controller
would be to buy a Dell XP SP3 cd off eBay. You can get them cheap because
they arent the license just reinstall media and given most machines
currently don't come with floppy drives you have the driver without having
to go through the process of manually slipstreaming it yourself.

 

Yep. A Dell badged WinXP Home/Pro Service Pack 3 CD wouldn't have the issue.

That disc was the breakthrough for my ridding myself of the same STOP/BSODs
when attempting to set up a RAID1......

I had the SP3 slip-streaming information but had not made time to try it/use
it.

 

Monica,

That's an excellent suggestion from Robert. You could do a Repair Install
with that CD.

You may have the drivers installed now (download from Dell in the SATA
drives section) and it's worth changing the BIOS to AHCI and see if the OS
boots. If not change back to your current setting.

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/...ystemID=VOS_D_420&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

 

Oops,

This page instead...

http://supportapj.dell.com/support/...emID=VOS_D_420&hidos=WLH&hidlang=en&TabIndex=

 

Still wrong. Change it to WinXP.

 

My rule of thumb has always been to get all the computer drivers
installed before doing any updates. And that's why I use a USB thumb
drive to install the drivers, usually downloaded onto my main system
here. ;>) If you use a thumb drive (or even burn a CD) with all the
drivers, the order of installation of drivers AFTER each chipset is
unimportant. Also, once you have rebooted after installing the
motherboard chipset drivers, you do not have to reboot after each and
every subsequent driver install, despite messages nagging you to do so.
This saves you time.

Use the driver list at the referenced URL. If the Radeon 2400 Pro
driver does not work for your just plain Radeon 2400 card, get the right
driver from the AMD/ATI web site. The way that ATI has developed its
drivers historically, the driver from the Dell web site is 90% probable
to work... Ben