I'm looking to reformat the HDD on my Dell laptop. Dell didnt ship the Windows install discs. They are saved as an image on the HDD. How do I format without erasing the windows install image?

thanks

12/7/2008 1:21:15 PM

if only there was a number you could call..or a website you could go to..perhaps that involves the manufacture of said laptop

hmmmm

what could they possibly be

12/7/2008 1:25:59 PM

who noes

that why tdub exists, to answer stupid questions guise

12/7/2008 1:30:04 PM

http://www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=dell

12/7/2008 1:49:50 PM

What does that say about the value of your time? I may ask what is percieved as a stupid technical question but you have wasted your time by responding.

12/7/2008 2:09:00 PM

don't let them get to ya, it's a perfectly reasonable question

12/7/2008 3:33:50 PM

unless you re-partition the entire drive, or specifically tell some application to write over the data on the windows install partition you should be fine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

12/7/2008 3:38:50 PM

Quote :

"don't let them get to ya, it's a perfectly reasonable question"

yeah rly, it actually is

i could see how you dont know where to go if this is the first time you have attempted this

12/7/2008 4:09:43 PM

Thanks. I figured it out and was successful. How can I buy a new hard drive and install windows - I don't want to buy Ghost or similar. Any free solutions? I have an external HDD casing connected through USB.


[Edited on December 7, 2008 at 4:48 PM. Reason : usb]

[Edited on December 7, 2008 at 4:48 PM. Reason : hdd 2]

12/7/2008 4:47:11 PM

bump

12/9/2008 9:32:35 PM

just put the HD in, go through the same setup you do now and tell it to install to the other hard drive

of course that's assuming dell does set things up so you don't get any options

12/9/2008 9:34:50 PM

Right, but there would not be a copy of windows on the new hdd. same process? I feel like i need to move the copy of windows from the original hdd to the new one?

12/9/2008 9:40:49 PM

just install windows on the new one, boot into windows, you'll be able to see both hard drives..copy all your shit over.

i mean, you'll have to reinstall software but without using any imaging software that's about your best option

12/9/2008 9:43:35 PM

You can't just "move your copy of windows" to a different hard drive. You have to boot the computer with the new hard drive and you need a Windows Install CD/DVD to install the operating system on to the hard drive.

much like any program you install.

You cannot use a Dell recovery disc to install the OS on a blank hard drive. It needs to have the recovery partition (which you probably erased if you formatted the whole HD)

12/9/2008 9:44:53 PM

if he's got both drives and the recovery partition is still on one of them i don't see why he couldn't boot with that one and install windows to another drive. i haven't used many recovery utilities though so i'm not sure what options it ends up actually giving you, if any.

12/9/2008 9:52:54 PM

The computer did not come with install discs.

12/9/2008 9:54:01 PM

then call dell and get them. i think they charge $5 or something stupid like that--it's worth a shot.

also, you can legally use someone's windows CD as long as you have a key to use and it's not a problem. it should be on the back of the computer if it's a desktop, on the bottom if a laptop.

drivers can be downloaded from their website.

12/9/2008 9:56:06 PM

thanks - that's probably my best bet.

12/9/2008 11:07:08 PM