6 Steps for Creating a Dell Recovery Disk for Windows XP Installation
This article will help you find a way through the troublesome installation of Windows XP with the use of a Dell recovery disk. It is just the same with the retail version installation of Windows XP on a Dell computer. Actually, it’s not difficult to do if you know the procedure.
Step 1
Put the Dell recovery disk in the CD drive and shut down your computer. Start back up and when you see the Dell logo, press F12 a couple of times. This must show up a boot menu with options such as DVD or CDRW, Internal HDD and floppy drive. Select the CD option by using the arrow keys and press enter. It may say press any key to boot into the CD; do it fast. It may continue ahead without you hitting any key statement. You should see a blue screen; if it worked, continue to the next step.
Step 2
When the blue screen finally stops, press the enter key for windows installation. The next screen would ask you to agree with the license; press F8 to agree. Next screen would search for old installations. Press escape when it finds the old Windows to install a new copy. Now you must see a screen about partitions. There might be a lot of partitions. And we need to delete them to make sure that you get as big a space as possible from your hard drive. You should highlight each partition and press the D key to delete, press the Enter key and to confirm, and then press L key. Do these for every partition until you will see only one partition that says unpartitioned space. You will not mess up unless you continue without doing this step. The last option is selecting a file system. Anything higher than 6GB hard drive must be NTFS, anything lower than 6GB is FAT. I suggest the NTFS default, don’t use the quick format. After that, the hard drive will start the format process. This is the hardest part of the process and it is where most people make a mess. If the process goes really badly, you could again start from the beginning.
Step 3
Your computer’s hard drive is now being cleaned. If your computer hangs up during this process, it means your hard drive has problems. This process will only take a while, depending on how big your computer’s hard drive is. After an hour, your screen will post a series of questions like user name and date. On some versions, it asks for the product key. But in the Dell recovery disk it will enter the key for you.
Step 4
Once you’re finished with the second set of questions, wait for about 30 minutes and a new set of questions will come up. Just get through them as fast as possible. Skip the register Windows and internet connection. Simply avoid the questions, answer only when it is necessary for you to proceed. If the process is already complete, it will bring you to Windows. Don’t be surprised if its screen looks a little weird, resolution is blurry or horrible, color is off, and there are big icons. That is all normal.
Step 5
You must have read the beginning of the manual, because the next step will now require you to load those drivers that we discussed earlier. Install all things you have on your Dell recovery disk.
Step 6
Go to the control panel and switch to classic view on the left side of the screen. Click the System icon, then hardware tab and lastly the device manager tab. Now you could see which drivers are lost. You might not need any. A yellow exclamation point implies a driver that requires to be installed. List them down. Fortunately we have the Dell recovery disk with a minimum of your drivers needed to get on the internet. Now that we have a list of drivers needed, get your internet connection working. Then go back to the Dell site we discussed earlier and get the rest of the drivers from the list we made. Install the drivers and you are done.
Keep in mind this is a general guide and I refer to the steps used with the Dell recovery disks. It may vary slightly on your model or Dell recovery disk. If you think there is an error or something that didn’t seem to work, let us know by posting a comment.