Buy system with XP Home then upgrade to Pro...

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I'm considering an 8400, and likely to go with an Outrageous Deal
or refurb. I have XP Pro media and licenses, and could save a few
bucks if I purchased a system with Home and then installed Pro. So
I'm contemplating a clean install of Pro and the potential issues.

Whatever I order will have a DVD-ROM and possibly a dual layer
DVD burner. There is some application software that goes with that...
Sonic Record Now, Power DVD, whatever. I'm wondering if there is
a way to get those installed on top of Pro. Does Dell ship those CDs
or provide them upon request? Is there some mechanism via which
specific apps can be [re]installed from the recovery partition?

Speaking of partitions, I'm trying to remember what I saw on that
4700 I played with. IIRC there was a small EISA partition, then
NTFS, then the recovery partition. A quick google suggests the
EISA partition holds the Dell diagnostics, which I suppose might be
nice to keep around. Would I have to do anything special in order
to retain the ability to run diagnostics?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

This is kind of an 'it depends' question. You should get media for the
applications, but it could be on a restore partition and you have to make
your own CDs. The applications should run on Pro, but may check for the
Dell version. Unlikely but possible.

The EISA partition will be fine as long as you don't FDISK.

Tom
"User N" <usern@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:YPWdnSkoKPPzkv7fRVn-vA@comcast.com...
> I'm considering an 8400, and likely to go with an Outrageous Deal
> or refurb. I have XP Pro media and licenses, and could save a few
> bucks if I purchased a system with Home and then installed Pro. So
> I'm contemplating a clean install of Pro and the potential issues.
>
> Whatever I order will have a DVD-ROM and possibly a dual layer
> DVD burner. There is some application software that goes with that...
> Sonic Record Now, Power DVD, whatever. I'm wondering if there is
> a way to get those installed on top of Pro. Does Dell ship those CDs
> or provide them upon request? Is there some mechanism via which
> specific apps can be [re]installed from the recovery partition?
>
> Speaking of partitions, I'm trying to remember what I saw on that
> 4700 I played with. IIRC there was a small EISA partition, then
> NTFS, then the recovery partition. A quick google suggests the
> EISA partition holds the Dell diagnostics, which I suppose might be
> nice to keep around. Would I have to do anything special in order
> to retain the ability to run diagnostics?
>
> Thanks in advance.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Two ways to retain the Dell diagnostic partition:

1. Leave the partition as it is. If you want to do anything with the other
partitions, like delete them and create ones of other sizes, go right ahead.

2. If you decide to blow away everything on the hard drive, you can follow the
steps I outlined on one of my postings or the steps as explained by someone
else.... Ben Myers

On Sun, 17 Apr 2005 21:38:02 -0400, "User N" <usern@invalid.invalid> wrote:

>I'm considering an 8400, and likely to go with an Outrageous Deal
>or refurb. I have XP Pro media and licenses, and could save a few
>bucks if I purchased a system with Home and then installed Pro. So
>I'm contemplating a clean install of Pro and the potential issues.
>
>Whatever I order will have a DVD-ROM and possibly a dual layer
>DVD burner. There is some application software that goes with that...
>Sonic Record Now, Power DVD, whatever. I'm wondering if there is
>a way to get those installed on top of Pro. Does Dell ship those CDs
>or provide them upon request? Is there some mechanism via which
>specific apps can be [re]installed from the recovery partition?
>
>Speaking of partitions, I'm trying to remember what I saw on that
>4700 I played with. IIRC there was a small EISA partition, then
>NTFS, then the recovery partition. A quick google suggests the
>EISA partition holds the Dell diagnostics, which I suppose might be
>nice to keep around. Would I have to do anything special in order
>to retain the ability to run diagnostics?
>
>Thanks in advance.