Dell w/o OS CD (Win XP Pro SP-2)

[Bob Harris]

I have assisted a neighbor in his purchase of a new Dell PC. I was surprised that the PC came with no WinXP OS CD, but rather the i386 directory on the HD. Dell's recommendation is to use system restore if there's a problem or to run Symantec PC Restore which they have included on his PC. That's fine, I guess, once you run Symantec that would put the PC back to its 'original' state.

What I'm wondering is how does one make an operational WinXP install CD from the i386 directory. All of the system files are there, just as on the original CD, but the files and directories that are needed to run an install CD do not appear to be present. I don't know that it would work to take those files (setup.exe, for instance) off of another WinXP CD.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to make him a decent and legal WinXP CD from his i386 directory. He does have the product code and all of that stuff on a sticker on the PC case.

Thanks a lot for any suggestions.

--Bob Harris <img src=/S/flags/USA.gif border=0 alt=USA width=30 height=18> <img src=/S/flags/California.gif border=0 alt=California width=30 height=18>

[TonyE]

Some Dell PCs include the Dell OS Recovery Utility that enables you to create an operating system CD, though that option appears to have been removed for systems shipped after July 15th.

The Washington Post has an article on this subject - Create a Windows CD for PCs That Don't Have One

[Bob Harris]

Hi Tony,
Thank you very much. Who would have thought to look in the Washington Post!

I will make him a CD that should do the trick. Since my neighbor is not really PC savvy, I don't think I'll do it for him with BartPE, but rather with a standard bootable CD. That should work, I think. I'll certainly test it.

I really appreciate your response.

--Bob <img src=/S/flags/USA.gif border=0 alt=USA width=30 height=18> <img src=/S/flags/California.gif border=0 alt=California width=30 height=18>