Need Step by Step reformat guide

I could've used one of these when I got my XPS2. I found the whole process quite simple though, so I'll do my best to help you out.

1. Go to this page and download the drivers you need for your specific hardware (video, wireless, etc.). You'll also need the Intel Mobile Chipset, the Conexant drivers, the Glidestick drivers, the Broadcomm driver, and the Notebook Systems Drivers.

*Note: you may not need to download anything at all depending on whether or not Dell sends a resource CD with your system. I personally did get a resource CD, but others have said they haven't. To be safe, I would have all these files downloaded and burned onto a CD before your system comes.

2. When your system arrives, I'd recommend playing around with it to make sure everything's functioning properly before doing the format.

3. When you're ready to format, reboot the machine and repeatedly hit F2 while the Dell logo shows to enter your BIOS. You'll have to navigate around in the BIOS to set your boot order. You'll need to set the order so you boot from a CD before the hard drive.

4. Before exiting, pop your Windows CD (which I believe is a green Dell CD that should be sealed inside your Windows XP manual. I think Dell calls it the Windows Reload CD or something like that). Save the BIOS settings, and exit. Your machine will reboot and the Windows installation repair prompts should come up. If they don't, you didn't set the BIOS to boot from CD first.

5. My system had three partitions when I got it. Some have reported doing different things, but all I did was format the largest (C:/) partition and install Windows there. The prompts should walk you through how to do this.

6. Once Windows is installed and you get to your desktop, you'll need to start loading drivers. If you got a Dell Resource CD with your system, put that in your CD-ROM drive and install it. All the drivers you need will be on the CD and you'll just have to click each one. There have been varying reports on what should be installed first. I'd recommend installing the Intel Chipset Utility first, followed by the Notebook System Software, then video drivers. After that, it doesn't really matter. If you don't get the Resource CD, simply put in your burned CD of all your downloaded drivers and start installing.

I was a complete newbie at this too when I got my XPS2, but it's really a simple process and it's increased the speed of my machine pretty dramatically.

Good luck!

Thanks, good instructions

Tjmaxwell,

Thanks for the help! I was going to ask the same thing!

I'd also use the option to burn restore disks before doing any of that.

Good suggestion Sonic. I'm not sure how to do that, or I'd have suggested it. I was under the impression that one of the extra partitions acted as a backup, and all you had to do was hit Alt + F11 (or something like that) when you booted up to restore your system to factory conditions. Is this not accurate?

Thanks for the step by step process tjmaxwell2.
I would do this whole process, if my CDRW/DVDROM wasn't making funky noises. Time to get a new one.

Anyways, like sonicwind said, you should burn the restore disc before hand. I did not receive a XP Home CD or driver cd. I believe if you go to
START>PROGRAMS>DELL ACCESSORIES>DELL RESTORE CD (or something to that effect.) then you can burn ONE copy of the Operating System (but does not include drivers.)

Also, some of have a partition with a restore image of exactly how it was when we first received our notebooks. This takes up a lot of the hard drive. Is there anyway to get rid of this? I believe the CTRL+F11 (or whatever it is) function is lost when you reformat. When you install XP, can you choose to combine the partitions? Or is there another way to do this?

Start>settings> control panel> administrative tools>Computer management>disk management -or-

Partition magic -or-

when installing windows delete all three partitions before installing windows.

Are all the partitions necessary? I have one NTFS drive (main), and two FAT ones installed on arrival. One of the fat drives is taking up 86MB!!! I seem to remember hearing conflicting reports about whether to delete them or not.

Also, when you set your notebook to boot from the disc first upon reboot it will say "press any key to boot from cd" if your not sitting there and miss it it will default to the HD and you have to reboot again. At least that is what happened to me. I akso failed to format 8mb of the drive and now I am showing 2 windows installations so, I get to do it again

ok, I think I got most of the drivers.

So far I got the Bios, the Nvidia video driver, the Notebook system, broadcom conexant, intel mobile chipset, wireless network and glidestick. do I need any others? such as the

Dell MediaDirect
Dell QuickSet
Display Devices
Dell E773c
Printer Drivers
Dell 1600n Multifunction Laser
Dell Laser Printer 5100cn
Removable Media Storage Devices
TEAC DV-28EC 8X Slim DVD

I might need the display driver right? The printer and removeable storage I don't think because I didn't order those. Are there any drivers for the dvd/ cd-rw drive?

Also, is this worth it if I might screw something up? Can it ruin a new system for me?

bump

I made the same mistake. Theres gotta be a better way to fix this?

Here ya go!!

Under the Dell General Forum's Notebook FAQ, one of the sections talks about that error.

Scroll down to the very last section of this post--it explains how to remedy it!!


(bbcode is so much fun. . .haha)

The first thing you can do, is upon bootup don't go into your Bios and change your boot order. Leave it like it was, with the hard drive first. When you see the DELL logo when you power up, you hit the F12 button, and it will ask you which drive you want to boot from. Problem 1 solved.

Problem 2, if you have a boot menu that comes up and shows 2 Windows installations, and it waits 30 seconds for a choice, you can do this: Find the file boot.ini on your C Root directory. Make a copy of it, in case you screw it up. Then open it in Notepad, and remove the second windows listing. Make it look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

If there is only one listing, it won't stop to ask.

does anyone else thinks this should be a sticky....

Read the guide in my sig, updates coming soon.