How do I tattoo windows xp home edition back onto my laptop?

Question

I have inherited a packard bell notebook, but it is unusable as the previous owner had tried to install windows xp proffessional over the original settings causing a system 32 error, we have ordered the restore disk from packard bell which should be here within the week but they mentioned we would need to "tattoo" Can anyone tell me how I go about doing this. Cheers

Answer 1

Here is the normal procedure for most Packard Bell notebook computers:

Create a Windows XP Boot Diskette
Locate on Master CD's the folder 'DRIVERS'
From this folder copy to the boot diskette the following files:

Tattoo.exe
Shellhs.dll

Power up the system and boot from the diskette into DOS and at the A> prompt
enter the following command:

Tattoo /createhsfromdmi

This will transfer a copy of the tattoo from the motherboard BIOS to the hard drive..

Note that you will need the OEM setup disks to accompish this. If the original hard drive is still in place, you may not need to perform the tattoo procedure.

Answer 2

the restore CD should be a bootable CD, this will wipe the drive blank and restore an original image of the original operating system.

if its not XP pro then you will need to upgrade.

i have never heard the phrase tatoo used in relation to computers and i am an IT engineer, so its probably just a case of someone trying to baffle you, looks like it worked