Operating System, Windows XP, on Dell 9300 Laptop?

Question

My Dell came with the back-up Operating System on the hard drive, not on a separate CD disk. Is there a way to copy the setup Windows XP OS onto a CD in case my hard drive goes bad and I need to load the OS on a new hard drive?

Where would I find the back-up OS on my hard drive, and how would I copy it? I have Nero.

Thank you

Answer 1

I believe you need two DVD's.

One for the actual Windows XP operating system, and one for Drivers, and modems.

You shold be able to go to Start - Control Panel - and then find out where you back up your OS.

It will only let you make one copy, though. And it will burn it automatically through windows, and will probably not use Nero.

Answer 2

Of course! Also, Nero is more than sufficient to create a Windows CD. Some time ago, I came across an article from PC World Magazine which addresses your exact needs. Basically, you create a Windows Installation CD from the system files which are already on your hard drive. To do this, you will need to use a PE Builder, a free utility. In addition, you will also need KeyFinder, another free utility, which displays your Windows product key. When you reinstall Windows, you have to activate your copy of Windows by entering a product key. Believe it or not, but it is very straightforward and easy to do. I included only a short excerpt from the article. You will need to read the entire article. Here is the article:

"Answer Line: Create a Windows CD for PCs That Don't Have One" -- written by Lincoln Spector, pcworld.com (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,122487-page,1/article.html)

Microsoft requires that every PC bundled with Windows provide some way of restoring the operating system, but too many bundled Windows XP "restore" CDs merely return your hard drive to its factory condition, which wipes out all of your data and any apps you've added.

Fortunately, vendors appear to be moving away from these data-wiping recovery discs. I recently looked at new PCs from ABS, Dell, Gateway, Lenovo, and WinBook, all of which came with either a real Windows XP CD or another way to perform nondestructive OS reinstalls.

If your PC lacks a Windows CD, a folder named 'i386' containing the Windows installation files is probably in the root directory of drive C: or in your C:\Windows folder. Your system may have several i386 folders, but the one you want has a lot of files with extensions ending in underscores (_), along with the executable files expand.exe, regedit.exe, and winnt32.exe. Copy this folder onto a CD for safekeeping, though you'll use the version on the hard drive to actually reinstall Windows.

Keep your 25-character Windows Product Key handy--you'll need it to reinstall the OS. The number is on the back of your PC, on the bottom of your notebook, or in some other hard-to-read spot; it may be listed in the documentation as well.

You'll also need a bootable CD for starting the install process. Bart Lagerweij's free PE Builder creates a CD-bootable version of XP called Bart's Pre-install Environment, or BartPE, from either a Windows CD or the i386 folder. Click here to download PE Builder.

Open PE Builder's main dialog box and select the folder or drive containing your i386 folder, but not the folder itself. Check Create ISO image, click Burn to CD, and select your CD-RW drive from the Device drop-down menu. If PE Builder doesn't support your burner, double-click the PE Builder--created .iso file to launch your CD authoring program and burn the CD...[read the rest of the article].

Answer 3

Might be time to bite the bullet and do a fresh install if you have a system reinstall disk. Back-up and save anything you don't want to lose and do a fresh install. I have done this on a few of my PCs in the past. It gets rid of all the clutter that tends to accumulate on a PC over time. Kind of drastic but it might help.

Answer 4

It is on a hidden partition. Call dell and tell them to send you the disks. They will. (make it a sob story if you have to)