Why can't you do a repair install (XP) with a Dell?

Discussion in 'Software' started by zr79, Dec 13, 2009.

  1. zr79

    zr79 Byte Poster

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    Dec 13, 2009 #1
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    As far as i can see you can't do a repair install on a Dell xp OS, maybe it was service pack conflict, but i had a Dell pc XP SP3, and i booted up a Standard XP Pro disk and also my own Dell OEM SP2 disk and neither gave the option to do a repair install.

    ****I just had a thought i didn't actually check if the Dell was xp home or pro, so maybe this was what was causing it, if it was XP home and i booted the xp setup using a XP pro, it probably wouldn't give me the option to repair, as i think you have to get everything extact the same, version and service pack edition , am i right here*****

    Also, say you have a corrupted Dell HD and no backup drive, and you need to reinstall the OS.

    What you can do is resize the partitions and hence create a new partition and load XP onto that new partition, then you can copy all files from the old part to the new once all is installed, then delete the old partition and resize again to claim back the space from the old to the new part, it's a long round about way of doing things, but what about the recovery partition, that is what is confusing me, is it ok to delete that partition?
     
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  2. soundian

    soundian Gigabyte Poster

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    The recovery partition holds an image of the OS as it was when it was installed. Hitting F12 during POST takes you there on Dells iirc. I don't think it has a repair option though, only reinstall.
     
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  3. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Dec 13, 2009 #3
    It depends on the condition of the OS here mate, if its in a bad way then you may not get the option of a repair install when you boot from the XP CD (whatever type it is).

    If you boot from a Dell Windows XP CD it will not prompt for the product key and install the OS. I have booted from a volume license Windows XP CD and ran a repair on Dell PCs that have had XP pre-installed with no problems. The service pack level doesn’t matter either, it will be the at the SP level of the CD after the repair install.
     
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  4. Notes_Bloke

    Notes_Bloke Terabyte Poster

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    As Sparky has stated it can depend on the condition the OS is in.

    We use Dell's at work, and run the repair option on many pc's using the Dell cd. If the repair option doesn't show, I usually run a chkdsk from the RC to get it to show.

    HTH
    NB
     
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