Installing XP on Inspiron

I have an Inspiron 6400 but I no longer have the original installation XP disc that came with it. I've since bought a licensed copy of XP and have installed a few times over the last few years, but it never goes smoothly. I have downloaded all of the drivers from Dells website, but its a pain to have to load them each individually every time. Also, I've only been able to get the Intel Pro Wireless chipset driver working but my wired connection has never worked.

So my question is, how can I get a copy of the original Dell installation CD for this laptop? I'd be willing to buy it, but from Dell's website, it looks like I can only download individual drivers.

Thanks!

Dan

 

You can order a replacement disk from Dell, but if you can borrow the reinstallation disk from a friend who has a Dell computer, that may be faster.

Dell - Support

However, note that the Dell reinstallation disk is no different from retail disks with respect to drivers, you'll still need to install all of the drivers. The only difference is that it will activate Windows automatically.

If you're having trouble with drivers, that's a fairly easy problem to fix. Just enter your service tag into the Drivers & Downloads page, and it will filter out some of the results. It isn't perfect though, so there still could be more than one choice. For example, it may list multiple WLAN drivers, such as Intel 2100, 2200, and 2915, when your system only needs the one for 2915, and installing the 2100 or 2200 drivers would not do anything useful. If you still need help, feel free to let me know.

 

On the outside chance that you are still using the original hard drive, you could try to use the PC Restore function to get back to the original state of the computer as Dell shipped it. The restore data is on a hidden partition of the original hard drive. See the "Using Dell PC Restore by Symantec" in the owner's manual: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/om/MD402AO3.pdf

I just ordered a new set of disks from Dell because I want to put in a larger hard drive (see the link in the first reply) They shipped me a free set of disks including WinXP, Mediadirect and the Device Drivers. They indicated that the image from the PC Restore partition could not be recreated, so, if it's gone, it's gone for good.

 

An I-6400 with XP should have been shipped with a hidden DSR (PC-Restore) partition, so if you didn't remove the hidden Dell partitions during one of your retail reinstalls, you might be able to use DSR to restore the original OS.

To check if the hidden Dell partitions are still there, boot your existing XP and go to Disk Management. Look at the schematic in the lower right of the Disk Mgmt screen. If the hidden partitions are still there, they'll show as a tiny partition (usually misidentified as "EISA") at the front of the disk and a 3-6GB partition at the back of the disk, both with no drive letters associated with them.

If both are still there, then you may be able to reactivate the DSR feature. (Note: your prior XP reinstalls would have deactivated the feature.) See my website, Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition, for detailed information.

If the hidden partitions are not there, then you must have deleted them during one of your reinstalls with the retail CD. In that case, reinstalling from CD is your only option. But as Robin24k said, a Dell Reinstallation CD still requires you to install the Dell drivers. The only difference between a retail CD and a Dell CD is that the latter is WPA preactivated.

There are only a handful of drivers you need: Intel chipset, audio, video, Broadcom lan nic, wireless nic, Ricoh card reader, and modem (if equipped). If there are multiple choices on the Dell website, look in your current XP's Device Manager, and if these devices are currently "working properly" that should help identify the proper download choices.