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    Restore after formatting the HDD?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Brauer, Feb 8, 2006.

  1. Brauer

    Brauer Notebook Enthusiast

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    I've reformatted my xps m170, installed WinXP, the system software CD, and Eurotools. What else should I install to have it as when it came from Dell? I miss the XPS desktop background e.g. :eek:
     
    Brauer, Feb 8, 2006
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  2. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    You'll probably have to download the background images from the web somewhere, or maybe someone on here will send them to you.

    What else do you need? Some of the software that you might want to install is Cyberlink PowerDVD and Sonic RecordNow (unless you want to use something else.)

    SG
     
    Amber, Feb 8, 2006
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  3. Brauer

    Brauer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Can't find the file on dell's site (xps desktop background). The CTRL+F11 does not work either. I kept the partition (approx 70mb) so it would work. Ideas?
     
    Brauer, Feb 9, 2006
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  4. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    The partition won't work since you reformatted the drive. If you mess with the partitions or reformat, the spare partition becomes invalid.

    The only other option I know of is to use Ghost and burn a copy of the partition. I'm not sure if that will work or not though, but there are a few websites that will have information on it.
     
    Amber, Feb 9, 2006
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  5. Brauer

    Brauer Notebook Enthusiast

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    oh.. Thought it would be okay to format the other... :(
     
    Brauer, Feb 9, 2006
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  6. Brauer

    Brauer Notebook Enthusiast

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    Brauer, Feb 9, 2006
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  7. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    In my opinion, it is okay to format the spare partition (if I understood you correctly, you did this). The really small partition is just your diagnostics. It runs a series of tests on your system to see if anything is wrong. We have a sticky about this located at the top of our Dell forum.

    If all you are needing is the background images, you could create a new thread on here (or i could change the title of this one), so that M170 users would know that is what you are looking for.

    We've had users do this in the past, and they got really good responses.
     
    Amber, Feb 9, 2006
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  8. Brauer

    Brauer Notebook Enthusiast

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    yes, but it would also be interesting to have the ghost partition back ;) I could live without the xps image for a while I supose. But if I'm missing a partition I'm getting more worried. Do you know if I could get it back? Would be nice if I didn't have to send my computer across the whole world though...
     
    Brauer, Feb 9, 2006
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  9. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    I highly doubt you could get it back even if you sent it back. In my opinion, as long as you have your XP disk, you really don't need that partition. You can get majority of the software that was installed when it you received either from the web or from the disks that you received. All that partition did was restore your system back to the orginial factory settings.

    You can always create and edit partitions.
     
    Amber, Feb 9, 2006
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