Dual boot vista and xp pro

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Hey all. I jus bought a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with Vista home premium pre-installed. I want to dual boot this system with XP Pro but i cant create another partition. It says i have reached the maximum partitions allowed. Its seems to have 4 already, 2 small ones, 1 with the OS and a recovery. The next option is to just run XP Pro. I'm wonderin if I delete the one with vista installed and install xp on it i will be able to use the restore disc to get vista back later? or is there another way to do it? I'm kinda worried about wiping the entire hard drive in case it voids my warrenty. Thanks
 
Hi

From what happened with an Inspiron 1300 i had I wouldnt touch the existing drive, when I got sick of XP home I stuck on XP Pro, when I tried to reghost the drive back to XP home (I was going to sell the laptop with the original software on it) using Dells own built in restore function (CTRL F11) it told me the drive had been altered and it wouldnt restore, it seems there is something written to the boot record somewhere and deleting the original OS changed that information.

Your only option is to bite the bullet and try it , but heed my warning, or buy a new HD and load XP on that instead.

Your choice is your own then advice is given on a take it or leave it basis.

Regards
 
Hi,

My name is Todd and I'm with Dell's online outreach program. The other partitions you're seeing are the Dell diagnostics partition and the Image Restore partition. The image partition holds a compressed version of the factory image that can be reinstalled if ever needed. Whether you remove those or not is up to you but wiping them does not necessarily void your warranty.

If you have any hardware issues in the future you may need to reinstall the original operating system shipped with the system as part of the troubleshooting of the system before any hardware can be dispatched out to you.

As IdidmyC600 mentioned the image restore option is pretty useful at times.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thank you,

Todd

Customer Advocate
Dell, Inc.

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2006/11/19/3648.aspx
 
So

We have someone from Dell at the TS Forum,,,thats nice, so tell me then when are dell going to do something about all the second hand laptops that are locked with a password and cant be unlocked... i have spoken to Dell about this in the past and they always say there is nothing they can do.

Regards
 
Ididmyc600 said:
So

We have someone from Dell at the TS Forum,,,thats nice, so tell me then when are dell going to do something about all the second hand laptops that are locked with a password and cant be unlocked... i have spoken to Dell about this in the past and they always say there is nothing they can do.

Regards

Hello,

Those BIOS password locks can be reset, but to do so you must be able to verify ownership of the system. Obviously we have to confirm that we're unlocking them for the owners and not someone that has stolen it and / or is trying to pull sensitive data they're not authorized to view. (Not to imply that you are).

There are several steps that the front line technicians must do over the phone before they can have the passwords reset. Note, it must be done via phone and cannot be done (to the best of my knowledge still) by email or on-line chat.

If someone is purchasing a system from someone we highly recommend they have the seller fill out the following change of ownership form during the transaction. Most authorized resellers are well aware of this form and it saves quite a few problems in the long run.

http://support.dell.com/support/top...en/tag_transfer?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~ck=ln&lnki=0

I hope that clarifies things a bit for you.

Thanky you,

Todd

Customer Advocate
Dell, Inc.
 
So your saying that...


DellCA said:
If someone is purchasing a system from someone we highly recommend they have the seller fill out the following change of ownership form during the transaction. Most authorized resellers are well aware of this form and it saves quite a few problems in the long run.


And what about the people who buy from Ebay and other such places??

Its OK as an assistant to the mighty Dell Corp to say follow the rules, but what if you fall outside the rules....

Such as

What if you never registered the laptop in the first place.....and then forget the password...?

I could go on but i dont feel the need to repeat myself as your help lads do when asked this question....

20 minutes to a tech guy to get the answer, "we cant help you..."

I do understand but there has to be some kind of help, an authorised dealer for instance for a small price...they can then decide to ask pertinent questions, once unlocked, ask for the logon name, or someother info...


There is always a way, and if not why not??

Regards
 
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