Formatting Laptop Advice

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Ben_tomlinson88

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I Didnt Really Know Where this topic would fit into. Anyway, I have a Dell Laptop 5160 and i wanted some advice on farmatting the hard drive on it, i am on the internet now on the laptop as my other computer has no modem, Could you please guide me through the process so that i know what to do?

Thanks

P.s Is there a diffence when formatting laptops compared with desktops?
 
There is no difference. If you have reinstalled Windows on a desktop then you have installed it on a laptop as well, you just don't know it yet.

If you want to know how to reinstall windows... well, that's been discussed many times here. Just search.
 
kk well i know how to format a desktop (ive only ever reinstalled windows 95), but i still have to find an xp format disk, any help on that?

thanks
 
A Win98 bootdisk will do for the format.
When you re-install XP you will have the choice to set the file system: FAT32 or NTFS.
Or if the laptop supports booting from CD just use the XP CD to do the job.

patio. :cool:
 
There are a few differences, there is a specific order of installing things after the OS is installed. When you boot to the desktop for the first time, put in your Drivers and Utilities CD, first thing you install needs to be something called Notebook System Software, next the Chipset drivers, then Video, audio, network, modem, etc. After all drivers are installed, then install Dell Quickset, then install any additional apps you may have.

BTW, When you boot from the XP CD it will give you the option to change partitions and format when you are choosing the installation. Just delete all partitions(there should be two, one has diags, the other is the system partition) then create a new partition from the unpartitioned space and choose NTFS.
 
no difference. just let XP do it's thing.... ensure you have all the drivers for it. if you have the original disk that's best, but you'll have to remove all the bloatware when using an OEM disk.
 
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