Inbox (Frank Thurber)
Dell uses their own version of XP and even puts all their drivers, etc. in one small partition before the root partition.
Is this true? Well, I was going to reinstall the OS anyway – provided the XP Professional CD that comes with the Inspiron doesn't include all the crud they usually put on the system post-build. Nothing chaps my hide more. Well, walking around without underwear kinda does, but let's not go into my lack of fashion sense right now. Keep your eyes on the prize. No, not that one. THAT one.
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2 Comments
Anonymous
January 5th, 2002
at 4:41pm
Furo just e-mailed me: They don't use “their own” version of XP. They make some adjustments to the install, like their own driver sets for various devices, or particular OS settings tweaked to their liking, which every manufacturer on the planet does. As for creating the separate partition, this is also a practice that some have used from time to time. What it does is provide a “safety” area where all of the drivers and installation files can sit instead of relying on CDs. I have mixed feelings on it. It wastes disk space, but the user never has to dig up a CD unless they really hose everything up.
Anonymous
January 5th, 2002
at 6:05pm
Dell does have their own partition though, and a utility (zztop) to restore the system to factory defaults. The partition is small (16MBish), and I usually end up killing it since I like to format and do a clean install even with a new PC. To date, I've tried zztop about 2 or 3 times, and it's worked once.
My opinion, get Ghost and use it to restore your pc