New laptop without XP CD?

[joe2812]

I bought a laptop from Dell in about October time last year but just realised that despite it coming with XP installed I never got a CD.

Should there have been one? And how do I go about getting it without forking out the cash for a new copy?

[BEagle]

You should have a 'Reinstallation CD' for Win XP OS 'Already installed on your computer', not a full Win XP Disc as you would buy in a computer store.

Your PC should still be under warranty, suggest you contact Dell.

[rotorcraig]

Bought a Dell Desktop this week, and it came with CDs for various software pre-installed.

But no CD for XP preinstalled ... just a square of card printed to look like a CD with a message "You don't need an XP CD, either restore to an earlier restore point or select Factory Reset from within the BIOS".

Wasn't absolutely convinced ... what happens if the HDD fails post warranty period? Guess I'm tied to a Dell replacement with an XP Install set already loaded, rather than a generic replacement?

RC

[Tinstaafl]

There might be an option to create a restore CD on your PC. If so - and presuming you have a CD burner in the machine - you will be able to make your own CD.

Otherwise download the free Knoppix CD or an equivalent. It's a complete Linux system that runs from CD. On it will be a disk imaging program that will let you create images of the HD which can be burnt to CD, similarly to Norton. You can also span the image across multiple CDs if necessary.

This will let you restore the entire disk or a single partition from a previously made disk or partition image, respectively. It's a convenient way of backing up your data - especially if you partition the disk so that your files are on a separate partition to Windoze. The other benefit is that you will be able to restore a particular partition without affecting the other partitions. It's a great way to avoid Windoze recovery disks which are usually configured to wipe the entire HD as part of their process.