Only Dumb Question??

So this may be the stupidest question ever asked, and I think I know the answer. However, before I erase the entire harddrive on my laptop I need to ask.. I have a Gateway computer that when I bought it did not come with the restore disks, and of course I did not make them. I need to wipe the entire computer due to some very nasty trojans. I just want to start fresh. My husbands' computer (a Dell) came with a copy of Windows XP, but it says on it only use with a new Dell PC... the software can not tell what hardware it is being loaded onto??? Right??? So once I use the Darik's Boot and Nuke that I got off a forum here I should be able to use the XP software that came with my husbands' computer?

Thank you for any help you can give me.

 

The dell disk will have possibly the wrong, chipset drivers, modem, possibly sound, video drivers. You need to see if it has a restore partition on the hard drive, double click my computer and see if it says restore partition. ed

 

As tunered mentioned, the CD may have drivers and such included. I have seen Dell OEM Windows XP CD's that are just Windows, no drivers, no 'bloatware', etc. If you have a one of these 'clean' CD's, it will work but you'll need the product key from the Gateway PC in order to install and activate Windows. Just browse the XP CD in question to see if it's bloated with excess Dell garbage. It'll be easy to tell (you'll see folders with names like UTIL or APPS or maybe even SYMANTEC or RESTORE; these aren't on any clean XP discs).

hopperdave2000

 

I'm not convinced it will work. Certainly editions of Win2000 which came with Dell machines wouldn't run on anything but Dell PCs. Whether this is still true for XP is a moot point.

 

Have you tried the Malware removal forum? It seems difficult but easier than starting over without disks. I was able to remove 100's of malware and virus's from a non protected, interent surfing machine over a long weekend using the forum. It was not my machine but it works like new now.

 

Thank you everyone for all the responses. I think I may work through the malware forum. This was my husbands' laptop and became mine, well my brother-in-law borrowed it and now I get to clean up the mess....family.

 

Dell reinstall disks are only meant for dell machines. With that said they WILL install on any comp you want to.BUT...always a but...Xp "knows" it's not a dell and will ask to be "activated" either onver the net or by phone. You can get around it .There are some programs and crack for xp to be "activated" but there kinda complicated and could cause you to have to reinstall XP again. What you could do...NOT TELLING YOU TO....is when you call Micro ,tell them the HD is from a dell blah-de-blah and the motherboard or somehting died and you took the HD form it and put in another comp so you could get stuff off of it..Maybe they'll give you a key for free..maybe not. But i couldn't hurt. either way the dell disk will "lock out" in 30 days if it's not activated. Or you could take out you internal battery and keep setting the time back forever to keep it from reaching 30 days lol (no it won't work)

 

I have the product key code. Can I not just use that when it asks me to?

 

Maybe...but i doubt it. i think i tried that once too but i don't think it worked. There's just something about dell XP that recognises it not a dell MB.If you give me sa week if you can. i need to reinstall xp again and i'll try my deel disk first on my oddball comp. Now I don't suggest doing it...dell XP is JUST FOR THE DELL COMP it came with, but i think i worked it out once but it was a few years back just to see if i could.but more than likely you'll either have to buy XP again or use the dell XP and call microsoft for the activation code.

 

I may just go ahead and try it, this computer is so messed up. But I need the key off the bottom of John's computer and he is currently unavailable so I will not be able to do anything until tomorrow. That will at least kill the time until I can get the recovery disks in from Gateway. This computer is just about 2 years old, so I think they will can send me the disks for some $$. I will keep this thread updated for everyone's info. BTW I am a mom of two very young boys so getting time to sit down and work on the computer can be tricky