A friend has recently given me a PC for my son. In his zeal to clear everything off of it, it will now not boot. I dont have the boot disk. What is my next move? Can anybody help?
I intend to upgrade the machine once I can get into it, but Im new to this.
Thanks
Andy

He may of formatted the drive before he gave it to you

what are the specs of the machine?
what operating system are you intending to put on it?
have you got an operating system ?

Originally Posted by brain_damage

He may of formatted the drive before he gave it to you

what are the specs of the machine?
what operating system are you intending to put on it?
have you got an operating system ?

I doubt he has formatted it, he is about the same level as me!
I dont have an OS to put on, but I was thinking about XP, except it only has a 10Gb hard drive.
Don't know about the spec, but it is a Dell Dimension L800r.

Andy

Product: L800r

Specs: Pentium/800,
64MB SDRAM
9.5GB hard drive, CD-ROM

If that's the spec unless it's been upgraded I doubt XP will run on it

Here's What You Need to Use Windows XP Professional

PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended

128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)

1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space*

Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor

what does he want to do on the PC?

you can download boot discs depending on what you require

Its only for my son who is just 7, so he doesn't need alot. Having said that it's amazing ho w quickly they get into it. He would mainly use I guess for internet. Where could I download the boot disk from?
I guess there would be no problem in getting the additional RAM, but is there agood place to purchase the windows software?
Would I be better going to an earlier windows than XP?
Thanks very much for your help so far.
Andy

ps I assume the 800 refers to the speed?

you may be able to buy earlier versions of Windows (98se/ME) complete with boot disc on the internet fairly cheap now.


boot discs http://www.bootdisk.com/ will let you download a file to put onto a floppy

Originally Posted by brain_damage

you may be able to buy earlier versions of Windows (98se/ME) complete with boot disc on the internet fairly cheap now.


boot discs http://www.bootdisk.com/ will let you download a file to put onto a floppy

Hi brain_damage
Miraculously today my friend gave me a box of goodies which came with the computer.
Most importantly it has a CD for the reinstallation of Windows Me.
After much buggering about, and not really understanding what I was doing, it formatted the C: drive. Since then however, I get the error message "invalid disk" whether I have a CD in or not. Incidentally just before I thought I had cracked it, it asked me to ensure all floppy disks (of which I have none anyway)were removed. I assume then I don't need a bootdisk?
Looks like at this rate I will owe a big donation!!!!!
Thanks
Andy

has the disc got the full Window ME on it,or is it part of a disc set that'll return the PC to factory settings as new

we'll get you sorted (I hope )

Hi
The disk is a Dell product and it says that it is only to reinstall ME on aDell computer system. furthermore my friend told me this morning that he hasn't got a security code anyway, because he had tried the same thing when he wiped it in the first place!
Would it be easier if I bought a 2000 Professional? I notice on ebay they cost approx £40, or would I still have the same problems? (I seem to remember that Me wasn't that well received anyway)

Andy

I think Windows 2000 needs about 128MB of RAM so it's not much different to XP.

has the PC got any stickers with codes on that could be a windows number?
without the code you'll not be able to reinstall windows.