-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Dell Reinstall CD WAS: Wobbly Fonts - Outlook Express Problem

Hello GMan

As informative (and humorous) as ever - thank you

Blessed are those few who provide "detailed" instructions. How often have I
messed up, having faithfully followed a guide that seemed to be complete,
only then to be told "but I thought you would realise that you needed to be
facing to the East" or whatever

Yes, with traditional British stiff upper lip (and wearing my bowler, if I
can find it) I will venture into the BIOS thickets and, little by little,
gingerly poke about. When a famous explorer was asked of what he was most 
frightened, when in strange territory, he replied "My shadow"

I'm glad that my Dell CD looks promising. In answer (I hope) to your 
question, clicking on "sp2_pro_rtm(E:)" on the left, I get on the right, as 
well as i386, its siblings:

Folders

$OEM$
DOCS
DOTNETFX
SUPPORT
TABLET (Wacom) - seems out of place!
VALUEADD
AUTORUN.INF

 Others

README.HTM
SETUP.EXE
SETUPXP.HTM
sq.txt
WIN51
WIN51IP
WIN51IP.SP2

However, I am now 99% convinced that my CD is "The Full Monty" (pre-film 
meaning). I  originally tried left clicking on "sp2_pro_rtm(E:)" only about 
20 minutes after inserting the disk and using "Shift" to stop it spinning. 
In view of what you said, I have now repeated this half a dozen times. Each 
time, I get the blue "Welcome to Windows" screen and, among its options, 
"Install Windows XP" . Clicking this really does start the installation 
process

Regards
David


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "GMan" <gman.pctt@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2007 5:15 AM
Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Dell Reinstall CD WAS: Wobbly Fonts - Outlook
Express Problem


David,
    I absolutely LOVE your sick, twisted sense of humor, my friend (no
matter how much of it is based on perceived fact).            :O)

    Your initial installer was wise in providing those fear mongering words
to you because he instinctively knew that he (or someone else in a similar
job) would be the one to clean up any mess you would have made.  I, on the
other hand, truly believe that Knowledge = Power and that the only true path
to knowledge is rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty (well,
once you've read and at least somewhat understand the instruction manual).
To this end, I prefer to provide the instruction manual and then sit back to
watch the "keen young explorer" grow by leaps and bounds.  Of course, we are
right here to help guide you through any additional questions or situations
that may arise and I also try my best to warn when there is the slightest
chance of seriously messing something up.  So, if I tell you to stay away
from something, it's only because I selfishly have decided that this is
probably not the best time to be creating a mess (if your thoughts differ,
now would be the time to speak up).  I also know from my study of human
nature over the years that if you are so inclined, you will merrily decide
for yourself when it's the best time for a mess.  Even then, we will STILL
be right here to help guide you through any additional questions or
situations that may arise.

    Having said all that, my instructions are quite wordy (I prefer
"detailed") but the actual time necessary to perform the steps is somewhere
around 2 minutes from turning on the machine to rebooting out of the BIOS
screen.  Since that small estimate is based on prior knowledge and
understanding of the BIOS as well as my complete and total confidence (lack
of fear), I understand perfectly if you're still not convinced.  So, allow
me to suggest that you take each part of the directions one step at a time.
None of this will help you until you learn for yourself the timing of those
key presses in order to gain entry into this candy store of settings, so
just try that part until you get in.  Once in, try out the instructions for
moving around with the arrow and ESC keys.  None of those keys can make any
of the settings change, so its safe to practice a bit before even looking
for the proper setting.  Once you're feeling more at home, try pressing the
Enter key with different listings selected.  Some won't do anything because
there is nothing to choose from, but others will open up a small window with
a list of options for that control.  Examine the options and try to figure
out how each one would change the behavior of the system (remember that
these instructions are specifically for the mainboard and that only some of
them will be conveyed to Windows).  When you're finished checking out the
menu for an item, just press ESC to go back to the prior menu without
recording any changes.  Even if you selected something other than what was
already selected, ESC will prevent that change from being recorded.

    Once you're brimming with full confidence (just kidding, but I promise
you that it WILL come with time and experience), work on following the rest
of the instructions and see how easy it is for yourself.  If you do happen
to get into ANY trouble or you think that you might have messed something
up, just repeatedly press ESC until it no longer does anything.  Then arrow
over to the last tab and arrow down to "Discard Any Changes & Reboot", "Exit
Without Saving Changes" or something similar.  That option is built into
every BIOS in order to exit the BIOS without changing any options.  Then,
try it again whenever you're ready.

    I also want to assure you that the absolute worst that can happen is
that Windows will no longer boot after you change something and then save
the changes.  While that probably sounds like a terrifying result, it really
isn't anything to worry about.  The BIOS settings have no effect on anything
that's on your hard drive.  That means Windows and everything else you have
installed or stored on the drive is still safe and sound.  It's just that
the BIOS doesn't know how to talk to the drive anymore.  However, you don't
need a hard drive to get back into the BIOS to fix things.  In fact, you'll
see that there is a listing on that last tab that says something like "Use
Default Settings" and it may also include a "Use Optimum Settings" listing,
too.  These are there to make recovery ultra simple.  Just select the
'Default' one and ALL of the BIOS settings will revert back to their
original factory options, allowing you to boot right up like nothing bad had
happened.  If you're feeling a little brave, select the 'Optimum' one
instead and see if your system can deal with the slightly more advanced
settings it uses.  Even if it doesn't work, you can still jump right back
into the BIOS and select the 'Default' one instead.


    The news of your Dell CD's contents is extremely encouraging.  The
presence of an i386 folder that weighs in at over 500MB is exactly what I
was hoping to hear.  Go back into Windows Explorer and take another look at
the CD.  This time, I'd like for you to view the contents from that i386's
parent folder (the folder to which the i386 subfolder belongs).

-  (this one)
    +  i386

    I'm interested in what other subfolders may be present at the same level
as the 'i386' (xxxxx, yyyyy, etc. below).

-  (this one)
    +  i386
    +  xxxxx
    +  yyyyy
    +  etc.

    I am hoping that there are other folders that will help to confirm the
full install CD contents.  Once I have that info, I'll amend my original
tutorial on making your own Windows XP SP2 install CD.  Before I go any
further, I feel a need to point out a possible misconception you mentioned
in your reply.  You said that left clicking on the CD drive caused the
Welcome to Windows screen to appear.  However, a left click will not cause a
CD to launch.  Instead, I firmly believe that your CD's Autoplay finished
launching the CD at precisely the same time you happened to click on that
drive, giving you a false impression.  The way to prevent the CD from
launching is to hold down the SHIFT key until the newly inserted spinning CD
comes to a complete stop which could take up to 20 seconds or so.


    Your final set of questions really made me smile.  I'm extremely
grateful to you for widening my own thinking as I would not have thought to
include this info otherwise.

    This proposed WinXP SP2 Install CD could actually become your most
preferred method of reinstalling Windows, should the need ever present
itself (I personally backup, wipe & reinstall at least once a year just to
clean out the crud).  It will already have the giant SP2 built right in
which will save you from having to download it through Windows Update.  It
will also lack any of the junk that Dell has added to your Windows
experience.  No more trial offers for AOL, for instance.

    Having the optical drive set as the first possible boot device (with the
hard drive set as second fiddle) will not add any noticable time to your
normal booting sequence.  The presence or lack of an optical disk sets a
switch that is then read by the BIOS.  if this switch tells it that no boot
disk is present, it immediately moves onto the next boot device in the chain
(your hard drive, in this case).  Since reading a switch that only contains
either a 1 or 0, the time spent is negligable.  If it finds a bootable disk,
WinXP will usually ask you to press a key in order to boot from it.  If you
fail to press a key in a certain amount of time, it will automatically move
over to the second boot device in the chain.  That delay should be the only
thing that can hold up your normal boot time and will onyl occur if there is
a bootable CD in the optical drive.  Earlier versions of Windows didn't ask
and would just launch the CD.  That always annoyed me since most bootable
disks were only in there because I had forgotten to remove them after my
previous session.  Now, I get a warning and a way out of allowing it to
launch.       :O)

Peace,
GMan




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