help i need a recovery cd for my dell inspiron 6400 i got one from http://www.user-guides.co.uk but didnt realise that i needed my own version of xp, they gave me my money bak but dell wont send my a real cd as my tag number on my 64000 is blan (and it shouldnt be) will any version of windows xp work? ive been told that if i put any windows xp and use the recovery cd that i already have from user-guides thta it will all wrok fine.. i just want to know as im nt realy sure what a driver is and they seem to think xp wont work on its own..

you can load any xp on the dell, then, go to the dell site for drivers. i just did and 8400 yesterday.

http://support.dell.com/support/top... That website seems a bit ridiculous to me, lol. You can do all of that yourself instead of making those people rich. All your downloads and pertinent drivers are available for free at the Dell Driver's & Downloads website. Or.... the link above tells you how to restore your Dell to "as shipped" new condition. If your computer was manufactured after July 2004, and the MBR has not been overwritten, the the Dell PC Restore will work for you. That way you won't have to fuss around with trying to find a Microsoft XP disk to reinstall XP. However if you wish to reinstall XP cleanly, then you can use any Dell Operating System XP disk as long it is the same version as what you have now. For example... If you have XP Home installed now, you can borrow any XP Home disk from a friend or neighbor. The original version of XP is tied to your motherboard.... So you have two possibilities here... the F-11 command for Dell PC Restore.... or borrow a (purple color) Dell XP Operating System disk and reinstall XP cleanly from scratch. If you do that, then go to the Dell Driver's and Downloads website and obtain your necessary drivers; and install the chipset driver first... other drivers are dependant on that Intel chipset driver being installed first.

"but dell wont send my a real cd as my tag number on my 64000 is blan (and it shouldnt be)" Does that mean you can't read the Service Tag? If you did indeed purchase this new, the information should also be on the paperwork, or, Dell can look up the information based on your name and address. Perhaps you didn't buy this machine? Life's more painless for the brainless.

Ya' know something... upon re-reading this a few times now, I'm starting to wonder the same thing too, lol....

I think all Dell PCs bought after July 2006 had a hidden partition that you go to and restore the computer to the state that it was when bought. If you do not have the manual go to the Dell site and find your model and search the online manual for how to do this. If you can't find it let me know and I will try to get the info for you. Jazzbo

go here and work from this page to restore to factory defaults. http://support.dell.com/support/edo... or use this: .