RE: Fresh Copy of XP - Please advise

1. yes, you could delete everything, but you would lose your XP license and
the machine would be unrepairable. That hidden partition is a 'mirror' of
your 'factory default' system.
2, yes, there are Sony drivers and install INF files available nowhere but
on your system. A MS setup disk is NOT going to include those. The laptop
would be a boat anchor without them.
3. big troubles with reusing licenses. you have to call for permission.

Add an external drive. Copy that hidden partition to it. Buy a new internal
drive, before they become unavailable. Mirror everything to the new internal.
All this is possible, but not easy (or cheap).
Being ready for everything with the drive still does not preclude dropping
the damn thing. I really think of current laptops like I do a 'bic lighter'.
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Mark L. Ferguson



"Sensitive New Age Thug" wrote:

Greetings.

I have a Sony laptop. PCG-K13. Bought it new. It shipped with Windows XP
installed, and I've stayed current with all the Windows upgrades. It did not
ship with a Windows install disk, and as far as I know, Sony won't sell me
one. If I'm not mistaken, there's a Windows XP installation archived on the
hard disk. In theory, if I need to reinstall Windows, I can do it without an
install disk.

I'm not comfortable with this arrangement. I'm running out of room on the
30GB hard drive and it seems like the Windows restore archive is taking up
quite a few GBs. If the hard drive fails completely, I won't have many good
options. Also, I think some important hard disk file maintenance gets
performed only when I boot the machine from a Windows install disk.

Sooo... I'm thinking about buying a Windows XP install disk, probably on
eBay. They seem to go for about $139. I'm willing to spend the money. (Not
interested in Vista.)

I have three questions --

1-Will I free up some hard disk space if I do a fresh reinstall of windows?
Would I have to reformat the hard disk to free up all that space?

2-I think there might be some proprietary Sony drivers on this machine that
might get wiped out if I reinstall. The wireless card driver, for instance.
What to do?

3-I have some shareware, which I have paid for, and a few expensive
commercial applications, like MS Office and Dragon Naturally Speaking. What
kind of registration problems will likely occur?

Thanks a bunch, in advance.


Tim

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