Large Drive Support Dimension 4550

Bob Villa wrote:
snip
(And Chris, 4550 has USB 2)


good catch.

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Muto ]
Posted At: Friday, February 12, 2010 2:23 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550
Subject: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550

Bob Villa wrote:
snip
(And Chris, 4550 has USB 2)


good catch.


You do need the latest BIOS. I believe the LBA support is native to the
latest bios and would be willing to bet that any XP will work. That
said, I'd spend a few bucks for a Dell XP SP2 disk. Slipstreaming will
'break' the Dell ability to not need activation.

"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:8D008CC0F7AD451182F7AF6D457C9E38@XPS13...


-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Muto ]
Posted At: Friday, February 12, 2010 2:23 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550
Subject: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550

Bob Villa wrote:
snip
(And Chris, 4550 has USB 2)


good catch.


You do need the latest BIOS. I believe the LBA support is native to the
latest bios and would be willing to bet that any XP will work. That
said, I'd spend a few bucks for a Dell XP SP2 disk. Slipstreaming will
'break' the Dell ability to not need activation.



Thanks for the input Christopher. I had thought about slipstreaming, but
will avoid it. I will look at ordering a current CD from Dell. No rush.. I
can wait for the CD.

C

Chuck

On 2/12/2010 9:44 PM, ChuckP wrote:
"Tom Scales" wrote in message
news:8D008CC0F7AD451182F7AF6D457C9E38@XPS13...


-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher Muto ]
Posted At: Friday, February 12, 2010 2:23 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550
Subject: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550

Bob Villa wrote:
snip
(And Chris, 4550 has USB 2)


good catch.


You do need the latest BIOS. I believe the LBA support is native to the
latest bios and would be willing to bet that any XP will work. That
said, I'd spend a few bucks for a Dell XP SP2 disk. Slipstreaming will
'break' the Dell ability to not need activation.



Thanks for the input Christopher. I had thought about slipstreaming, but
will avoid it. I will look at ordering a current CD from Dell. No rush..
I can wait for the CD.

C

Chuck

Chuck,

If your 4550 has an XP Pro sticker, you can get and you should get the
Dell XP Pro "reinstallation" CD with Service Pack 3. I got one today
from Dell along with a hard drive to replace a failed on in a client's
Optiplex 330.

Not sure if Dell ever produced SP3 CDs for XP Home. The only ones I've
ever seen have SP2. But an SP3 CD may exist.

It does not hurt to ask for SP3... Ben Myers

Ben Myers wrote in -
september.org:

Not sure if Dell ever produced SP3 CDs for XP Home. The only
ones I've ever seen have SP2. But an SP3 CD may exist.

Ben: FTR, I bought a couple Dell Minis with XP Home, and they included XP
Home SP3 CDs, copyright 2009.

Tom: I haven't experienced slipstreaming breaking the Dell ability to not
need activation. Every December I've slipstreamed my installation CDs to
bring them up to date with the year's hotfixes, including SP1 to SP2, and
SP2 to SP3. They still do a clean install fine without requiring
activation. I use the www.hfslip.org method instead of the more popular
nLite, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

-----Original Message-----
From: dg1261 ]
Posted At: Saturday, February 13, 2010 8:47 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550
Subject: Large Drive Support Dimension 4550

Ben Myers wrote in
-
september.org:

Not sure if Dell ever produced SP3 CDs for XP Home. The only
ones I've ever seen have SP2. But an SP3 CD may exist.

Ben: FTR, I bought a couple Dell Minis with XP Home, and they included
XP
Home SP3 CDs, copyright 2009.

Tom: I haven't experienced slipstreaming breaking the Dell ability to
not
need activation. Every December I've slipstreamed my installation CDs
to
bring them up to date with the year's hotfixes, including SP1 to SP2,
and
SP2 to SP3. They still do a clean install fine without requiring
activation. I use the www.hfslip.org method instead of the more
popular
nLite, so I don't know if that makes a difference.


Good to know. I'll give it a try!

HI!

They still do a clean install fine without requiring activation.
*I use thewww.hfslip.orgmethod instead of the more
popular nLite, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

Good to know. *I'll give it a try!

I can provide an additional data point by saying that nLite's method
worked fine with two Dell Windows XP installation discs--one at SP0
and the other at SP1a. The preactivated state was not broken.

William

On Feb 15, 9:48*am, "William R. Walsh" wrote:
HI!

They still do a clean install fine without requiring activation.
*I use thewww.hfslip.orgmethodinstead of the more
popular nLite, so I don't know if that makes a difference.
Good to know. *I'll give it a try!

I can provide an additional data point by saying that nLite's method
worked fine with two Dell Windows XP installation discs--one at SP0
and the other at SP1a. The preactivated state was not broken.

William

nLite also worked for me with XP Home SP1. No activation needed.
(That was my problem install I needed the SATA drivers merged into
it.)

bob