I have a dell 1500 vostro running windows xp sp3. I have the two recovery cds that came with it. My question centers on what will exactly happen when I install the drivers and utlities cd. Will the cd automatically LOAD all the drivers. Or will I have to PICK and chose each driver in the proper order. Maybe there is a youtube video that does a step by step for this, all I could find was installing windows.
A second question is, should I delete partions and then create a new one like dell does, or can I just reinstall on the big partition like the rest of the world? This is in regards to reinstalling the first cd on the same hard drive.A few QUESTIONS first...
Are you LOOKING to wipe this machine ? ?
Using the Recovery OEM CD's on any machine completely wipes out any data and takes the machine back to Day One status...

Or are you simply trying to correct a Driver issue ? ?
If so the Driver CD will not destroy any data and is safe to run....
Most just have a setup.exe that automates the process...but i've also seen ones where each driver needs to be done manually...

Let us Know.The utilities disk will not install anything without user interaction. Trying to bring her back to day one. Actually back to day two after I removed all the bloat ware. Maybe I should mention that these recovery discs were MADE by dell, and there is no recovery partition on my hard drive.the discs should work fine then... as long as you understand you are about to lose all your data...
Carry on...