[dsirkle]

I have just ordered a Mini 9 and a wireless printer from Dell. I also ordered 2GB ram memory from Crucial and backordered a RunCore 32GB SSD. I called Dell to ask for a Restore disk and was assured that I would receive it with the Netbook. I am not very computer savvy. Can anyone offer me advice to prevent me from screwing up on the SSD swap? I am hoping that with the new 32GB SSD installed that I can merely place the restore disk in an external cd burner/read/write that I also have ordered from ebay and copy to the new SSD? Is it really that simple? Is there a way to go wrong? I will be using XP. Any advice would be appreciated.Thanks

[holmes4]

That should work. You will have to press 0 during the initial boot screen to be able to select the CD drive. I recommend having the Mini on AC power and using the separate power cable, if supplied, for the CD drive.

[jej.514]

New guy - you'll actually end up with a cleaner install than what Dell is sending you on the Mini. It comes with some crapware on it, but they give you an actual OS install disk. You'll install a fresh copy of Windows onto your new SSD.

Welcome, congrats, and enjoy!

Jeff

[dsirkle]

Thanks to both of you. I will be glad to receive input from all as I wait for my shipments. I hope that mydigitaldiscount wont take too long to ship the SSD.

[pickles]

I am pretty good about getting around on a computer and can solve alot of my own problems but I have never reinstalled an os therefore I have a couple of dumb ?'s I received two cd's with my xp system, one is the os xp cd and the other one is drivers/utilities.

1. Would I put the os cd in the dvd external drive before I press 0 at startup?
2. Would I need to also insert the drivers/utilities cd in the drive
3. If by chance something should go wrong if I just inserted the old SSD back in the mini will all be the way it was before I started?

Is this all there is to it? I would really like to give it a shot.

[ade099]

Originally Posted by pickles

1. Would I put the os cd in the dvd external drive before I press 0 at startup?
2. Would I need to also insert the drivers/utilities cd in the drive
3. If by chance something should go wrong if I just inserted the old SSD back in the mini will all be the way it was before I started?

i havent swapped out my ssd yet (still waiting on my runcore 32), but let's see..

1. yep. put it in, hit 0 and choose external CD (i'm guessing since i dont have one..i installed my os from a thumb drive)
2. you should only need the drivers/utils disk once the system has already been installed (mainly to clear up the missing drivers listed in the device manager)
3. yep..if pigs havent started to fly yet

[dsirkle]

Originally Posted by pickles

I am pretty good about getting around on a computer and can solve alot of my own problems but I have never reinstalled an os therefore I have a couple of dumb ?'s I received two cd's with my xp system, one is the os xp cd and the other one is drivers/utilities.

1. Would I put the os cd in the dvd external drive before I press 0 at startup?
2. Would I need to also insert the drivers/utilities cd in the drive
3. If by chance something should go wrong if I just inserted the old SSD back in the mini will all be the way it was before I started?

Is this all there is to it? I would really like to give it a shot.

I'm glad that you asked those questions. I'm in need of step by step instructions myself.

[pickles]

Thanks for the info. This is what I like about this forum , everyone is so helpful and hey, some of us have to learn somewhere.

[dsirkle]

I just found out that I could have gone to Best Buy and picked one up without waiting for shipment that has twice the ram and a video lens for the same price. I didn't know about the outlet either until I found this site. Live and learn.

[TD99]

Originally Posted by jej.514

New guy - you'll actually end up with a cleaner install than what Dell is sending you on the Mini. It comes with some crapware on it, but they give you an actual OS install disk. You'll install a fresh copy of Windows onto your new SSD. Jeff

What Jeff said.

Here's what I did:

viewtopic.php?f=42&t=3264&p=30545#p30545