Dell Inspiron 6000 with a compaq HDD

[[Z_]]

So my mother has had a broken compaq laptop lying around the house, and a few months back my sisters Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop died of a broken hard drive. I swapped the two HDD's and got my sisters laptop up and running again, but since the hard drive was originally a compaq one, it still thinks it is and doesn't recognize any of the hardware on the computer. Now, If I had a restore disk, I would just run that and problem solved, but I don't; So what should I do?

[Supa Beanie]

If you don't have a restore disk for her laptop that you can use to wipe and reinstall her system there really isnt much you can do to easily correct the problem. If you have a XP disc you can try to reformat and install it and then go to dells website for drivers. On the other hand if your adventurous you can try to go into the OS and uninstall every driver from the old laptop OS that is on the HD annd then reinstall the drivers from Dell. Its feasible but mist likely time consuming and may not work.

[QuARteX]

1 call dell tech support and ask if they can good will out some OS disc to you preferably with the resource cd so you get the drivers (but you can allways dl them later from their home page)

2 depending on local laws you could borrow a friends OS cd you should have your cd key on the bottom of the laptop for your windows version (it should be locked to your version of windows so if you have win xp home try and borrow a win xp home cd etc etc)
as long as you use your own cd key and not your friends its should be ok (atleast its like that in scania)

if all else fail wait for amiga os 4.1 to be released in your local computer shop and install that instead cool