PC component info

[Peterp]

I don't know much about PCs so I need some help here.

I bought a a factory built PC recently but I don't know the manufacturer of the PC components. Win XP is installed but I
would like to backup the HD and install Win 2000.

I can't open it without voiding the waranty.

All I know for certain is

P4 1700
128Mb Ram
40Gb HD
Samsung DVD
Samsung CD-RW
Nvidia graphics Card

Can I rely on Win XP to report the info correctly?

If not can anyone tell how to find out this information

Any help appreciated.

[DocEvi1]

thats one of the problems with buying stock.
Couple of suggestions:
1. Download Sandra 2002, this will give you great details on your Hardware.
2. XP will report this right, if the drivers are installed correctly.
3. Why do you need to know what Hdd you got? I would suggest it is more important to know which mboard(hence chipset), graphics card, network / modem, soundcard....then download the latest drivers.

Why do you want to go back to 2000? XP is built on 2000 technology is it not, but more for the home user. By the sounds of it, not meaning this to be nasty, but are you a home user? I say that because I wouldn't buy stock, or would know exactly what they are putting in with all drivers disks and boxes/bags supplied.

How can they tell if you have opened the case?

Stefan

[Peterp]

Thanks Stefan,

I will download Sandra 2002 and give it a try.

Yeah, your right I don't need to know the make of hard drive but
the last PC I had gave me a lot of problems and it was due to a bad HD.

The reason for installing Win2k instead of Win XP is because I am studying for my MSCE for Win2k. I have been a home user
up till now but I want to learn more about PCs.

They have a warranty void stick on the case and opening the PC
will break the seal.

Thanks for your help,

Peter

[Ammok]

I got XP and want to to go back to 2000. Xp is crup.

2000 was rock solid. I was alomost willing to forgive Gatsey with 2000 and I thought that Xp would be a better version. Well, I guess a dumbass just won't learn, will he.

I am now considering Linux, it has to be less pain.

[Ammok]

PS, don't open it until the warranty expires.

[Philip1952]

You might try this little program. It is called beleric advisor. it reads all the info of the board and components. Or at least trys to. Soem OEM computer it can't read the mfg of the boards. But you can try.
This link is for the down load page. It will try to download as soon as the page opens. Just tell it where to go to save the file at.
HERE you go.

[Ammok]

philip

nice little prog. Cheers.

[Buji]

Does the HWINFO.EXE /ui command work in XP?

[Ammok]

XP says it does not recognise the command

[DocEvi1]

howdy again.

Sounds as if I was right of the mark there then. Studying for a MSCE hehe, not a complete numter like we get here sometimes. Come to think of it like me

Stefan

[Kasgoroth]

I'm surprised you wonder why Peterp should know his HD manufacturer. In my opinion it's very important to know this for installation purposes, because every manufacturer has its own utilities to format their drives, further only this utilities can low-level format yor drive (or zero-level) unlike DOS utils for example.

There's a utility from Ontrack called Disk Manager 4.0 that can perform all kinds of format on all recent drivers but you gotta pay for it. The utilities from HD manufacturers are free.


greetz,
Kasgoroth