[sauravrk]

hello there,

Can I delete the folder i386 of my operating system partition. what actually is the purpose of this folder? So if i format my computer and install windows xp home edition OEM version which I got from dell then, will I miss anything compared to the system that was in factory settings before. Any information is appreciated.

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The I386 directory is not the directory that Windows actually runs from, but rather it contains a copy of Windows that you can setup from. Originally it was simply a copy of the I386 directory from your installation CD. You'll probably find "setup.exe" there, which is the Windows XP initial setup program.

Since Windows doesn't run from that directory, it's actually not required to be around at all. You can delete it, and Windows will still continue to run. But Wait! You still, really, don't want to delete it. At least not without saving a copy of it somewhere, somehow. You see, when you install new hardware, Windows will try to install the drivers for it, from your original Windows installation CD-ROM. If you have a copy of the I386 directory from that CD-ROM, Windows can look there instead - much quicker and much more convenient than inserting the CD each time.

And of course if your computer didn't come with a Windows CD-ROM (as I believe it always should, though not all manufacturers do), the I386 directory may be the only place these files are available.

So don't delete it. Move it somewhere else instead. If you have a second hard disk that has room, great. If you have another machine on your local network that has room, it's ok to copy it there too - just keep straight which machine it belongs to.

As an example, let's copy all of C:\I386 to a new directory on the D: drive. We'll do it using the Command Prompt. Press Start, Run, enter CMD and press Enter. In the resulting box, we'll enter the following commands:

* D: - this will make the "D:" drive the current drive.
* MKDIR D:\I386 - create a new "I386" directory at the root of the D: drive.
* CD D:\I386 - make D:\I386 the current directory
* XCOPY C:\I386 /s/h - copy C:\I386 to the current directory. "/s" means copy the contents of all subdirectories, and "/h" means copy all hidden and system files as well.


So, yes, you can delete the i386 folder on your computer. If the CD you have was included with the computer when you bought it then it usually has all the drivers needed for your hardware on the CD. I have even installed XP on other computers with a Dell XP CD. I just used the activation code from the original computer instead of the dell code.

SRX660

[SRX660]

The I386 directory is not the directory that Windows actually runs from, but rather it contains a copy of Windows that you can setup from. Originally it was simply a copy of the I386 directory from your installation CD. You'll probably find "setup.exe" there, which is the Windows XP initial setup program.

Since Windows doesn't run from that directory, it's actually not required to be around at all. You can delete it, and Windows will still continue to run. But Wait! You still, really, don't want to delete it. At least not without saving a copy of it somewhere, somehow. You see, when you install new hardware, Windows will try to install the drivers for it, from your original Windows installation CD-ROM. If you have a copy of the I386 directory from that CD-ROM, Windows can look there instead - much quicker and much more convenient than inserting the CD each time.

And of course if your computer didn't come with a Windows CD-ROM (as I believe it always should, though not all manufacturers do), the I386 directory may be the only place these files are available.

So don't delete it. Move it somewhere else instead. If you have a second hard disk that has room, great. If you have another machine on your local network that has room, it's ok to copy it there too - just keep straight which machine it belongs to.

As an example, let's copy all of C:\I386 to a new directory on the D: drive. We'll do it using the Command Prompt. Press Start, Run, enter CMD and press Enter. In the resulting box, we'll enter the following commands:

* D: - this will make the "D:" drive the current drive.
* MKDIR D:\I386 - create a new "I386" directory at the root of the D: drive.
* CD D:\I386 - make D:\I386 the current directory
* XCOPY C:\I386 /s/h - copy C:\I386 to the current directory. "/s" means copy the contents of all subdirectories, and "/h" means copy all hidden and system files as well.


So, yes, you can delete the i386 folder on your computer. If the CD you have was included with the computer when you bought it then it usually has all the drivers needed for your hardware on the CD. I have even installed XP on other computers with a Dell XP CD. I just used the activation code from the original computer instead of the dell code.

SRX660

[sauravrk]

I have even installed XP on other computers with a Dell XP CD. I just used the activation code from the original computer instead of the dell code.

thanks SRX660 for your information. and can u explain me a bit about activation code and how it can be used to activate other computers if it is not illegal. just being curious.

[SRX660]

The question i think you are asking is how did i use the dell activation code on other computers. I did not do that. What i did was use the dell CD and took the original activation code i found on the sticker that was attached to the side panel of the computer i was fixing. Apparently all dell does is add their own drivers to a regular Microsoft CD. So you can use a dell CD to install windows you just can't use the same activation code that came with the dell computer.

Perhaps there would be a problem if you used a different video card than dell uses on their computers, and windows does not have the correct drivers for the video card. But what i think what would happen is the OS would just revert to the microsoft default drivers.

SRX660

[sauravrk]

Now I got it. Thanks once again.