upgrading to windows 2000

[dfgu]

My company has all dell computers.. I'm at a clients home right now trying to upgrade to windows 2000 professional with our companie's cd's. But the problem is, it keeps telling me that this is not a dell computer (it's a gateway). Is there a way I can bypass this with some kind of upgrading boot disk? or if I create my own bootdisks, will it letup do a fresh install?

I would preferrably do an upgrade because the client has a lot of programs i do not with to install over again.

Thanks.

 

[wolluf]

Do you mean you're using a Dell restore CD? Which obviously won't work on a Gateway (and is presumably not licenced to). You need a M$ 2k upgrade install CD to upgrade a previous version of Windows to 2k.

Please explain in more detail if I've misunderstood situation.

 

[dfgu]

It's actually a full version of windows 2000 professional. Not a restore cd. But since it came with dell system, i guess there's some kinda of signature it looks for (dell signature) before it does the upgrade. When I stick the cd into the computer, it even asks if I want to upgrade to windows 2000, but once it's passes that part and tries to upgrade, it automatically says that this isn't a dell computer. Same goes for if I do a fresh install in the beginning (when it boots up). But I was wondering if I used bootdisks to boot up all the drivers and stuff, it should bypass the dell thing. But my problem now is that I dont want to do a fresh install, I would rather do a upgrade.

Thanks..

 

[wolluf]

Have you a licence for 2k to be installed on the Gateway? If so, you just need to get hold of a 'normal' 2k install CD. Surely your company must have one?

If it won't let you do fresh install (booting from CD?) either, I'd guess it won't work with floppy disk set either - sooner or later the Dell check will proably kick in.

 

[dfgu]

Yes, my company has licenses, but my problem right now is that I dont have any normal w2k pro install cds. All the ones that I have are from dell when we ordered the computers.