Recovering without Recovery CDs

Information about recovering the preloaded OS without any Recovery CD.

Coverage of this approach

You can't download preinstalled commercial applications from the IBM website (only updates are provided). Commercial software known to be preinstalled is CD/DVD burning and DVD playback software and Norton AntiVirus. On the other hand, this approach doesn't restore the original setup, but gives you a system with the lates drivers and tools from IBM, that might work even better than the originally installed one.

preinstalled Windows versions and their keys

Windows 98

TODO	Windows 98 specific stuff

Windows ME

TODO	Windows ME specific stuff

Windows 2000

TODO	Windows 2000 specific stuff

Windows XP

TODO	Windows XP specific stuff

downloading drivers

TODO	Drivers stuff

installing drivers

TODO	more drivers stuff