the computer in question is a compaq presario sr1103wm. i bought it around 2002 at walmart and i'm not sure if i still have the paperwork for it. i think you're suggesting that i call hp and see if they would fix me up with an installation disk, aren't you? as i have become more and more knowledgeable about computers, i have been seeing how that makes sense. when they give you the "hidden recovery partition alternative" they really are not doing you a favor. the xp installation disk is so much better. by the way, the operating system on the presario is xp.
i was under the assumption that i could possibly be getting the release candidate for windows7, since it is being offered as a beta trial, and a different hard drive would enable me to try it out. i can see how i would need to already have a working OS to make this happen for me anyway, hence going dual-boot would be necessary.
after looking things over and downloading what i thought could be relevant to me from the link you provided, this is what i have:
getting started with MDT 2008 update 1.zip
microsoft deployment toolkit x64 msi
microsoft deployment toolkit x86 msi
optional - MDT print-ready documentation.zip
vista_6000.16386.061101-2205-LRMAIK_EN.img
the cpu is a celeron, so toolkit x64 would not be correct, would it? if i need toolkit.
a winPE disk would be useful to me, from what i have read.
did i download what i need?
thanks