Clean reinstall of Win XP Home

[Carl L]

I am currently suffering from a spavined OS -- Win XP Home with SP2.  The bloody thing will not load any part of a recently installed MS Office.  It runs IE6 on a cable modem like it was on a 28.8 dial up modem.  It refuses to load PDF files from a browser window.  Etcetera, etcetera.

In the dear old days of Win 98 and older, I would set up a system floppy with fdisk and format on board and some CD drivers, boot to the A: drive using DOS, repartition and reformat C:.  I would then reload Win 98 and all my software and thus start anew without all the Reg and DLL garbage that had collected under the old Win installation.

But I seemingly cannot do that with Win XP Home SP2.  Yet others seem to have done that.  How does one go about clean reinstall with XP?  BTW I have tried a simple upgrade reinstallation of XP to no avail.

The system is a P4 with 1 gig of RAM running at 2 gHz with two 80 gig HDs.  It has a 1.4mb floppy drive and two DVD drives.

HELP!

 

[Bob Buchanan]

>> In the dear old days of Win 98 and older, I would set up a system floppy with fdisk and format on board and some CD drivers, boot to the A: drive using DOS, repartition and reformat C:.? I would then reload Win 98 and all my software and thus start anew without all the Reg and DLL garbage that had collected under the old Win installation.

But I seemingly cannot do that with Win XP Home SP2.? ?Yet others seem to have done that.? How does one go about clean reinstall with XP?? ?BTW I have tried a simple upgrade reinstallation of XP to no avail.
====

Hi Carl:

If your XP is an upgrade, it wants to upgrade something. Try loading Win98 again (or Millinium or 95)? after reformatting your drive, and so forth -- then load XP and upgrade. Or is this what you did when you post that you have tried a simple upgrade reinstall?

 

[blueblood]

I am currently suffering from a spavined OS -- Win XP Home with SP2.? ?The bloody thing will not load any part of a recently installed MS Office.? It runs IE6 on a cable modem like it was on a 28.8 dial up modem.? ?It refuses to load PDF files from a browser window.? Etcetera, etcetera.

In the dear old days of Win 98 and older, I would set up a system floppy with fdisk and format on board and some CD drivers, boot to the A: drive using DOS, repartition and reformat C:.? I would then reload Win 98 and all my software and thus start anew without all the Reg and DLL garbage that had collected under the old Win installation.

But I seemingly cannot do that with Win XP Home SP2.? ?Yet others seem to have done that.? How does one go about clean reinstall with XP?? ?BTW I have tried a simple upgrade reinstallation of XP to no avail.

The system is a P4 with 1 gig of RAM running at 2 gHz with two 80 gig HDs.? ?It has a 1.4mb floppy drive and two DVD drives.

HELP!

Boot directly from the Installation disk -wait for Welcome screen - then Enter to to setup XP -then F8 to delete partition and confirm with L. Select a new partitioned space then Enter then Format it for file system you want -then instal process will begin 

 

[Karl]

Carl,

Before you reformat your hard disk, there are a couple of things you should try first.

Go into Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore and see if XP created a restore point for you that is earlier than when you started having problems. If so, select it (use the most recent 'before' one). If that doesn't get things backto normal, you can try an even earlier restore point. Unless something is terribly wrong, one of them should get you back.

Second thing to try is a Repair. Boot your system and get into the BIOS (usually holding down the "Delete" key will work) and set your CD drive as the first boot device. Put your XP disk in, boot from it, select "Install". It will tell you that it has found an operating system already installed, and ask you if you want to install another copy, and you will have the option of doing a clean install or a repair. You want to try the repair. It's pretty straight forward and takes about the same amount of time as the initial install did. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but certainly better to try than having to reload all your programs.

I'll post the exact steps in a few minutes.

 

[Karl]

Carl,

To do the repair, follow the previous steps to set your BIOS. When it reboots, you'll get a message "To boot from CD, press any key". Do so. XP will start loading files. In a few minutes you'll see a screen titled "Welcome to Setup" and one of the options will say "To set up Windows XP Now, press ENTER". Press "Enter". In a few minutes you will see a screen titled "Windows XP Home Edition Setup", and the sentence "To repair the selected windows installation, press "R". At the bottom of this screen it will list all the windows installations on your system. Make sure the correct one is selected, then press "R" to begin the repair process. Should be self-explanitory from then on. You'll need your serial number.

I'll send you a p.m. with my phone number. Give me a call if you have any questions.

Karl 

 

[Ned]

      What Karl said   I would first try a system restore, then the repair install.  I have not found a problem that couldn't be fixed by one of those procedures.

If you do the repair install, before doing anything else, run Windows Update as all hot fixes since the version on the CD will have been lost.  This includes service packs, so if your CD doesn't include SP2, I would recommend you have a copy of it on your hard drive to apply BEFORE you go online the first time after the repair.  Then run Windows Update.

 

[Carl L]

Boot directly from the Installation disk -wait for Welcome screen - then Enter to to setup XP -then F8 to delete partition and confirm with L. Select a new partitioned space then Enter then Format it for file system you want -then instal process will begin?

Booted directly from Installation CD.  Entered to set up XP.  Issued an F8 and nothing happened.  Wound up getting XP installed as an upgrade.  Wound up with the same miseries.  Tried again with the same result.

 

[Carl L]

Carl,

To do the repair, follow the previous steps to set your BIOS. When it reboots, you'll get a message "To boot from CD, press any key". Do so. XP will start loading files. In a few minutes you'll see a screen titled "Welcome to Setup" and one of the options will say "To set up Windows XP Now, press ENTER". Press "Enter". In a few minutes you will see a screen titled "Windows XP Home Edition Setup", and the sentence "To repair the selected windows installation, press "R". At the bottom of this screen it will list all the windows installations on your system. Make sure the correct one is selected, then press "R" to begin the repair process. Should be self-explanitory from then on. You'll need your serial number.

I'll send you a p.m. with my phone number. Give me a call if you have any questions.

Karl?

I went thru the procedure just fine all the way up to "press R".? ?At that point I select the one and only Windows listed.? ?The program then asks for my administrator password.? ?I type the PW and press ENTER.? ?The program announces that the password is not valid.? I entered the OS serial number.? Not valid.? ?I enter a null.? Not valid.? ?I verified the PW at the Windows level, and at the BIOS level.? I re-enter it.  Still not valid.? ? Now what?

I? have spent 3 days on this chore.? I would dearly love to repartition, reformat, and reload.? That would take an afternoon at worst.? This just seems to go on for ever.? ?No way seems to be possible.
?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I just did a clean re-install a few weeks ago, Carl.  Re-partitioned & formatted while I was at it too.  I booted from the XP Upgrade CD I have for the system, selected Enter Setup (not "Repair" and not "Recovery Console"). I've forgotten the details of the messages and prompts along the way, though, so can't give you the step-by-step procedure.

If you have a "recovery CD" from the computer manufacturer rather than a Microsoft XO install CD, the procedure wil be different and may not even be possible - many such CDs will only restore the original factory disk image.

Here's a web site with the whole process described: http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/xp-install/

Here's another: http://www.5starsupport.com/tutorial/xpinstall.htm

 

[Ned]

Carl,

You were in the Recovery Console if you were prompted for the admin password.  That's the wrong 'R'   You want the R that says to Repair an existing installation.  I think it's on the next screen after the Recovery Console option.  Read the screens carefully and you'll see it.

If you have a real XP CD, then a clean reinstall may be your best bet.  You will have to reinstall all of your applications, and be sure to backup all your user data first.

 

[Karl]

Carl,

Like Ned said, you were at the wrong "R"

Try again, and if you must do a clean install and you have an XP UPGRADE disk (Not the full version), make sure you use the UPGRADE cd option to do the clean install and let XP re-format the disk. If you merely FDISK and FORMAT your drive manually and then try to use the upgrade cd, it will look for an existing installation, not find one, and tell you it can't proceed. Then you'll have to beg, borrow, or steal - or buy a full XP cd. When you've finished, you will be prompted to register the new installation.You must do this within 30 days or the system will quit. You'll be prompted to do that, and MS will give you one without hassle. It's a long code; about 40 alphanumeric characters IIRC.

 

[Carl L]

I just did a clean re-install a few weeks ago, Carl.? ?Re-partitioned & formatted while I was at it too.? I booted from the XP Upgrade CD I have for the system, selected Enter Setup (not "Repair" and not "Recovery Console"). I've forgotten the details of the messages and prompts along the way, though, so can't give you the step-by-step procedure.

If you have a "recovery CD" from the computer manufacturer rather than a Microsoft XO install CD, the procedure wil be different and may not even be possible - many such CDs will only restore the original factory disk image.

Here's a web site with the whole process described: http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/xp-install/

Here's another: http://www.5starsupport.com/tutorial/xpinstall.htm

That dunnit!  ;D    Got in using my full XP CD and repartitioned, reformatted, and installed.  Miseries gone, now I have the misery of putting together the software and coming up with long disused passwords.  Better form of misery.  Or at least different misery.

Thanks folks.

 

[Ned]

Carl,

Gonna write those passwords down somewhere now?

 

[Carl L]

Carl,

Gonna write those passwords down somewhere now?

Did.  Still gotta find 'em and even when I do, some of the damn things do not work.  Like the one for my bloody email and worst of all, my CIS password.  I keep running into the bloody damn AOL screen name farragio.