[Old Rich]

Almost surely a memory error . .

[w-plaza.com]

ide i am loving it

[Sketch13]

Hi i'm trying to reinstall my windows xp Pro onto my computer.

I've followed this guide, http://www.windowsxpprofessional.win...exfullpage.htm, and it follows it until the part where it says...

Boot will recognize that the XP CD is in the drive, DO NOT press any keys, let setup bypass the CD boot.

and it doesn't display the "Press any key to boot from CD.."

All it does is restart the setup again, something flashes past fast and then it starts the setup all over.

Can anyone help please?

[Bush Lady]

I have Windows XP Home Edition, and if I want to install Windows X Professional. Will this take everything off the Hard Drive. Will my screen on the Desk Top be completely blank. Want to know if I will have to reinstall everything.

[bcachot]

There have been occasions where I have done a re-install of XP and then XP would just blue screen at startup. If it werent for Ghost backups, I would have been screwed. If you do reinstall windows to fix some unknown problems, always try to keep a backup of the partition because having an install thats not perfect is better than losing everything.

[AlMujtahid]

I am doing the repair using as recommended here. My screen is now stuck, and has been for several minutes. It is the blue Windows XP Home Edition Setup screen and at the bottom it says "Deleting file ieeula.chm . . ."

Is this normal, should it be taking this long? If it does not change, and i have to manually stop it/shut down, will that affect my data on the drive? What do I do to get around this?

Then I got a message saying file could not be deleted and recommended I skip deleting it. I did and now it is doing the same thing with a file named ieshwiz.exe.

[mzshortay]

Originally Posted by Mulder

See this site:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

The site refers to a reinstall as a "Repair" (but see No. 3 below):

I would point out two things about a reinstallation:

1. Contrary to many concerns, a Reinstall DOES NOT change your computer except for replacing files with the original Windows installation files--your desktop and menus and Documents and Settings all stay the same. This may or may not have an effect on some installed programs--I have reinstalled many many times and it seems with XP, I've never had any problem

.

I was wondering if I should perform this because I am having problem viewing web pages, programs, and other things on my computer. I already posted my problem, but I have yet to get a response. Does this replace the original windows drivers as well?

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt...web-pages.html

[bbearren]

I looked at your other post--I'm not at all a fan of System Restore. I have it turned off on my machines.

If you follow the intructions for a repair/reinstall, it will replace corrupted or damaged system files (including drivers), and pretty much leave all your programs and settings just as they are.

If you continue to have problems with a particular application, try uninstalling that application, and then reinstall it. That will usually leave your preferences for that application intact, since most uninstall routines leave that sort of stuff behind, anyway.

[mzshortay]

Okay, thanks so much. I'll try reinstalling windows that way.

[wacor]

Originally Posted by bbearren

I looked at your other post--I'm not at all a fan of System Restore. I have it turned off on my machines.

If you follow the intructions for a repair/reinstall, it will replace corrupted or damaged system files (including drivers), and pretty much leave all your programs and settings just as they are.

If you continue to have problems with a particular application, try uninstalling that application, and then reinstall it. That will usually leave your preferences for that application intact, since most uninstall routines leave that sort of stuff behind, anyway.

Just wondering how the drivers get repaired?
Drivers are separate from windows
I have had discs that did have the apps and drivers on the windows disc but lately it seems that there is a separate disc with the apps and drivers.
Although the last 2 computers did not even come with a disc. You had to make one

[bbearren]

Originally Posted by wacor

Just wondering how the drivers get repaired?
Drivers are separate from windows
I have had discs that did have the apps and drivers on the windows disc but lately it seems that there is a separate disc with the apps and drivers.
Although the last 2 computers did not even come with a disc. You had to make one

I think you might be confusing OEM specific hardware drivers with the Windows System Drivers. In the System32 folder there is a Drivers subfolder that has over 34 MB of *.sys files. These are drivers, and they are system files, and they are part of what gets repaired when one performs a repair/reinstall of XP.

When the repair/reinstall process begins, it spends a considerable amount of time installing Windows drivers...

[wacor]

got ya you mean the generic drivers which windows has embedded.

not sure if everybody knew that and would assume all their drivers would be fixed.

and I dont think the advice on system restore is wise. you may not like it but it has saved many a persons butt. and i doubt there is any of the security techs here that would agree with you.

IMO one should never turn off system restore.

[bbearren]

Originally Posted by wacor

and I dont think the advice on system restore is wise. you may not like it but it has saved many a persons butt. and i doubt there is any of the security techs here that would agree with you.

IMO one should never turn off system restore.

I didn't have a System Restore in Windows 2000 (nor did anyone else), and made up for it with drive images, backups, and multiple copies of files on multiple drives and machines on my network. I have seen nothing in System Restore that comes anywhere near that level of confidence, and have seen a good many horror stories regarding the use of System Restore and misunderstanding its limitations, right here on this site.

Nothing beats a drive image for returning a system completely to a known good state. I will continue to burn images to DVD and leave system restore turned off. I think it unwise to assume that System Restore precludes the need for a solid and comprehensive backup regimen.

[Anilrgowda]

Thanks gr8 post..this site rockz

[Flyright]

Does everything I've read on the postings of this thread, as well as the linked reinstall site I've gone to, apply to Dell's OS XP SP2 version - just as if it were/is a normal store-bought version?

My Dell disk says line by line:

Operating System
Already installed on your computer
Reinstallation CD
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Service Pack 2

I just now broke the CD seal and used it to format and install XP SP2 onto a brand new Barracuda. I did this in order to see if I could see what's on my unbootable disk.

My OS was installed by Dell and I've done nothing to it except the MS patches.

Now it won't boot, and it's because I just installed Ghost from Systemworks 2003. It installed OK but when I stuck two SD readers in the two USB slots and tried to use Ghost to clone one SD from another, the machine hangs.

I went through the on-screen choices and think I made all the correct ones (it's the first time I've ever tried to use Ghost), Ghost went into its process and quickly locked up on a DOS-shell type screen with an hourglass figure that hung. Locked the machine and required a re-boot, wherein it then booted to a brand new DOS partition with nothing but some primitive DOS stuff and some Norton files.

Norton had created it's own little 8MB boot partition at the C:> prompt.

Using DIR and trying all the drive letters I couldn't find any other drives or files, but I probably don't know how to look. That scared me though.

When I booted from the new Barracude I could see all of my system (whew) and the new Ghost-created partition named "-V???????? (question marks stand for whatever the actual numbers & letters were). I thought if I deleted the partition I would be back to having a machine that boots into XP instead of Norton's DOS partition. Duh.

The primary drive won't boot now. If I knew what I was doing with Windows I'm sure I could go in and replace or repair a file or two and make it bootable again, since I'm pretty sure now Norton didn't ruin underlying structure, or maybe it did. I've always heard that Ghost in the hands of a fool can do terrible things and I first thought I'd done a terrible thing. But since my stuff is all still there and I can get to it via another bootable disk, it's not too terrible.

Should I try and do a repair/reinstall of my installed OS and will I be given the "R" choice (not the R in Recovery Console, I'm reading to stay away from that) at the last minute before pushing the button and possibly wiping out everything? Is it true I _won't_ wipe out everything if I do push the button?

If I don't get the R and don't want to push the button, can I safely back out at that point?

What's the best way to back up the stuff on the HD that won't boot? I need to do that before I start messing with reinstalling/repairing the OS.

Do you think the reason Ghost hung up in my system (Pentium D, 3GB, XP SP2 is because Systemworks 2003 isn't compatible with newer, faster hardware? My SW2003 is regstered to me so I should have done an update check before running it. I probably also should have disabled my virus/spyware checkers just because it's a good idea.

Since the two drives I was trying to clone were external SD cards, I figured if I messed anything up it would only affect the two external SD drives. I didn't expect Norton to go in and corrupt the basic structure of my system like it has. Once it hung, the damage was done. There's no way to escape the hang and allow Norton to clean itself up.

The Ghost menu made it look so simple and easy, cloning one disk to another. This is first serious mistake I've made with my new computer.

Ghost is the only thing Norton on my HD.

I also have a squeaky clean disk with no accumulated or other crud (all the Dell crap was the first stuff to go). It's also defragged frequently, so all the OS stuff should be in the same place.

I'm not trying to redirect this thread to Ghost problems. I'm just giving background for how I wound up needing to do a repair/reinstall of XP Home, SP2

Also, what utility should I have in my arsenal of problem solvers that would boot the system and automatically find whatever the XP boot problem is and then repair it? Surely something like that must exist.

Any responses/comments appreciated.

Thanks, Mike