installed a fresh copy of xp. please help

[cell phone repair]

i have a compaq lapt with xp home edition, i have 3 user accounts

it was acting wierd, couldnt do system restore so i installed a fresh copy
of xp

i didnt format, just installed a frsh copy, nothing was deleted


after installation it asked me to create a comptuer name , made a mistake
and created a diferent name and created a different user account name

i copied the old profile of the old user to the new user (from
c:\documents and setting)

the problem is , ie , when i try to open up a ms word document , it gives me
a n error message saying this program is not installed on this machine.

i changed the compauter name to the original name and copied again the old
profile of the old user to the new user (from c:\documents and setting)

still same problem

do i have to transfer registry from the old user or what, i do not wanna
spend 5 hrs installing office and all other programs

thnx for help

and yes, i am buying norton ghost

 

[D.Currie]

i have a compaq lapt with xp home edition, i have 3 user accounts

it was acting wierd, couldnt do system restore so i installed a fresh copy
of xp

i didnt format, just installed a frsh copy, nothing was deleted


after installation it asked me to create a comptuer name , made a mistake
and created a diferent name and created a different user account name

i copied the old profile of the old user to the new user (from
c:\documents and setting)

the problem is , ie , when i try to open up a ms word document , it gives
me a n error message saying this program is not installed on this machine.

i changed the compauter name to the original name and copied again the old
profile of the old user to the new user (from c:\documents and setting)

still same problem

do i have to transfer registry from the old user or what, i do not
wanna spend 5 hrs installing office and all other programs

thnx for help

and yes, i am buying norton ghost

Programs don't work unless they're installed in the operating system you're
running. When you installed the new copy of XP, it was just like installing
it on a new drive, except that you left a lot of stuff cluttered around it.
If you want to run that new copy, you need to install your programs there.
Otherwise, you need to fix whatever was wrong on the old copy, if it's still
there.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Cell Phone Repair.

Please don't offer to repair my cell phone, because you apparently don't
bother to carefully read the instructions. :>{

You've left out a lot, so some assumptions are required - and probably
wrong. YOU have the owner's manual for your computer; WE don't.

There are two basic ways to reinstall WinXP: clean install, or repair
install. In a clean install, WinXP is installed as though there were no
existing WinXP on your computer. Setup will ask whether you want to
reformat your HD and install it from scratch or if you prefer to install a
new copy, and which volume you should use for it. You apparently told Setup
to do a clean install, so it asked you the most basic questions, like what
is the name of the computer. In a clean install, Setup creates a new, empty
Registry for the new copy of WinXP. If you want to run MS Word or any other
application from this new WinXP, you must install the app from the CD or
other original media so that the proper entries can be made in that
Registry; simply having the apps files on your HD is not enough. And
there's no easy or good way to "transfer registry from the old user or
what", even with Norton's Ghost, at this point.

If you want to preserve your installed applications and data - and user
accounts - while reinstalling your existing copy of WinXP, then do a repair
install, also known as an in-place upgrade, rather than a clean install.
For the official instructions, see this Knowledge Base article:
How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341

Or you might prefer this version of the same instructions, from MVP Michael
Stevens:
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

I'm not sure how to get there from where you are now on your laptop. My
guess is that you should first identify the "boot folder" for your second
WinXP installation. The default name is \Windows, but if you installed
WinXP a second time into the same volume, it would have had to use a
different name, like \Windows(1), or some such. Boot into your original
WinXP, locate that boot folder for the new, unneeded WinXP, and remove the
entire folder - files, subfolders and all - probably a GB or so of files.
Then do a repair install, as instructed above. Be sure to visit Windows
Update, as soon as you get your firewall and antivirus back in place, to be
sure that you have SP2 and any later updates.

If my assumptions are not correct, please post back with more details about
your computer: Specific model of Compaq? Was WinXP pre-installed? What
kind of WinXP CD-ROM do you have? Is it only a Recovery Disk, rather than a
full WinXP CD-ROM?

RC

 

[Ken Blake]

In

i have a compaq lapt with xp home edition, i have 3 user
accounts

it was acting wierd, couldnt do system restore so i installed a
fresh
copy of xp

i didnt format, just installed a frsh copy, nothing was deleted

There are only three possibilities:

1. You did a clean installation, which formats and deletes
evrything on the drive.

2. You did a repair installation.

3. You did a second installation and now have it installed twice.

I suspect that you did the third, but I can't be sure. Please
clarify which you did.

after installation it asked me to create a comptuer name , made
a
mistake and created a diferent name and created a different
user
account name
i copied the old profile of the old user to the new user
(from
c:\documents and setting)

the problem is , ie , when i try to open up a ms word document
, it
gives me a n error message saying this program is not installed
on
this machine.

That pretty much rules out choice number 2, the repair
installation. You must have done either number 1 or 3. And if you
can still find your data on the drive, that rules out choice
number 1. And if Word isn't installed. since you apparently
haven't installed Word into this installation of XP, it would
seem to confirm choice number 3.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

i changed the compauter name to the original name and copied
again
the old profile of the old user to the new user (from
c:\documents
and setting)
still same problem

do i have to transfer registry from the old user or what, i
do not
wanna spend 5 hrs installing office and all other programs

It's hard to be sure from your message, but it sounds like you
now have a jumbled hard drive with two installations. What you
may have to do is even more than spend those five hours
reinstalling your programs. You probably have to back up all your
data, reformat and reinstall Windows cleanly, reinstall all your
applications, and reload your backed up data.

But before you run off to do this, please clarify exactly what
you did in the first place.

 

[cell phone repair]

number 3

thanks

In


There are only three possibilities:

1. You did a clean installation, which formats and deletes
evrything on the drive.

2. You did a repair installation.

3. You did a second installation and now have it installed twice.

I suspect that you did the third, but I can't be sure. Please
clarify which you did.





That pretty much rules out choice number 2, the repair
installation. You must have done either number 1 or 3. And if you
can still find your data on the drive, that rules out choice
number 1. And if Word isn't installed. since you apparently
haven't installed Word into this installation of XP, it would
seem to confirm choice number 3.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup




It's hard to be sure from your message, but it sounds like you
now have a jumbled hard drive with two installations. What you
may have to do is even more than spend those five hours
reinstalling your programs. You probably have to back up all your
data, reformat and reinstall Windows cleanly, reinstall all your
applications, and reload your backed up data.

But before you run off to do this, please clarify exactly what
you did in the first place.