David said:
It looks like I have to reinstall XP to get around a mb/sound/XP
SP3 issue. I bought the original a few years back and overseas. The
seller has the drive partitioned into C & D, with My Documents and
other personal info on the D partition. I have my original XP CD
from 2002 and I'm downloaded SP2 and SP3 installs now. I plan on
reinstalling the original, upgrading drivers, then installing the
Service Packs.
It's been a looong time since I've installed XP, so I have a couple
of questions before I start the reinstall:
1) Will the reinstall take the current layout and reinstall using
that? 2) If not, where in the install process do I tell it to put
My Documents on the D partition?
3) It's not going to wipe out the other info on the D, is it? Or
should I copy that info to my other computer?
Clean install answers (
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html ):
1) You can wipe a _single partition_ during the installation and leave
others alone.
2) You don't - you have to do that manually before you start or do the
wisest thing and backup the entire thing first - imaging would be the best
backup in this case.
3) If you tell the installation to wipe the first partition only - that's
all it will do. There is a possibility that you will have to take ownership
of your stuff after the install is over.
**
Repair install answers (
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm ):
(Caveat - your install CD *should* be the same level as your current system.
You can either create one - below - or uninstall SPs until your CD and the
install are the same. ;-) )
1) Nothing will change with the layout.
2) It will not ask you anything like that duiring install in any case,
backup your stuff.
3) Nothing will change in the layout and your data on other partitions will
be fine.
**
** In either case - you should have backups of your stuff. Invest in a $100
(or less) 1TB external hard drive and make a image of the current system
as-is (I would bet it isn't 1TB in size - likely not even close) or at least
copy the important stuff (to you) to the external drive (documents,
pictures, music, bookmarks/Internet favorites, email, contacts, etc.)
Already have space somplace - even better.
Doing something like this without backups - foolish at best.
Now - a few other suggestions/queries:
- Integrate SP3 directly into your installation media. While I prefer the
direct method supported by Microsoft - you can use nLite or AutoStreamer to
automate the process. In any case - you will need your opriginal
installation media/files, a copy of the 'network' installation of SP3 and
some space to do all this (I'd say 1.5-3GB should be enough free space) and
a blank CD and CD writer of course.
nLite and AutoStreamer are simple to use and may do all the work for you
other than downloading the 'network' install of SP3:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/details.aspx?familyid=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4
You can do it without either tool. Just copy your Windows XP CD contents to
a directory on your computer, download the full 'network' install of SP3
(above) and run it with the /integrate switch - pointing it to the place
where you copied your CD contents. It will do the work for you and then you
merely need to use something like "Bart's Boot Image Extractor" to get the
boot image of the original CD, a CD burning application that will create a
bootable CD based off that image, a blank CD and CD writer and a few minor
settings (
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=297 - mainly the number
of loaded sectors ) and you can write yourself a new Windows XP CD that
installs with SP3 right off. You could get more complicated and inslude
drivers using something like "driverpacks.net" <-- but I get the impression
all of this may be too much for you to concern yourself with in this case.
;-)
- How is a reinstall going to fix a motherboard/sound issue - sounds like
drivers? Or is this the AMD thing coming back to haunt you? If it is the
AMD thing - I'll suggest the same thing again:
You might try this:
(Only if you are now on an non-intel-based computer.)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/953356/
In the end - even after performing the steps (all of them) in that
knowledgebase article - you may need to perform a simple 'repair
installation' of Windows XP (it is non-destructive to your files.)
You'll need a Windows XP CD of the same service pack level and 'flavor'
(Windows XP Home, Professional, TabletPC, Media Center, etc) in order to do
this - but it is a fairly painless process. One (if not both) of the
following web pages may help you complete the process...
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341
Come back - let us in on what has brought you to this point and more
detailed instructions might be available. Otherwise - just come back and
let us know how things turned out - after all - this is archived
indefinitely and may assist someone else.
