Reinstalling XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Morgoth Bauglir
  • Start date Start date
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Morgoth Bauglir

A friend has a computer for the sole purpose of running a program called
"Jeppview" which is used to create aviation charts.

This program ceased to function: "cannot find shell.dll" or something
similar. A bit of investigation with Jeppesen tech support showed that he
had a virus.

I scanned with Ad-Aware, SpySweeper, and PC-Cillin. I wish I'd taken
screenshots - he had every piece of malware I'd ever heard of and then some
(and this on a dial-up!).

I then installed XP Corp (the only one I have disks for) over his existing
XP Home.

I think I've gotten his computer cleaned up, but Jeppview still won't run.

Jeppesen said that the only thing that would help was wiping the drive.
Personally, I suspect some sort of DRM that they won't tell me about, but
he's willing to do a wipe. I don't know anything about boot-sector
viruses, but I'm assuming that this procedure would take care of any.

I believe that I've previously installed XP Corp on a bare drive, bought
new, but I don't know how those are formatted. I assume that they're not
formatted at all.

I haven't had to wipe a drive since Win 98, and I'm used to doing an fdisk
and format before installing the OS. Apparently fdisk has been replaced by
diskpart and the "format.com" in the XP system 32 folder won't run under
DOS. I still have a Win 98 startup disk, but a bit of reading indicates
that this is probably unnecessary.

I plan to clean up the drive with a program called "wipedrive" which
overwrites bit by bit (I expect a single pass will be enough); that will
leave the drive clean, unformatted, and unpartitioned.

If I'm reading correctly, the Win XP installation disk will then partition
and format the disk for me. Some of what I read says to use the Automated
System Recovery tool to partition, but other reading indicates that I don't
need to do this if there are no existing partitions (and, in fact, the
setup would let me delete the existing partition and create a new one if I
hadn't wiped the drive first).

Am I right? If not, pointers to my misconceptions would be welcome.
 
I then installed XP Corp (the only one I have disks for) over his existing
XP Home.
Click to expand...

Why couldn't you use his disks? Doesn't have any, then have him buy a new
copy instead of stealing one.
 
Morgoth said:
I then installed XP Corp (the only one I have disks for) over his
existing XP Home.
Click to expand...

What will he do next week when he wants to update something and
doesn't have your disks?
 
Why couldn't you use his disks?
Click to expand...

Because, like most new computers, his are "restore" disks which depend on a
partition on his hard disk.

That partition won't be present after a wipe, and Jeppesen was adamant
about wiping the drive.

I've already done everything I could think of short of wiping the drive.
 
What will he do next week when he wants to update something and
doesn't have your disks?
Click to expand...

If he gets Jeppview working, he'll be satisfied.
He won't need to update anything.

I simply don't HAVE a copy of XP Home.
 
Morgoth Bauglir said:
Because, like most new computers, his are "restore" disks which depend on a
partition on his hard disk.
Click to expand...

The use the restore disks. It will wipe the C: as required.

It was his choice to save the cash and and not get disks. Now it's time to
pay for it. I'd be contacting the vendor and tell them that the drive failed
and I need another copy of the partition. Part of the OEM agreement with MS
is that the vendor provide a reliable way to reinstall should hardware fail.
That partition won't be present after a wipe, and Jeppesen was adamant
about wiping the drive.
Click to expand...

You don't know how to wipe one partition without killing another? Jeppesen
can't insist you delete an unrelated partition. Windows won't even see the
partition when the OS is booted.
 
A friend has a computer for the sole purpose of running a program
called "Jeppview" which is used to create aviation charts.

This program ceased to function: "cannot find shell.dll" or something
similar. A bit of investigation with Jeppesen tech support showed
that he had a virus.

I scanned with Ad-Aware, SpySweeper, and PC-Cillin. I wish I'd taken
screenshots - he had every piece of malware I'd ever heard of and then
some (and this on a dial-up!).

I then installed XP Corp (the only one I have disks for) over his
existing XP Home.

I think I've gotten his computer cleaned up, but Jeppview still won't
run.

Jeppesen said that the only thing that would help was wiping the
drive. Personally, I suspect some sort of DRM that they won't tell me
about, but he's willing to do a wipe. I don't know anything about
boot-sector viruses, but I'm assuming that this procedure would take
care of any.

I believe that I've previously installed XP Corp on a bare drive,
bought new, but I don't know how those are formatted. I assume that
they're not formatted at all.

I haven't had to wipe a drive since Win 98, and I'm used to doing an
fdisk and format before installing the OS. Apparently fdisk has been
replaced by diskpart and the "format.com" in the XP system 32 folder
won't run under DOS. I still have a Win 98 startup disk, but a bit of
reading indicates that this is probably unnecessary.

I plan to clean up the drive with a program called "wipedrive" which
overwrites bit by bit (I expect a single pass will be enough); that
will leave the drive clean, unformatted, and unpartitioned.

If I'm reading correctly, the Win XP installation disk will then
partition and format the disk for me. Some of what I read says to use
the Automated System Recovery tool to partition, but other reading
indicates that I don't need to do this if there are no existing
partitions (and, in fact, the setup would let me delete the existing
partition and create a new one if I hadn't wiped the drive first).

Am I right? If not, pointers to my misconceptions would be welcome.
Click to expand...

Yes... let your XP installation CD delete the existing partitions. You'll
usually find that there's an extra 8 gig or so partition there that
windows puts in for some unknown (to me) reason. From there it will
reformat and install Windows on a brand new partition. I don't think the
wiping you mentioned is necessary.
 
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NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:10:39 -0600
Newsgroups: alt.comp.anti-virus,alt.comp.virus
Subject: Re: Reinstalling XP
From: "Lil' Abner" <[email protected]>
References: <[email protected]>
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Yes... let your XP installation CD delete the existing partitions. You'll
usually find that there's an extra 8 gig or so partition there that
windows puts in for some unknown (to me) reason. From there it will
reformat and install Windows on a brand new partition. I don't think the
wiping you mentioned is necessary.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

I think that the extra partition is used for recovery data.

Unfortunately, that's useless if the whole hard rive fails...
 
Thank you, -S --- Bill Sargent CQ Services, Inc. 101 Desmond Street Sayre,
PA 18840-2001 Tel: 1-800-366-2414 Fax: 1-570-882-9679 www.CQServices.com
Noozer said:
on

The use the restore disks. It will wipe the C: as required.

It was his choice to save the cash and and not get disks. Now it's time to
pay for it. I'd be contacting the vendor and tell them that the drive failed
and I need another copy of the partition. Part of the OEM agreement with MS
is that the vendor provide a reliable way to reinstall should hardware fail.
Click to expand...
If his computer is a Compaq or HP he did not get a choice, they do not ship
recovery CD's anymore. The recovery process is solely on the reserve
partition, as for the OEM part they are strangly silent on that subject. The
one customer that I had that did question them on the subject got the
response that their HHD's rarely fail and while under warranty it is not an
issue. They send you a drive with the recovery partion on it. All and fine
except the customer was out of warranty and had to purchase a new copy of
windows XP and I had to search the Internet for the drivers. Then I promptly
made them a recovery CD set with Ghost to avoid the problem in the future.
 
Why couldn't you use his disks?
If his computer is a Compaq or HP he did not get a choice, they do not ship
recovery CD's anymore.
Click to expand...

He didn't have to get an HP or Compaq, did he?
The recovery process is solely on the reserve
partition, as for the OEM part they are strangly silent on that subject.
Click to expand...

And Microsoft still requires the OEM to supply a method for the owner to
reinstall Windows should the drive fail, or become scrambled (such as after
a virus infection). If the drive is scrambled and still functional it can't
be used for recovery, so the OEM is still required to provide a solution.

No comment here?
 
Why couldn't you use his disks? Doesn't have any, then have him buy a new
copy instead of stealing one.
Click to expand...

I gather that this means you don't know the answer, either, but
felt compelled to post anyway.

Please be assured that your response will be given all of the
attention it merits.
 
Iolaos said:
I gather that this means you don't know the answer, either, but
felt compelled to post anyway.
Click to expand...

If you look further down the thread I did answer...

Use the recovery disk and do NOT erase the recovery partition. If that isn't
good enough for his software, then it's the software that has issues.
 
Now it's time
to they do not
ship

He didn't have to get an HP or Compaq, did he?
that subject.

And Microsoft still requires the OEM to supply a method for the owner to
reinstall Windows should the drive fail, or become scrambled (such as after
a virus infection). If the drive is scrambled and still functional it can't
be used for recovery, so the OEM is still required to provide a solution.
Click to expand...
He needs a solution, not a nitpicker.

And he's got one.
 
If you look further down the thread I did answer...

Use the recovery disk and do NOT erase the recovery partition. If that isn't
good enough for his software, then it's the software that has issues.
Click to expand...

We KNOW that the software (Jeppview) has issues - everything else worked
fine after the virus cleaning.

That doesn't solve the problem.

As I said, I suspect their DRM - the tech (who sounded like he knew what he
was talking about) was emphatic in his statement that the drive needed to
be wiped.

I know he has a perfectly legitimate copy of Win XP home; I just can't
reinstall it.

But Lil' Abner answered the question.
 
over his
existing which depend on
a

The use the restore disks. It will wipe the C: as required.

It was his choice to save the cash and and not get disks. Now it's time to
pay for it. I'd be contacting the vendor and tell them that the drive failed
and I need another copy of the partition. Part of the OEM agreement with MS
is that the vendor provide a reliable way to reinstall should hardware fail.
Click to expand...
Perhaps you would.

That, presumably, is why no one ever asks you for help.
 
Morgoth said:
I then installed XP Corp (the only one I have disks for) over his existing
XP Home.
Click to expand...

I didn't think it was possible to install a particular copy of Win XP
onto to more than one PC as this is a breach of the licencing agreement.
Don't you need his original installation disks?

Ed
 
Thank you.

I think that the extra partition is used for recovery data.

Unfortunately, that's useless if the whole hard rive fails...
Click to expand...

For future reference, if you only have recovery cd's and thus don't
have access to the windows xp recovery console, you can downloaded a
six floppy disk boot set from Microsoft here

http://tinyurl.com/3teay

The disks are supposedly for those machines which don't support
booting from a cd but a byproduct is that you can opt to run the
recovery console instead of the setup cd (which you don't have).



Jim.
 
For future reference, if you only have recovery cd's and thus don't
have access to the windows xp recovery console, you can downloaded a
six floppy disk boot set from Microsoft here

http://tinyurl.com/3teay

The disks are supposedly for those machines which don't support
booting from a cd but a byproduct is that you can opt to run the
recovery console instead of the setup cd (which you don't have).
Click to expand...

I saw those.

But the problem is that after I wipe the hard drive per Jeppesen's
instructions, the recovery partition won't be there.
 
I didn't think it was possible to install a particular copy of Win XP
onto to more than one PC as this is a breach of the licencing agreement.
Click to expand...

We know that.
We'd avoid it if we could.
But, like many computers sold these days, he got "recovery disks", not
original OS install disks.
Don't you need his original installation disks?
Click to expand...

There are none. The recovery disks depend on a second partition which,
after following Jeppesen's instructions, won't be there.

At the moment, he has a clean computer with his original OS installed.

But Jeppview won't run.

Jeppesen has told us in no uncertain terms that the only thing that will
work is wiping his hard drive.

I suspect that that is due to some copy protection scheme implemented by
Jeppesen, but Jeppesen won't admit that.
 
But Jeppview won't run.

Jeppesen has told us in no uncertain terms that the only thing that will
work is wiping his hard drive.
Click to expand...

That's ridiculous!

Have you tried just deleting the affected partition and repartitioning
it without messing with the "special" partition? This should not really
be necessary either - Jeppesen's advice sounds like 'easy to give'
advice rather than 'good' advice.
 
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