Thanks for all the help.
Xp Home.
How do I istall over my current OS and not lose any Data?
As long as you dont ever see these options come up - FORMAT or
PARTITION or destroy a Partition youll probably be OK.
If all you want to do is keep your old data then you have two options.
One is get another HD and install the new OS on that and then youll be
able to access the old HD without booting up with it. All or most of
the programs you installed on it wont run properly probably cause the
new install wont recognize them. Youll have to reinstall all the old
programs but you can access the DATA on the old HD.
If you dont have another HD handy you can do a repair install.
SKIP this if you arent using a SATA HARD DRIVE
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The first problem is if the HD is a SATA. On most SATA drives and MB
combos youll need the drivers for the SATA controller installed BEFORE
itll recognize the HD. So when you put in the WIN XP disk to do a
setup/install of WIN XP the part where you it says hit F6 if you need
to install extra drivers etc --- you need to hit F6 and then wait for
the prompt.
You also need the SATA drivers on a floppy another problem usually
nowadays cause many MB makers now dont bother to give you the drivers
on a floppy , only CD rom so you have to search in the CD rom and copy
the stuff under IDE/sata/raid controller directory and copy the stuff
onto a floppy to prepare for this step. And yet another problem is
many times theres a sub directory to confuse you under the
IDE/sata/raid directory which includes files for a utility to set
options for RAID and monitor it etc which makes copying the entire sub
directory too big to fit on a floppy. Usually though its obvious its a
separate util and all you need are the drivers which will fit on a
floppy. With my nforce3 --- yet another wrinkle , when prompted it
found drivers for two devices one called NVRAID and another for some
storage device. I thought I needed both but it would boot up - my SATA
HD until I figured out all it needed was the NVRAID drivers.
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When you do a repair install it goes to some screen with options when
you put the WIN XP disk in for setup ---- something like
a) Install WIN XP
b) Do repair install with the console
It sounds like you should go to b ----- but you dont. Go to a.
When you go to INSTALL WIN then there are other options something
like create a partition or destroy a partition or format etc and a
some warning about installing to a HD with WIN XP already on it.
DO NOT do anything with parition or formatting period.
The screen that shows what partition is on it that lets you
format/create and destroy partitions shouldnt even come up if you
picked right. Im talking about WIN XP CORP ---- Im assuming WIN XP
home is pretty much the same.
You should have the option of
a) installing WIN XP on the SAME partition/HD that it finds your old
WIN XP already on --- which prompts it to issue you a warning.
b) It should give you the option of installing over the SAME directory
/files of the old install.
It should warn you showing the path/directory of the old install.
It should have the word REPAIR in there somewhere.
Now as long as you DIDNT do anything to any partitions or formatting
and are installing into the same directory and it has the word REPAIR
in there somewhere it USUALLY works. It shouldnt ever destroy data
unless your HD is already screwed to begin with - severely corrupted.
However theres no guarantee all programs you installed will work
though Ive found no problems so far when Ive done this several times
recently.
Once it boots up uninstall any old video (if you changed the video
card too) and motherboard drivers and install the new drivers from the
new MB on the CD rom.
I would still do a clean install. Like I posted I bought two boards
and processors recently to upgrade some systems and one of them I did
the above and it fill more sluggish than the other identical system.
id like to reinstall everything to make sure everything is the way it
should be.
