I need to Reload Windows XP

[Sam Ceccola]

My system is temporarily up. I don't know what happpened, but my C drive is thoroughly messed up.

I do have the Windows XP CD but I should clean the C drive before re-installing. How do I do that, via a format statement in DOS mode?

Sam

[tonyd]

Boot from the XP CD. Let's see if I can remember how this goes. If you don't want to format, use the Install option, then use the Repair option.

If you want to format, use the install option and somewhere in there is an option to format the drive.
-td

[tonyd]

for a repair install see - http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

[kern]

My system is temporarily up. I don't know what happpened, but my C drive is thoroughly messed up.

I do have the Windows XP CD but I should clean the C drive before re-installing. How do I do that, via a format statement in DOS mode?

Sam

boot from the XP CD. after setup inspects the drive, select the option to install XP, then select the option to delete the C partition. Next select option to create a new partition, then select format.

[photolady]

Be careful that you don't miss the prompt to "press any key to boot from CD". You only have a few seconds to press any key, otherwise the computer continues to boot from the harddrive.

[tonyd]

good catch - I frequently miss that and have to restart.
-td

[dbarrow]

Did you determine what is messed up?
If you have other critical data on C:, did you try chkdsk and a defrag first? If the MFT is farkled, chkdsk may fix it.
If it's just an XP problem, repair install may fix it.

As wipe and load is a last resort....
Where is your image file? Backups?
Once again, a valid reason to keep the OS on its own partition.

[mylanta]

Sam don't you have image files to restore from?

[Sam Ceccola]

What a day yesterday!! I had to wipe the "C" drive and reload Windows XP Pro. My system for the most part was down all week.
Did you determine what is messed up?
No. I wish I could so that it doesn't happen again. I was away between May 7th and May 14th. The system was physically powered down. As soon as I turned it on when I got home, the problem started. Everything I tried, made the problem worst. I think the problem could have been enhanced via a automatic Windows Update.
Sam don't you have image files to restore from?I am very faithful about backing up the system at least once a month. I have 3 drives: "C" is primarily used for system files (Windows, Program Files, etc.); the "E" drive is used for Data and Downloads; and the "D" drive is used for backups. I use Acronis True Image Pro for backup and recovery. When I tried the recovery, I got a message the backup file was corrupt.
use the Install option, then use the Repair option.
That's the next thing I tried. The Repair did not fix the problem. In fact, it made things worst. I couldn't even get into Windows--it would hang on the boot.
Be careful that you don't miss the prompt to "press any key to boot from CD". Thanks, Photolady -- Luckily I didn't miss it but I can see how that could be easily done.
boot from the XP CD. after setup inspects the drive, select the option to install XP, then select the option to delete the C partition. Next select option to create a new partition, then select format.This is what I ended up doing. My Windows XP Pro CD does not have any of the SP files on it. I had to download and re-install SP2.

Here's a problem I had (it's resolved but maybe it will help someone else.)
Now remember, I have 3 hard drives-"C", "D", and "E".
I downloaded SP2 to my Desktop. Then executed it. One of the first things it does is to extract files to your hard drive. The software chooses the drive, you can NOT. On my system it saved the extracted files to the "D" drive. Later on within the installation of SP2, it takes those extracted files and installs them (example: cmd.dl_ and installs it to: cmd.dll). Every time I ran SP2 install, it would terminate saying it "could not find file" xyz.abc. The file name was different everytime it terminated. What I did was to disconnect drive "D" and "E", forcing SP2 to extract the files on the "C" drive. When it got to the install portion, it had only one place to look -- the "C" drive. THAT WORKED.

Now I need to reload all my software. As of now, my Address Book was lost. I do have a backup copy but I can not get it working within my email client (Incredimail). I have written them and asked for help. Until them, please me aware, I will have limited contact with my friends via e-mail. I don't have their addresses unless they write me first.

Thanks,
Sam

[photolady]

email client (Incredimail) Why? Incredimail is full of spyware/malware. It also tends to break down after a bit. Ok, enough bichn'. :D

But I did want to tell you that you can slipstream windows XP and sp2 on a cd and the next time you have install xp you won't need to install sp2 separately. I used a program called autostreamer. It makes it easy to slipstream the two together. Download it from below:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Autostreamer.shtml

[tonyd]

What bothers me is the Acronis True Image imaged file was corrupt. I think I remember others here having the same problem with TI. I'd send an email to Acronis and ask why this is happened.

-td

[mylanta]

Sam,
Are you using Acronis and if so what version?
That could be a problem with the rescue disk on older versions of Acronis and I would bet anything it was not corrupted, just needed a rescue disk from newer version to read it as I have had that happen before.
Once you reinstall XP, you do know you can reinstall Acronis and then use "Explorer" or "Mount Image"(not sure what older versions call this) and bring back any files you want including address books etc.

[Sam Ceccola]

Are you using Acronis and if so what version?
Yes, I'm using Acronis True Image Ver. 9.0 Build 2323.

For the recovery, I did not use the disk. I reloaded this version and then used the "recovery" from the menu.

Sam

[mylanta]

Why? Incredimail is full of spyware/malware. It also tends to break down after a bit. Ok, enough bichn'. :D

But I did want to tell you that you can slipstream windows XP and sp2 on a cd and the next time you have install xp you won't need to install sp2 separately. I used a program called autostreamer. It makes it easy to slipstream the two together. Download it from below:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Autostreamer.shtml




You know I have always wondered about Incredimail...do you have any url's telling you it is spyware, or just the belief?

[photolady]

Just the hijackthis forum at my other home where those spyware experts tell you that Incredimail needs to go because it full of spyware/malware.

[mylanta]

Sam,
That sure is a first for me...I would have tried the rescue disk, I have a better feeling about that then starting from Windows. If the one was corrupted, wasn't there an older one that would work?
I still think that the image files were OK, just the acces was corrupted as I have seen that and just used another rescue disk. In 7 year of doing this from Drive Image to Ghost and now Acronis, I have never had an image file fail to work, and I never validate them either.