Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with WindowsXP and reinstall

Maybe this partitioning scheme wasn't as clever as I thought ...

Nelsormensch — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:30:54 -0800

Is it possible to reinstall Windows XP on a small partition (~20 GB) of a single 300 GB hard drive? When I installed Windows XP originally, I made a small partition for Windows and left the rest of the disc unpartitioned. After installing SP2 (when Windows can detect hard drives greater than 127 GB), I partitioned the rest of the 300 GB hard drive for everything unrelated to the OS. I did this to allow Windows to be reinstalled without having to worry about backing up and restoring hundreds of GB of personal data.

However, today when pondering an OS reinstall, I realized that the installer on the Windows XP disc can't correctly handle HDs greater than 127 GB. It doesn't detect my HD being one 20 GB partition and one 280 GB partition. Instead it just sees one 127 GB partition of an unknown type. Obviously this means I can't just nuke the Windows partition and reinstall the OS by itself.

Aside from backing up the 280 GB partition and restoring it after reinstall up to SP2, is there any way to reinstall Windows XP without affecting the other partition?

Young Pooterstein

Huplescat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:41:25 -0800

I have some novice questions about a re-install with dual booting in Windows XP. More inside.... My computer is a little over four years old and has fallen bit by bit into the ranks of the walking wounded. Now I’m hearing a pronounced whirring from the hard drive on start-up and a couple more times during the five minutes or so that it takes to boot up. It used to boot a lot faster and, for that matter, do everything a lot faster.

It had some problems before but everything pretty much went to hell when I screwed up while renewing my AVG subscription and set its virus vault free to wreck havoc. Now I know better, and I’ve caught a lot of that stuff with various free programs. Nevertheless it looks like the system will never be the same again, and I suspect my hard drive might have been near the end of its useful life anyway.

In any case, over the last year or so I picked up a virgin copy of Win XP and an 80 gig external hard-drive and I still have my old CDs that I used for the initial install plus a reinstallation CD from Dell for Win XP service pack 1a.

Can I just install everything on the new hard drive and forget about the old one or should I tear the old one out?

Will I be able to tap back into the old drive without malware crossing over and infecting the new one?

I don’t know much so any and all insights are greatly appreciated.

Reinstalling Windows

Xere — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:06:31 -0800

My many Windows errors are starting to grate on my nerves. I'd like to do a reinstall - but the recovery cd that came with my Toshiba laptop refuses to play nice (probably due to SP2 or the new motherboard). How do I reinstall an OEM version of Windows XP, without losing my key? Is it even possible to reinstall an OEM XP setup? Where do I even get an OEM version to reinstall from? Aargh!!!! More inside. For what it's worth, it's a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S149 laptop, with what is probably an OEM version of XP.

The reinstall cd won't work because it's tied to the system I first started out with. The current system has two new things: SP2, and a new motherboard. But if OEM XP's are tied to their motherboards - wouldn't my new motherboard have halted XP from even loading up?

Installing a cracked version of XP is a possibility, but I'd rather not deal with possible malware. And if I already have an authenticated version of XP, I'd rather stay with that.

Unfortunately, installing Vista is not an option, as my laptop is officially unable to run Vista, due to not being ACPI compliant. Neither is Linux (I'm too spoiled for Windows accessibility), or Macs (too broke).

Calling Toshiba support is out too - apparently they're unhelpful, and my laptop was bought about four years ago anyway.

Any tips and pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Hope me get my settings back.

dirtynumbangelboy — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:08:51 -0800

Had to reinstall XP Home. How do I get all my old settings back? Something inside my computer went all explodey. I'm not sure what happened, but I could not boot at all. Had to reinstall XP Home from the CD.

I had thought that all that would do would be repair whatever was broken in XP. Clearly I was wrong. I've managed to find my old 'my documents' folder, and restore the Start Menu to how I had it before.

What I need to find (if possible) are:

1) whatever file governed how my taskbar was set up, including quicklaunch

2) My Firefox settings, including add-ons and skin

3) Basically, actually, all of my old settings.

Am I hooped?

Help me re-install XP

jeffmshaw — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:58:30 -0800

My mom's computer won't re-install an older version of Windows XP. This is actually a timely, pressing problem. When we split, I purchased a Sony VAIO laptop from my ex. We agreed that she'd wipe the hard drive for various reasons. Instead, she ended up replacing the hard drive entirely -- which is fine, except she installed a temporary copy of XP. (Evidently, we/she lost the original install discs from Sony -- we legally purchased the computer and copy of XP.)

I tried re-installing a version of XP from an older, defunct desktop my mom no longer uses, but it won't let me re-install an older version over a newer one.

The XP trial installed now expires tomorrow. It wouldn't be a big issue, except I am overseas and Skype is how my mom and I communicate via video chat.

What are my options for legally getting a working copy of XP? Contact Sony? Is there a way to get around the "can't re-install an old version" barrier? Please do not suggest hitting the ex up to buy a new copy of XP. It's really not an option.