Hi

the computer running XP Home has crashed stating "The video driver failed to
initialise" and no amount of attempting safe mode or any other access works.

The computer was store bought and didn't come with a recovery disk and none
was made since. There is no trace of the XP home disk that came with it but
I do have a brand new XP Pro disk and license that I was going to use in a
new PC I was hoping to try and build just for the experience.

My question is, if I install Windows XP using the "boot from CD option" will
I lose the data such as photographs etc. already on the computer or will it
just upgrade the operating system?

GRV wrote:

> Hi
>
> the computer running XP Home has crashed stating "The video driver failed
> to initialise" and no amount of attempting safe mode or any other access
> works.
>
> The computer was store bought and didn't come with a recovery disk and
> none
> was made since. There is no trace of the XP home disk that came with it
> but I do have a brand new XP Pro disk and license that I was going to use
> in a new PC I was hoping to try and build just for the experience.
>
> My question is, if I install Windows XP using the "boot from CD option"
> will I lose the data such as photographs etc. already on the computer or
> will it just upgrade the operating system?

An upgrade usually will not affect your programs and files. However, it
would be foolish to try and upgrade without first backing up your data. You
can pull the hard drive and copy over your data using another working
computer. It might be wise to also boot the subject machine with a Linux
Live CD such as Knoppix to see if your issue is caused by hardware or
software. If you can't get Knoppix to work you will know that you have
hardware failure and no software solution (installing Windows) will help.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ