Reinstalling Win XP Pro

[Guest]

Both of my optical drives have stopped reading CD's. Per Dell tech support
the hardware is fine since the drives respond ok in DOS mode. I'm told I need
to reinstall my operating system which is WIN XP, OEM version from Dell.

Is there any known articles in knowledge base or elsewhere regarding steps
involved, problems, pitfalls, etc???? I'm scared to death about doing this. I
copied copied the My Documents folder to a wireless laptop. I also saved my
Mozilla bookmarks file to a floppy.

Will this reinstall wipeout my network? Will my Outlook email folders be lost?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yes, you'll need to backup everything you don't want to loose. See Tom
Koch's web site for some excellent help on backup/restoring your Outlook
Express stuff. http://insideoe.tomsterdam.com/

For Outlook 2000/2003 backup the *.pst file.

To do a clean install boot the Windows XP install CD-Rom. When you get to
the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other partitions found. After you
delete the partition(s) abort the install, then again restart the pc booting
the CD-Rom to avoid unexpected drive letter assignments with your new
install.

Be sure to apply SP2 or at least these to your new install before connecting
to any network.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Both of my optical drives have stopped reading CD's. Per Dell tech support
| the hardware is fine since the drives respond ok in DOS mode. I'm told I
need
| to reinstall my operating system which is WIN XP, OEM version from Dell.
|
| Is there any known articles in knowledge base or elsewhere regarding steps
| involved, problems, pitfalls, etc???? I'm scared to death about doing
this. I
| copied copied the My Documents folder to a wireless laptop. I also saved
my
| Mozilla bookmarks file to a floppy.
|
| Will this reinstall wipeout my network? Will my Outlook email folders be
lost?
|
| Any advice would be appreciated.
| --
| David

 

[Guest]

Hello,

One thing to keep in Mind about OEM XP CD's is that we are not the experts
on how they operate. Dell support would be best to ask about this question.
The problem with reinstalling XP is this is not a targeted fix. The rep has
basically given up on fixing the problem. When reinstalling you will have
certain options based off the CD. Please specify exactly what the rep told
you to do. An equivalent of a format and reinstall would completely wipe
everything off the hard drive and start you at square one. Other options may
be available. You could also tell us about the problem you are having with
the optical drives. It is possible we could come up with a better fix. How
long has this been a problem? What was the last major change you made to the
computer before you noticed the problem. Does ANYTHING happen when you try
to read a CD. Do you have this problem with all CD's? Did this computer
originally come with XP? If one of the CD drives is a burner, what CD
burning software do you have loaded?

As a side note make sure you have your important data backed up and you
won't have a problem. A hammer can do lots of damage, reinstalling Windows
will do nothing.

Thanks,
John
http://www.americantechie.com

 

[Guest]

Thx for response.

I came across a post in the WIN XP Hardware newsgroup from May 2004. That
lady described my problem exactly and she proved to herself that her problem
was caused by a flash drive utility she installed. My last sve to CD was back
in June and in July I installed a flash drive utility. After uninstalling the
flash drive my CD drives are back to working perfectly.

For the record her drives and her flash drive are all different from mine.
Looks like yet another flaw in WIN XP to cause grief.