How to reinstall XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ray K
  • Start date Start date
R

Ray K

I'm looking for advice on how to reinstall XP if I should have to
reformat c: after a virus attack or for any other reason.

I have a official Microsoft XP Home SP3 CD. My system consists of two
SATA DVD burners and a USB floppy drive. I also have a retired IDE DVD
burner that I could alway plug into the Primary Slave position
temporarily until XP is reinstalled.

1. Is it simply a matter of using the XP CD that I already have? That's
how I originally installed it.

2. If it were that simple, why do so many places on the internet offer
downloadable files for making bootable floppies and CDs?

3. Would my USB floppy drive work at all without XP installed? It came
with a mini-CD with drivers for ME and 2000, but these were not needed
as XP by itself (or was it the BIOS?) recognized the drive.

The physical drive with c: on it has four more partitions, including a
very large (>100GB) partition that is unused. I could copy the original
Microsoft CD there if installing from that partition would be
desirable/feasible.


Thanks,

Ray
 
Ray K said:
I have a official Microsoft XP Home SP3 CD.
Click to expand...

Is this just the service pack 3 CD or XP Home setup CD?
1. Is it simply a matter of using the XP CD that I already have?
Click to expand...

Yes if it's a XP setup CD (note: setup CD is bootable). No, if your CD
contains SP3 without XP setup in it.
That's how I originally installed it.
Click to expand...

Install XP or install SP3?
2. If it were that simple, why do so many places on the internet offer
downloadable files for making bootable floppies and CDs?
Click to expand...

The internet offers many things that you don't necessarily need.
3. Would my USB floppy drive work at all without XP installed?
Click to expand...

That would depend on your BIOS. Btw, you don't need floppy drive to setup
XP.
 
Ray K said:
I'm looking for advice on how to reinstall XP if I should have to reformat
c: after a virus attack or for any other reason.

I have a official Microsoft XP Home SP3 CD. My system consists of two SATA
DVD burners and a USB floppy drive. I also have a retired IDE DVD burner
that I could alway plug into the Primary Slave position temporarily until
XP is reinstalled.

1. Is it simply a matter of using the XP CD that I already have? That's
how I originally installed it.

2. If it were that simple, why do so many places on the internet offer
downloadable files for making bootable floppies and CDs?

3. Would my USB floppy drive work at all without XP installed? It came
with a mini-CD with drivers for ME and 2000, but these were not needed as
XP by itself (or was it the BIOS?) recognized the drive.

The physical drive with c: on it has four more partitions, including a
very large (>100GB) partition that is unused. I could copy the original
Microsoft CD there if installing from that partition would be
desirable/feasible.


Thanks,

Ray
Click to expand...

All you need to know is here..

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
 
Ray K said:
I'm looking for advice on how to reinstall XP if I should have to
reformat c: after a virus attack or for any other reason.
Click to expand...

Not to deter you from your idea... but why don't you just use one of
the many backup utilities that are available and create an image of
your working system on an external hard drive and keep it updated over
time.

Should a catastrophe occur, it's a simple matter to fix things and
you'll not have to reinstall all your programs.
 
Bennett said:
Not to deter you from your idea... but why don't you just use one of
the many backup utilities that are available and create an image of
your working system on an external hard drive and keep it updated over
time.
Click to expand...

Super idea, especially with external drives so cheap. The motherboard
manual says it supports USB2.0/1.1 ports, so I guess an external USB HD
would work okay.

Thanks,

Ray
 
John said:
Is this just the service pack 3 CD or XP Home setup CD?
Click to expand...

Here's what I bought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...MATCH&Description=windows+xp+home+sp3&x=0&y=0

Yes if it's a XP setup CD (note: setup CD is bootable). No, if your CD
contains SP3 without XP setup in it.


Install XP or install SP3?
Click to expand...

XP and SP3 at the same time.
The internet offers many things that you don't necessarily need.


That would depend on your BIOS.
Click to expand...

The motherboard manual says it supports USB2.0/1.1 ports, so I guess
that the floppy would work at high speed even without XP installed.

Btw, you don't need floppy drive to setup XP.


When I first installed XP,SP3 on a brand new c: drive, I did not have a
floppy drive. I just used the disc I bought from Newegg.

So maybe my question about reinstalling XP is pointless. Just repeat
everything I did when I first installed XP/SP3.

Thanks,


Ray
 
Ray K said:
When I first installed XP,SP3 on a brand new c: drive, I did not have a
floppy drive. I just used the disc I bought from Newegg.
Click to expand...

So it's a WinXP with SP3 setup CD.
So maybe my question about reinstalling XP is pointless. Just repeat
everything I did when I first installed XP/SP3.
Click to expand...

That's correct.
 
In Ray K typed on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:21:14 -0400:
Super idea, especially with external drives so cheap. The motherboard
manual says it supports USB2.0/1.1 ports, so I guess an external USB
HD would work okay.

Thanks,

Ray
Click to expand...

I recommend that you also use a spare hard drive and replace the
original and see if you can actually can restore from a backup. Some
backup programs will make backups all day but fail to restore correctly.
Paragon Drive Backup Express is a free one if you want to play around
with one.
 
BillW50 said:
In Ray K typed on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:21:14 -0400:

I recommend that you also use a spare hard drive and replace the
original and see if you can actually can restore from a backup. Some
backup programs will make backups all day but fail to restore correctly.
Paragon Drive Backup Express is a free one if you want to play around
with one.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the lead. I've downloaded and installed it. It looks very
easy to use.

The thing that isn't obvious - I admit I haven't googled this - is how
to restore the c: drive if I don't have any working operating system, or
I'm getting the blue screen of death. Even if I installed Paragon on my
second internal hard drive (so a reformatted c: drive wouldn't erase it)
or on an external drive, what good does that do if the OS isn't working?


Ray
 
Ray K said:
Thanks for the lead. I've downloaded and installed it. It looks very
easy to use.

The thing that isn't obvious - I admit I haven't googled this - is how
to restore the c: drive if I don't have any working operating system, or
I'm getting the blue screen of death. Even if I installed Paragon on my
second internal hard drive (so a reformatted c: drive wouldn't erase it)
or on an external drive, what good does that do if the OS isn't working?


Ray
Click to expand...

I'm sure that there must be a way to create a bootable Paragon disk
with all the necessary files.
 
In Ray K typed on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:45:35 -0400:
Thanks for the lead. I've downloaded and installed it. It looks very
easy to use.

The thing that isn't obvious - I admit I haven't googled this - is how
to restore the c: drive if I don't have any working operating system,
or I'm getting the blue screen of death. Even if I installed Paragon
on my second internal hard drive (so a reformatted c: drive wouldn't
erase it) or on an external drive, what good does that do if the OS
isn't working?

Ray
Click to expand...

Yes this creates some extra work. You need a working OS, any working OS
is better than nothing. One way is to reinstall Windows from a install
or recovery disc. Then install the backup program and then use recovery
to get everything back. Although this can take a few extra hours.

Better is a small OS running from a CD/DVD. Many backup programs allow
you to create such a disc. I forgot if the Express version allows this
or not. But the Personal and Professional versions does. And a word of
warning with the Paragon CDs, they will only recover simple backups.
Meaning multiple partitions and increment backups can't be restored by
the CD boot method. I learned this by testing my backups. As I feel this
is very important to do. Otherwise you could be backing up for years and
then learn none of them are any good.
 
In Bennett Marco typed on Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:30:51 -0500:
I'm sure that there must be a way to create a bootable Paragon disk
with all the necessary files.
Click to expand...

There is, but I don't think it is available with the Express (free)
version.
 
BillW50 said:
Yes this creates some extra work. You need a working OS, any working OS
is better than nothing. One way is to reinstall Windows from a install
or recovery disc. Then install the backup program and then use recovery
to get everything back. Although this can take a few extra hours.

Better is a small OS running from a CD/DVD. Many backup programs allow
you to create such a disc. I forgot if the Express version allows this
or not. But the Personal and Professional versions does. And a word of
warning with the Paragon CDs, they will only recover simple backups.
Meaning multiple partitions and increment backups can't be restored by
the CD boot method. I learned this by testing my backups. As I feel this
is very important to do. Otherwise you could be backing up for years and
then learn none of them are any good.
Click to expand...

Thanks for alerting me to such pitfalls. For the situation I'm most
concerned about (having to install XP on a reformatted c: drive), it's
beginning to look easier just to install XP from the original CD and
reinstall all the programs.

Will this work?
1. Install a second copy of XP on one of the partitions on my second
internal hard drive (call it d:).
2. Use an external USB for my backups of c: (maybe as an ISO).
3. Reformat c:.
4. Boot from d: so I have a working OS; use Windows Explorer to copy the
ISO back to c:. Then a normal reboot to c:.

Thanks,

Ray
 
In Ray K typed on Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:49:57 -0400:
Thanks for alerting me to such pitfalls. For the situation I'm most
concerned about (having to install XP on a reformatted c: drive), it's
beginning to look easier just to install XP from the original CD and
reinstall all the programs.

Will this work?
1. Install a second copy of XP on one of the partitions on my second
internal hard drive (call it d:).
2. Use an external USB for my backups of c: (maybe as an ISO).
3. Reformat c:.
4. Boot from d: so I have a working OS; use Windows Explorer to copy
the ISO back to c:. Then a normal reboot to c:.

Thanks,

Ray
Click to expand...

How are you making out with this Ray? Instead of a second copy of XP, I
would use BartPE instead. As it is much smaller. And Windows file
manager doesn't show all of the files anyway regardless of the settings.
You can see this by downloading A43 File Manager and looking into the
Windows -> Fonts folder.

Although Acronis True Image or Paragon would make everything much
easier.

Acronis True Image (has a 15 day trial version available)
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Acronis True Image Seagate Edition (DiscWizard)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard

Acronis True Image WD Edition
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&type=download&wdc_lang=en

Paragon DriveBackup Express 9 (free)
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/
 
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