Need help with two XP versions :/

[Guest]

Alrighty, lemme see if I can explain this right... Okay, so last month my comp started screwing up royally, right? The sound was skipping and pausing, none of my programs would work without a reboot if the comp went into hibernation for even a second, I had an insane amount of processes running at Windows startup (thanks to the spyware that was snuck in through my fiance's short-lived porn phase) yadda yadda... Anywhos, I ran a virus scan yesterday and found a bunch of not good stuff on my comp (94 infected files, 92 fixed, 2 quarantined, thanks to a trojan horse) Needless to say, I deleted everything that was quarantined and infected (nothing important, just some c-coms, spyware, stuff like that) That seemed to have pissed off my comp, because it started acting up worse. It would take 30-45 seconds between clicking a quick launch icon and having the program actually open, 3 minutes to sign onto AOL, 15 seconds to show desktop, etc. I tried system recovery, all 11 available restore points, and they all gave me an unable to restore error. Now, my version of XP came with my comp when I bought it, so I had no way of repairing XP with a setup cd, nor do I have the money to buy a new copy thanks to me being 8 months prego, but I found the i386 folder in my comp with the XP setup file, so I ran it, got everything reinstalled, rebooted my comp, and noticed XP was installed twice. I've seen the other posts on here by people with similar problems, and I've already taken care of the whole boot.ini thing. Before I "reinstalled" XP I burned all my important files to cd's, and when I went to add them back in to my comp (seeing as how my programs list in the Start menu only had like 3 things, when just yesterday I had over 400 programs installed) I saw that everything was still there. If that confused you, lemme explain: I went into my computer, clicked C:, and saw EVERYTHING that was there BEFORE I "reinstalled" XP. So my question is... How do I transfer (or access) all my program files on the previous installation of XP to (or with) the new installation on XP? I'd really appreciate any help, thanks.

-Rae
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Rae,

When you reinstalled, you installed to a new folder (which is why you had
dual entries in boot.ini that you already fixed). You did not format, so all
data and programs files that were previously on the drive are still there.
There is nothing wrong with this, and the result you have is what is to be
expected when you do this. The problem you have is that the programs were
installed under the old system folder. The data files you can simply take
ownership of, but the programs will need to be reinstalled (to the same
program folder if desired) under the new installation to create necessary
registry entries and place appropriate files in the new system folder. No,
(before you ask) you cannot simply copy them over from the old installation,
you will need to reinstall them from the original installation media.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

Alrighty, lemme see if I can explain this right... Okay, so last month my

comp started screwing up royally, right? The sound was skipping and pausing,
none of my programs would work without a reboot if the comp went into
hibernation for even a second, I had an insane amount of processes running
at Windows startup (thanks to the spyware that was snuck in through my
fiance's short-lived porn phase) yadda yadda... Anywhos, I ran a virus scan
yesterday and found a bunch of not good stuff on my comp (94 infected files,
92 fixed, 2 quarantined, thanks to a trojan horse) Needless to say, I
deleted everything that was quarantined and infected (nothing important,
just some c-coms, spyware, stuff like that) That seemed to have pissed off
my comp, because it started acting up worse. It would take 30-45 seconds
between clicking a quick launch icon and having the program actually open, 3
minutes to sign onto AOL, 15 seconds to show desktop, etc. I tried system
recovery, all 11 available restore points, and they all gave me an unable to
restore error. Now, my version of XP came with my comp when I bought it, so
I had no way of repairing XP with a setup cd, nor do I have the money to buy
a new copy thanks to me being 8 months prego, but I found the i386 folder in
my comp with the XP setup file, so I ran it, got everything reinstalled,
rebooted my comp, and noticed XP was installed twice. I've seen the other
posts on here by people with similar problems, and I've already taken care
of the whole boot.ini thing. Before I "reinstalled" XP I burned all my
important files to cd's, and when I went to add them back in to my comp
(seeing as how my programs list in the Start menu only had like 3 things,
when just yesterday I had over 400 programs installed) I saw that everything
was still there. If that confused you, lemme explain: I went into my
computer, clicked C:, and saw EVERYTHING that was there BEFORE I
"reinstalled" XP. So my question is... How do I transfer (or access) all my
program files on the previous installation of XP to (or with) the new
installation on XP? I'd really appreciate any help, thanks.

 

[Guest]

Hey Rick,

Thanks for writing back Alright, so I didn't screw up my comp further? Sweeet... Okay, so can't format my hard drive now? Crap... Okay, last question... I have 2 Windows, folders on my HD, Windows and Windows.0... I read somewhere else that you're supposed to delete the older Windows folder if you end up in my situation... Is that true? And which one do I delete? (The folders have pretty much the same files in it) I really appreciate any help, thanks

-Rae

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Rae,

Delete the one you aren't using. Chances are good that the windows.0 folder
is the current installation.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

Hey Rick,

Thanks for writing back Alright, so I didn't screw up my comp further?

Sweeet... Okay, so can't format my hard drive now? Crap... Okay, last
question... I have 2 Windows, folders on my HD, Windows and Windows.0... I
read somewhere else that you're supposed to delete the older Windows folder
if you end up in my situation... Is that true? And which one do I delete?
(The folders have pretty much the same files in it) I really appreciate any
help, thanks

 

[Guest]

Okie dokies, thanks a bunches

 

[Joshua Sparks]

Rae,

If your PC came with XP installed, chances are there is a second partition
containing a "recovery" area. On my PC, I can do what is called a
destructive recovery which basically re-formats the user partition and
re-installs the OS from the recovery area. I had to make a CD of recovery
tools and back up all my docs and files to CD, but it was actually faster
and more efficient to do it that way than to do an undestructive recovery.

Hope this helps.

Hey Rick,

Thanks for writing back Alright, so I didn't screw up my comp further?

Sweeet... Okay, so can't format my hard drive now? Crap... Okay, last
question... I have 2 Windows, folders on my HD, Windows and Windows.0... I
read somewhere else that you're supposed to delete the older Windows folder
if you end up in my situation... Is that true? And which one do I delete?
(The folders have pretty much the same files in it) I really appreciate any
help, thanks

 

[Guest]

Hey Joshua

That sounds exactly like what I need to do... How do you perform a destructive recovery? I've been trying to access my recovery partition to find anything that could help me, but when I click on the d: drive in My Computer, another window opens with a warning that these files should not be altered or deleted, I don't know how to get past it. Any ideas?

Thanks again
Rae