Reinstall/Repair win2k

[Guest]

Bottom line question: should I format the drive again and do another clean
install of Windows 2000 Pro (OEM), or is there an easy way to repair the
current installation without loosing all my data, settings, installed
programs, etc.

A few months ago I was plagued with many viruses and adware/spyware
(crapware is more like it) resulting in extremely slow web browsing, and not
knowing any better I backed up my critical files and reformatted the
harddrive and reinstalled win2k. Right away I experienced issues installing
my pci-usb card drivers, pci-modem card drivers, and pci-tv video capture
drivers, and ended up removing them all so I could get win2k loaded and then
install each card one at a time after that. It seemed to work.

Upon reinstallation of my printer software & drivers I experienced some
issues where it couldn't identify the usb port it was connected to so I had
to manually install the drivers. This worked for a little while (a month)
but then my sytem started hanging up recently, and after several reboots I
noticed the printer stopped printing all the colors and all the trouble
shooting diagnostics indicate something is wrong with the operating system.
The same printer works fine on my friend's laptop. I even tried installing
my old printer that connects to an LPT port and it also has problems printing
all colors. I am not having issues with any other devices plugged into a usb
port, or any other device for that matter. I have noticed that I can't get
MS Photo Editor to print at all.

Any suggestions?

 

[George Hester]

You can try to Repair the installation but one thing you must keep in mind when you do that. You will get many new
profiles under Documents and Settings. For example Administrator will now be called Administrator.MachineName.
Everytime you repair Windows 2000 you will get these extra profiles. So after a reboot you may find that your desktop
is very different then it was before you did the repair. You haven't lost anything the files are still there but no longer in
your new profile and hence that is why many think they've "lost" files. So what happens over time is a mess. That is
why I suggest Reinstalling if you can arrange to save your important stuff first.