Reinstall XP

[Mitch]

I had problems with some software and had to delete. A
window came up asking me to insert the XP cd and
reinstall. I thought I followed the instructions. Now I
have the option, at start up, of going to my old XP or
the new one that I just installed. The new one doesn't
have any of my software on it. So how do I unistall this
new XP and reinstall over my old existing.
Incidentially, I tried the repair/recover first and that
didn't fix anything. Thanks.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

If you have just one installation of XP, but are getting two options at startup - go to msconfig>boot.ini tab and click on 'Check all boot paths' - you will get a pop-up message giving you the option to delete the entry that is invalid.

If that doesn't solve the problem, try the 'Repair Install' again:

"How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Failing that, you may have to think about 'clean' installing XP:

"Clean Install Windows XP"
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Any problems, please post back.

Will

 

[Alex Nichol]

If you have just one installation of XP, but are getting two options at startup - go to msconfig>boot.ini tab and click on 'Check all boot paths'- you will get a pop-up message giving you the option to delete the entry that is invalid.

If that doesn't solve the problem, try the 'Repair Install' again:

A comment - what was probably done was to boot the CD, go through setup
and then do a 'New Install' into the same partition, rather than a
repair reinstall. That has probably put the system into the same
folder, and both the entries in the boot.ini will be valid - and
identical. Boot.ini can be edited manually if this is the case, at
Control Panel - System - Advanced, click Settings in the Startup and
Recovery section. There click Edit to load it into Notepad.

This is liable then to have generated a new registry and lost all the
entries for installed software. Unfortunately it will have started
System restore over and that means there is no way to recover the old
registry from that, and software will need to be installed afresh.
Putting all that together, if it turns out to be the case, backing up
data and making a clean fresh start might be sensible (New install, then
when it asks where, hit ESC. delete the partition, and make a new RAW
one to format at the next stage).

 

[Alex Nichol]

If you have just one installation of XP, but are getting two options at startup - go to msconfig>boot.ini tab and click on 'Check all boot paths'- you will get a pop-up message giving you the option to delete the entry that is invalid.

If that doesn't solve the problem, try the 'Repair Install' again:

A comment - what was probably done was to boot the CD, go through setup
and then do a 'New Install' into the same partition, rather than a
repair reinstall. That has probably put the system into the same
folder, and both the entries in the boot.ini will be valid - and
identical. Boot.ini can be edited manually if this is the case, at
Control Panel - System - Advanced, click Settings in the Startup and
Recovery section. There click Edit to load it into Notepad.

This is liable then to have generated a new registry and lost all the
entries for installed software. Unfortunately it will have started
System restore over and that means there is no way to recover the old
registry from that, and software will need to be installed afresh.
Putting all that together, if it turns out to be the case, backing up
data and making a clean fresh start might be sensible (New install, then
when it asks where, hit ESC. delete the partition, and make a new RAW
one to format at the next stage).