reinstalled XP. Now have 2 netbios(?) names that don't communicat

[Sara]

I reinstalled Windows due to a computer crash. Now I have 2 seperate folders
in C:\docs and settings. I have: Administrator; All Users; All
Users.Windows; Sara; Sara.Sara-laptop.

Sara is the original installation and has all my photos, music, documents,
IE favorites, etc.

Sara.Sara-laptop is the new installation and has empty folders and sample
photos, etc. like a fresh install.

The start menu has no programs in it. I can dive into folders in My
Computer C:\program files and find the .exe files for Outook, Powerpoint,
etc. But when I click on them, they say "this program is not installed for
this user" or "file is corrupt or incompatible" and I cannot use them.

Thinking I just created a new "user", I tried to sign in as another user.
The only users listed were Sara and Guest. Sara.Sara-laptop is not a user.

How can I safely delete the new installation, or merge the two. I do have a
little experience with dos/C: prompt stuff, but I am not very up to date on
this stuff. Any guidance would be hugely appreciated!

Thank yo very much.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I reinstalled Windows due to a computer crash. Now I have 2
seperate folders in C:\docs and settings. I have: Administrator;
All Users; All Users.Windows; Sara; Sara.Sara-laptop.

Sara is the original installation and has all my photos, music,
documents, IE favorites, etc.

Sara.Sara-laptop is the new installation and has empty folders and
sample photos, etc. like a fresh install.

The start menu has no programs in it. I can dive into folders in My
Computer C:\program files and find the .exe files for Outook,
Powerpoint, etc. But when I click on them, they say "this program
is not installed for this user" or "file is corrupt or
incompatible" and I cannot use them.

Thinking I just created a new "user", I tried to sign in as another
user. The only users listed were Sara and Guest. Sara.Sara-laptop
is not a user.

How can I safely delete the new installation, or merge the two. I
do have a little experience with dos/C: prompt stuff, but I am not
very up to date on this stuff. Any guidance would be hugely
appreciated!

You did nto do a "re-install", but a parallel installation it seems.

If you were legitimately trying to do a clean installation (meaning you have
backups of all your data and installation media for things like Outlook,
PowerPoint, etc...) - then you can still do that.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

If you were trying to do a repair installation, you may be beyond that
depending on where you told Windows XP to install the first time.

Explain exactly what lead you to doing something and exactly what you did to
get to this point...
At any point during the boot process (from power off to power on) do you now
get a choice of what to boot to?

 

[DL]

You have made a completely new installation & as such none of the programs
on the old version will work
You can repair your origonal installation
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
Once you have repaired the origonal installation you can set about removing
the other

Or you can reinstall all your programs on the new installation, then set
about moving/recovering your old data

 

[Sara]

I think I got a bug while downloading a picture from a website. The computer
froze. Upon rebooting I had some starting options such as restart normally
or the last working configuration or safe mode. Safe mode e gave me a
scrolling list of c:\ commands any other start gave me a black screen with a
blinking white cursor.

I used the recovery disk and selected repair windows, but it didn't work (I
forgot the error message) Then I used the recovery disk to reinstall
windows. It asked me for a name and I put in sara-laptop. Windows loaded
and my computer was working again, but I had to reinstall all drivers. I
also have all of my programs and documents, etc, but they are not reachable
on the desktop. I have to dig into My Computer to find music and pics, etc.
My programs are also still on the hard drive, but I can't get them to show up
on the Start menu, or run when I try to start them through the crogram
Files menu.

I hope this is the info you are looking for. I was kind of flustered when I
reinstalled Windows, so I can't remember the choices I made while installing.
I am thinking of reinstalling XP again, but don't know if I can or which
options to choose during the installation process.

Thank you all so much for your help. I knew you all would know!!!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I think I got a bug while downloading a picture from a website.
The computer froze. Upon rebooting I had some starting options
such as restart normally or the last working configuration or safe
mode. Safe mode e gave me a scrolling list of c:\ commands any
other start gave me a black screen with a blinking white cursor.

I used the recovery disk and selected repair windows, but it didn't
work (I forgot the error message) Then I used the recovery disk to
reinstall windows. It asked me for a name and I put in
sara-laptop. Windows loaded and my computer was working again, but
I had to reinstall all drivers. I also have all of my programs and
documents, etc, but they are not reachable on the desktop. I have
to dig into My Computer to find music and pics, etc. My programs
are also still on the hard drive, but I can't get them to show up
on the Start menu, or run when I try to start them through the
crogram Files menu.

I hope this is the info you are looking for. I was kind of
flustered when I reinstalled Windows, so I can't remember the
choices I made while installing. I am thinking of reinstalling XP
again, but don't know if I can or which options to choose during
the installation process.

Thank you all so much for your help. I knew you all would know!!!

You will have to reinstall your applications manually - it looks like.
Break out the installation media and serial numbers for them and install
them one by one. This is likely the side-effect of said restoration method
attempting to be less destructive than it needs to be.

As for your old accounts - they may still be there in name - but I would bet
your new ones (despite having the same visible-to-the-outside-world names)
are being stored in the *.Sara-laptop directories. In order to access the
stuff in the old (access it - not make it work for you) you will likely need
to take ownership and copy the files/documents/pictures you need.

Google for:
"Windows XP" take ownership

 

[Sara]

Thank you DL and Shenan!! I will print all of this out and give it a go!!!
Wish me luck! I really appreciate you help.