Reinstalling Windows

[Bill Gant]

Is there any way to reinstall Windows without formating
my harddisk?

Bill

 

[Ramesh]

Hi Bill,

Please Refer:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

Visual aid to the above procedure
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Click on How To Run a Repair Install

Regards,
Ramesh
(e-mail address removed)


Is there any way to reinstall Windows without formating
my harddisk?

Bill

 

[oklier]

yes but you will have to reinstall all the programs
anyway since the registry will be deleted. best bet is to
backup your data and format with a clean install...

 

[Alex Nichol]

Is there any way to reinstall Windows without formating
my harddisk?

Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard disk, then boot the XP CD, start
Setup (do not take 'Repair' at this stage), then after the license
agreement take 'Repair Installation'. This will retain your existing
software installations and most settings. But Updates will have to be
run again, especially SP1; and if you have drivers that only arrived
with that, like USB 2 ones, you will need to update drivers for the
devices concerned. You may find that things like virtual memory
settings and some aspects of appearance have reverted to defaults


If it should suggest you register again, don't bother. It should retain
activation status

 

[Alex Nichol]

yes but you will have to reinstall all the programs
anyway since the registry will be deleted. best bet is to
backup your data and format with a clean install...

That is what happens if you *do* reformat. It is not needed with a
repair install, which is presumably what he is after