Reinstalling XP after computer upgrade

[Guest]

I bought a computer a few years ago from Mesh computer and it had Windows XP
installed, but I now wish to upgrade with a new processor and motherboard.
This would obviously require me to reinstall Windows XP, but I have no disk.
Is there any way of creating a kind of boot disk or something to get it back
on my system?

The whole thing with Windows XP not having simple install disks is quite
annoying and seems to be quite limited so I think there must be a way around
it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thankyou.

Jon Britton

 

[Ross Durie]

Windows XP does have simple install disks in the form of a CD. You can make
or download boot floppies if the machine won't boot directly off the CD.

If you bought some proprietary OEM machine, e.g., Compaq, HP, Dell that
either has recovery CD(s) or a recovery partition then that is your problem.
Proprietary machines not shipped with CDs that do have a CD writer typically
have a utility so that the user can create recovery CDs. This practice was
common before the days of XP.

If making recovery CDs isn't an option then go and buy a retail version of
XP.

P.S. Do not ever buy proprietary machines. Build the computer yourself or
have it custom built. It may cost more but at least you get what you want.

 

[Gary R.]

They should have given you an install disk, but assuming it was lost or
whatever, see if the install files are somewhere on your hard drive. Often
people will copy the CD install files to a folder on the hard drive and
install from there. If you do a search for a folder called i386 and it's
over 500 MB, that may be them. You can copy them to a CD or other drive.
If your machine doesn't have a sticker with your install code, do a google
search for "magical jellybean keyfinder" and run it to get the install code
(while you still have the old system running, of course).

I wouldn't be so positive you will have to reformat; I swapped a dead
Gateway P4 board out to an Athlon one, and XP recognized and installed
everything; I installed the rest of the drivers and it ran fine (and I was
even allowed to activate it once I explained that it was the same machine
with a new MB/CPU.) I'd give that a try first...if it doesn't run
perfectly, then consider reformatting, but if it does, it may save you some
work.

Gary