Two questions before I reinstall XP

[wxrr]

Since I am having various problems with software, I am going to first try to
do a repair on XP. If that doesn't work, I will do a full reinstallation.

1) Does a Windows reinstall (ideally) preserve everthing but the OS, or
does it wipe the C drive clean?

2) As a back up, can I copy my documents, emails, itunes, etc. to my D
(second hard drive). Should something go wrong, will they be safe there, or
will the D drive also be wiped out? I guess another option would be to
physically remove the D drive. (I have cable select vs master and slave if
that makes a difference).

3) For the XP transfer wizard, can I select the D drive as the old PC?

Thank you,
Scott


--
Dell Deminsion 8250
Win XP Home SP2

Inspiron 9000
Win XP Media SP2

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Since I am having various problems with software, I am going to first try to
do a repair on XP. If that doesn't work, I will do a full reinstallation.

1) Does a Windows reinstall (ideally) preserve everthing but the OS, or
does it wipe the C drive clean?

The latter. It formats the drive, removing everything there.

2) As a back up, can I copy my documents, emails, itunes, etc. to my D
(second hard drive).

Yes.

Second physical drive or second partition on a single physical drive.

Should something go wrong, will they be safe there, or
will the D drive also be wiped out?

That depends entirely on what goes wrong. The risk is greater if it's
a second partition on a single drive, but there is some risk even with
two drives.

I guess another option would be to
physically remove the D drive. (I have cable select vs master and slave if
that makes a difference).

Backup to an external medium is always the safest choice, by far.

By the way, your question implies that you do not have in a place a
program of regularly backing up the data on your drive. If that's the
case, and your "documents, emails, itunes, etc" are important to you,
you are playing with fire. You are *always* at risk of losing
everything.

 

[philo]

Since I am having various problems with software, I am going to first try to
do a repair on XP. If that doesn't work, I will do a full reinstallation.

1) Does a Windows reinstall (ideally) preserve everthing but the OS, or
does it wipe the C drive clean?

2) As a back up, can I copy my documents, emails, itunes, etc. to my D
(second hard drive). Should something go wrong, will they be safe there, or
will the D drive also be wiped out? I guess another option would be to
physically remove the D drive. (I have cable select vs master and slave if
that makes a difference).

3) For the XP transfer wizard, can I select the D drive as the old PC?

Thank you,
Scott

First off, no matter what you do...
backup your data!


A fresh installaltion fo Windows entails a complete format,
so all data would be lost.

If you want to perform a repair installation however...
your data would remain...however as I said...backup your data no matter what
!

 

[wxrr]

Thanks for the replies. The repair install went smooth, except it did not
solve the problem so it looks like a full reinstall will be in order.

Yes, I have an external HD as backup. I asked about using the D drive
because it is so much faster to go from C to D then C to external with 80 GB
of data.

After the reinstall, say I drag my Program Files (which has my kids games,
email etc) back to the fresh C drive, all (in the Program Files folder) will
be restored? Does that also take care of the registry? Sounds too easy.
Thank you.
--
Dell Deminsion 8250
Win XP Home SP2

Inspiron 9000
Win XP Media SP2

 

[philo]

Thanks for the replies. The repair install went smooth, except it did not
solve the problem so it looks like a full reinstall will be in order.

Yes, I have an external HD as backup. I asked about using the D drive
because it is so much faster to go from C to D then C to external with 80 GB
of data.

After the reinstall, say I drag my Program Files (which has my kids games,
email etc) back to the fresh C drive, all (in the Program Files folder) will
be restored? Does that also take care of the registry? Sounds too easy.
Thank you.

If you perform a fresh installation you will need to re-install all your
applications from scratch,
then copy the data over.

You cannot simply copy your application folders back
as...you guessed it...there are necessary registry entries that would not be
there