Unwanted Installation problem

[Dave Rondini]

I think I messed up. I was trying to follow some advise as to how to
partition and initiated a setup. Xp is already installed. I was waiting
for it to detect that and it started doing what appears to be a new install.
Will this be ok. or will it screw things up. Any chance of loosing data.
and is there anyway to stop the install if so ( it is waiting for the cd to
be put back in). Thanks, Dave

 

[Malke]

I think I messed up. I was trying to follow some advise as to how to
partition and initiated a setup. Xp is already installed. I was
waiting for it to detect that and it started doing what appears to be
a new install.
Will this be ok. or will it screw things up. Any chance of loosing
data. and is there anyway to stop the install if so ( it is waiting
for the cd to
be put back in). Thanks, Dave

Since we are not at your house looking at your monitor, it is impossible
to say for sure. It sounds like you are going to have two XP
installations when you are done, in which case you can copy your data
and then get rid of the redundant installation. However, if you started
installing *over* your present installation, then you're probably
hosed. Let's hope the first instance is what is really happening. Post
back with details if you need more help.

Malke

 

[Danny W]

if you told it to format you lose the data, but if it was set to "leave
partition unchanged" <-options in DOS bit of setup, it will only reinstall
Windowss, but leave your files intact.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I think I messed up. I was trying to follow some advise as to how to
partition and initiated a setup. Xp is already installed. I was waiting
for it to detect that and it started doing what appears to be a new install.
Will this be ok. or will it screw things up.

That will put a new copy over the top of the old in the same partition.
Which is not a sensible position.

You do it as part of a reinstall of the system after booting the XP CD
direct. Enter Setup, and after the license agreement take New Install.
When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete the
current partition and make a new RAW one (of the size you want) to be
formatted at the next stage

The important point is the delete. Without that it will just go ahead
and make a new install over the top of the old one