What actually happens when you reinstall XP Home? (see KB 307545)

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My parents computer was struck with the problem described in KB 307545. I'm going to speak in the first person about it, but I was actually helping them over the phone since I'm about 1200 miles away at the moment.

I went through the procedure that the article outlined, but I didn't notice that it said to boot into Safe mode after replacing the registry files. I successfully extracted the real registry files from System restore, but the permissions were wrong so the recovery console couldn't work with them. Since then I haven't been able to boot back into Windows, even after going through the whole process again.

I would do a repair installation, except their OEM XP Home disc isn't offering that option. When I go to do a regular installation, it warns that all user accounts, files, and settings in the Windows directory, and possible the My Documents directory, will be deleted. If it weren't for the My Documents warning I would be ok with that, but the My Documents folder is not a subdirectory of the Windows folder. It's in Documents and Settings.

So my main question is, if I have my parents do a regular XP install with the option to "leave the current filesystem intact" what happens to the files they have in folders under Documents and Settings (i.e. on the desktop and in My Documents). Do I have any other options here?
 
Brent said:
My parents computer was struck with the problem described in KB
307545. I'm going to speak in the first person about it, but I was
actually helping them over the phone since I'm about 1200 miles away
at the moment.

I went through the procedure that the article outlined, but I didn't
notice that it said to boot into Safe mode after replacing the
registry files. I successfully extracted the real registry files from
System restore, but the permissions were wrong so the recovery
console couldn't work with them. Since then I haven't been able to
boot back into Windows, even after going through the whole process
again.

I would do a repair installation, except their OEM XP Home disc isn't
offering that option. When I go to do a regular installation, it
warns that all user accounts, files, and settings in the Windows
directory, and possible the My Documents directory, will be deleted.
If it weren't for the My Documents warning I would be ok with that,
but the My Documents folder is not a subdirectory of the Windows
folder. It's in Documents and Settings.

So my main question is, if I have my parents do a regular XP install
with the option to "leave the current filesystem intact" what happens
to the files they have in folders under Documents and Settings (i.e.
on the desktop and in My Documents). Do I have any other options
here?
Click to expand...


If they were using usernames other than defaults (owner, administrator, etc)
then when you reinstall, it should be fine.
OEM is not supported directly by Microsoft and OEM copies are therefore
limited in functionality.

If they were using default values (likely were) then it is highly possible
anything under Documents and Settings would be obliterated.
 
I'm pretty sure they were using a custom username. I'll verify that however.

How do you know this is what will happen?
 
Brent said:
If they were using usernames other than defaults (owner,
administrator, etc) then when you reinstall, it should be fine.
OEM is not supported directly by Microsoft and OEM copies are
therefore limited in functionality.
Click to expand...

Shenan said:
If they were using default values (likely were) then it is highly
possible anything under Documents and Settings would be obliterated.
Click to expand...


Brent said:
I'm pretty sure they were using a custom username. I'll verify that
however.

How do you know this is what will happen?
Click to expand...

I'd never put anything down to 100% certainty when it comes to something
like an installation, but in my experience, if you don't overwrite the old
usernames with the new ones when reinstalling Windows XP (and I have done it
hundreds of times) then you can get the data back by simply taking ownership
of the old files and folders.

If they have a true OEM copy of XP and not a restoration CD that overwrites
everything and if it allows you to do a "parallel" install like you seem to
be implying it does and if they did have unique usernames, those files and
folders will still exist as long as they don't use the same names for any
users they create during the install.
 
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