Windows xp problems

[Guest]

I had to replace my hard drive. The new one was ghosted from the old, which
had several bad sectors. Now my automatic updates does not work for any
product. I have tried reinstalling all of the products, and repairing them.
Also, my Office XP gives me an error message, stating that I have Office XP
with frontpage, which I do not have. It shows on my add/remove programs, but
I can't remove because I don't have the CD. My outlook will not work with my
active sync. I cannot reinstall Windows XP because I don't have a disc, I
have restore discs, but they look for the old hard drive. I do have an
Office XP upgrade CD from an old computer that had Windows 98 on it. Can I
use that CD to repair the Windows XP on this computer? Will that get rid of
the Office XP with frontpage? I don't know a lot about computers, so, I am
totally frustrated.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Done correctly, cloning your old hard disk to a new hard disk in the
same computer causes none of the problems you describe. Cloning does
nothing more than copying the contents of the old hard disk to the new one.

 

[Guest]

I know that there were problems with the cloning. Several times it would
stop during the process, he thought it was hitting a bad sector. It appears
that system restore and chkdsk are both missing. Can I do a repair on
Windows XP from the Recovery disks that were made from the original hard
drive? I was told they won't work because they will look for the old hard
drive. I would rather do a repair, than restore, but I am scare to put the
discs in and replace everything on the computer.
Thanks, as you can tell, I really don't know that much. Any help is
appreciated.

The old hard drive is still there as "H" and called NEWRECOVERY however
there is a big lock symbol on it. When I try to open it it gives me a big
warning notice This part of your hard drive contains files used for your
sysem recovery do not delete or alter these files. Any change in this
partition could prevent recovery later.

What do you think about trying to do a fix Windows XP from the recovery CD's
(there are 6 of them)? Is there that option or will I wipe out my hard drive?

Thanks again for any help. I am way over my head on this, but I can't reach
my brotherinlaw for a while.
Nancy

 

[Ted Zieglar]

Disk cloning is an advanced procedure. You should not have tried it if
you weren't very confident in your abilities. (I wish someone would have
said that to me long ago.)

The thing for you -- or someone more experienced -- to do now is to
backup your own files and folders and do a clean install.

 

[Guest]

Ted,
I thought that I had said I did not do the ghosting. It was done by my
brother-in-law who actually teaches computer classes at Purdue U. He
encountered several problems because the old hard drive had so many bad
sectors on it. The problems on the new hard drive weren't discovered until
the computer was returned t me, and I tried to do a hotsync with my pocket
pc, and I tried to do updates to my virus protection. This is when it was
discovered that there were several windows files that were missing or
corrupt. Unfotuantely, my brother-in-law lives in another state, and I am
trying to fix the computer by using long distance phone calls, and any help I
can get on here.
I have purchased a copy of Windows XP Pro which I am going to install, and
start over by reinstalling all of my programs from disc. We were trying to
avoid this by just ghosting the old hard drive.
Thanks,
Nancy