I have never re-installed windows XP, but now find it necessary. During
the installation, I had to activate my copy of windows before 30 days
elapsed or the OS would quit working. How is this handled during a F
disk
and re-install? Any info would be greatly appreciated.
You didn't say why you wanted to do a reinstall, but it could be only a
repair install is necessary. When you launch the XP install process, select
the second "repair install" option, which will install around existing
software and settings. This may not fix your problem, but it may be the
easy way out and it wouldn't hurt to try first.
You don't need to use FDisk before the install. If you do a full reinstall
you may want to format the drive first, either quick or full. Activation
should be easily done as it was before without issues. If you are using
different hardware and less than 120 days have elapsed since the original
install, the activation may fail. If this happens or there are other
problems you'll need to call M$ for assistance.
Basically, if the repair install fails or isn't appropriate for your needs,
just install as per the original process.
