Reinstalling Windows XP !

E

Euro98ITR

Big Geek
Im reinstalling Windows XP. Is there any way of doing it without losing the files, updates and any other data installed on the same drive?

Is there a way to bacbkup the folders of MS Outlook. I created several folders each having some important info. Is there a way to back up these folders?
 
If you are just reinstalling XP and not formatting your hard drive then your files should stay.. however if you would like to backup your files you can do this in several ways:

1. burn them to CD (best option)
2. create a partition on your hard drive (large enough to hold your "important files") and make a copy on to that partition

as for your MS outlook i presume you mean all your e-mails e.t.c

goto: start > search > search for this: *.pst

a .pst file is an automatically generated file that contains all:
Received / Sent / Saved / Deleted E-mails and Contacts..
it is saved in a folder somewhere like: X:\Program Files\Outlook\ or X:\Documents and Settings\YourUserHere\Outlook (i can't remember and am not on an xp machine).. so search for the pst file (*.pst) this will then search for ANY files with the extension .pst

now back this file up.. as mentioned earlier in the post then once u have reinstalled XP if your e-mails are not there goto: MS Outlook and do this:

File > Open > Personal Folders File .pst
then a box will appear search to wherever your .pst file that you backed up is.. and click "open"

then goto: view and tick "folders view" you will then be presented with 2 "Personal Folders" search through each one, until you realise which one contains all your e-mails e.t.c the other "Personal Folder" that does not have anything in (except the Outlook welcome file) you do not need..

all you have to do now is right click on Your Personal Folder at the bottom click "Properties for Personal Folders File" or something..

at the bottom of the box that has just appeared make sure "Deliver Pop3 Mail to this Box / Personal Folder" (something along those lines)

as for saving your microsoft updates if you are reinstalling XP i doubt you can "save" them as they are not saved merely downloaded to temp directory installed then deleted (you will have to update once u reinstall)

i know its long winded (sorry if it doesnt answer your question) but i hope it helps :)
 
could you make yourself clearer? what type of reinstall do you intend on doing?

just a reinstall (literally just reinstalling)
or
do you want to wipe your hard drive clean then reinstall...?

if you just want to reinstall just stick your XP disc in whilst in windows and follow the install screen (and just do a "upgrade" or "repair") << that will reinstall windows without loosing any of your files..

if you want to do a clean install, ie: completely wipe your whole hard drive there is no way of "not losing your files" without either burning everything to a disc / putting it on the internet (FTP if u have large webhosting) or putting all ur files into another hard drive.
 
Euro98ITR said:
Thanks for your reply. How can I reinstall windows without losing my files ?
Click to expand...

Procal already said it once, but one way is to burn it to CD, or other media (DVD, Zip, etc.
Another way is to transfer those files to another computer over a network, which is what I do in combination with burning the important stuff to CD.

Lastly, you might want to consider partitioning your hard drive if you haven't already. I also do this on my main box. The reason is that you can just drop the files over onto another partition, reformat C:\ and install XP on it. Afterwords, put it all back.
 
10x for all your replies! I didnt mean the files, actualy all the programs that I have installed on the C: drive which has Win XP installed, because its a big hassle to install everything again from the begining. My drive is partitioned. All photos, images , documents etc.. are on the d:

I will try to "repair" my XP installation and see if it cures the problem.
 
Other than cloning your hard drive...not really. I know Norton Ghost might be what you're intrested in, but the only Symantec product I'd think of using is Norton Anti-Virus. Anti-Trend might know of a nice alternative, but I'm not sure. I do have a pretty systematic way to do all my reinstalls...especially with the reviewing I do.
 
if you want a clean install ie wipe your hard drive clean, then copy all your programs e.t.c onto your partition.. then format and reinstall XP then copy your programs back across..

if you just want a clean install of XP (ie NOT formatting (deleteing everything on your hard drive) just do a "repair" using the XP CD, this will merely reinstall (overwrite your existing XP) basically.. repairing it :) and it will keep ALL your other programs / files / documents..
 
Microsoft recommends that you reinstall Windows every 6 months (due to file and registry corruption). It's a major inconvenience, but must be done --- which is one of the reasons I converted to Linux. However, you can make it a lot less painful by making a slipstream copy of XP, assuming you have a full, non-OEM version and it's not XP Home Edition. That way, you can install all of the patches / updates in advance. When you reinstall, you've already got a pretty up to date system. Or, like B already mentioned, you can buy a copy of Norton Ghost and make an image of your HDD with all of your software already set up and configured. That way, when Windows does its thing and crashes hard, you can be back up and running within a half-hour. The problems with this solution are that:

a) You have to have a seperate HDD or large partition for your drive image(s)
b) When you restore the backup image, you'll still lose any changes made since the time of the image
c) In most configurations, HDD images are vulnerable to certain viruses. They can be corrupted and therefore unusable
d) Unless you have the image located on a file server with some drive redundancy, your backup image is still vulnerable to hardware failure
e) Norton Ghost is retail software and costs $20 (for a home license)

-AT
 
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