Reinstall XP Home, keeping desktop layout?
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From: Percival P. Cassidy on 22 Feb 2010 16:10 I have one machine with XP Home SP3 that is acting strangely -- sometimes reads FAT(32) media, sometimes won't; sometimes takes for ever to boot; sometimes takes many attempts before it will shut down; etc. I think it's time to reinstall; I'll try a repair install first (I have an SP2 CD), but if that doesn't work I'll start over. All I have on C: is the OS itself and apps that refused to install to D:, which is my Apps drive. All my downloaded stuff is on E:, backups on X:. If I create an "archive" using Files and Settings Transfer, can I select what gets copied back? I assume that transferring all the old registry settings would not be smart. Can I save the Desktop layout? Perce
From: Percival P. Cassidy on 22 Feb 2010 16:17 On 02/22/10 04:10 pm, I wrote: > I have one machine with XP Home SP3 that is acting strangely -- > sometimes reads FAT(32) media, sometimes won't; sometimes takes for ever > to boot; sometimes takes many attempts before it will shut down; etc. I > think it's time to reinstall; I'll try a repair install first (I have an > SP2 CD), but if that doesn't work I'll start over. > > All I have on C: is the OS itself and apps that refused to install to > D:, which is my Apps drive. All my downloaded stuff is on E:, backups on > X:. > > If I create an "archive" using Files and Settings Transfer, can I select > what gets copied back? I assume that transferring all the old registry > settings would not be smart. Can I save the Desktop layout? Forgot to mention: restoring from recent restore points doesn't solve problems; attempts to restore from older restore points don't work. Perce
From: Daave on 22 Feb 2010 17:08 Percival P. Cassidy wrote: > All I have on C: is the OS itself and apps that refused to install to > D:, which is my Apps drive. All my downloaded stuff is on E:, backups > on X:. In the event that you wind up performing a Clean Install, make sure C: is at least 50GB. Also, it is important to have the OS and all the applications on C:. Almost all of your programs will have preferences, associated registry keys, etc. on the C: partition, so you might as well keep it all together. And should you wish to create images of C: for disaster recovery purposes (highly recommended), you will be all set. :-) D: can be for *all* your data. You may have a "downloaded stuff" folder on it if you wish. I would not have a backup partition on the same drive (if the hard drive is toast, you will have also lost your backup!). An external hard drive should be used for this purpose.
From: Percival P. Cassidy on 22 Feb 2010 18:55 On 02/22/10 05:08 pm, Daave wrote: >> All I have on C: is the OS itself and apps that refused to install to >> D:, which is my Apps drive. All my downloaded stuff is on E:, backups >> on X:. > > In the event that you wind up performing a Clean Install, make sure C: > is at least 50GB. Also, it is important to have the OS and all the > applications on C:. Almost all of your programs will have preferences, > associated registry keys, etc. on the C: partition, so you might as well > keep it all together. And should you wish to create images of C: for > disaster recovery purposes (highly recommended), you will be all set. > :-) I've been caught too many times by programs that save data in the program directory. If that's on C: and I have to reinstall the OS -- including reformatting C: -- I've often lost data as well. In one case I installed a new version of a program without uninstalling the old one; unbeknown to me the new version was using the data file originally created by the earlier version; then when I uninstalled the old version the data file disappeared too. Even now I have programs that -- even though installed on D: -- insist on storing configuration and data files in C:\Documents and Settings\<User Name>\Application Data\<Application Name>\ rather than in the application's own directory (or a subdirectory thereof) or in the folder I have defined as "My Documents" (not on C:). > D: can be for *all* your data. You may have a "downloaded stuff" folder > on it if you wish. > > I would not have a backup partition on the same drive (if the hard drive > is toast, you will have also lost your backup!). An external hard drive > should be used for this purpose. X: is a separate hard disk. Perce
From: C on 22 Feb 2010 19:13
Percival P. Cassidy wrote: >> I would not have a backup partition on the same drive (if the hard drive >> is toast, you will have also lost your backup!). An external hard drive >> should be used for this purpose. > > X: is a separate hard disk. > > Perce External I trust. -- C |