RE: Reinstalling Win XP Pro

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From: AmericanTechie (AmericanTechie_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/22/04 

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 16:19:04 -0800

Hello,

One thing to keep in Mind about OEM XP CD's is that we are not the experts
on how they operate. Dell support would be best to ask about this question.
The problem with reinstalling XP is this is not a targeted fix. The rep has
basically given up on fixing the problem. When reinstalling you will have
certain options based off the CD. Please specify exactly what the rep told
you to do. An equivalent of a format and reinstall would completely wipe
everything off the hard drive and start you at square one. Other options may
be available. You could also tell us about the problem you are having with
the optical drives. It is possible we could come up with a better fix. How
long has this been a problem? What was the last major change you made to the
computer before you noticed the problem. Does ANYTHING happen when you try
to read a CD. Do you have this problem with all CD's? Did this computer
originally come with XP? If one of the CD drives is a burner, what CD
burning software do you have loaded?

As a side note make sure you have your important data backed up and you
won't have a problem. A hammer can do lots of damage, reinstalling Windows
will do nothing.

Thanks,
John
http://www.americantechie.com

"dpj1966" wrote:

> Both of my optical drives have stopped reading CD's. Per Dell tech support
> the hardware is fine since the drives respond ok in DOS mode. I'm told I need
> to reinstall my operating system which is WIN XP, OEM version from Dell.
>
> Is there any known articles in knowledge base or elsewhere regarding steps
> involved, problems, pitfalls, etc???? I'm scared to death about doing this. I
> copied copied the My Documents folder to a wireless laptop. I also saved my
> Mozilla bookmarks file to a floppy.
>
> Will this reinstall wipeout my network? Will my Outlook email folders be lost?
>
> Any advice would be appreciated.
> --
> David

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