Re: Clean reinstall getting dirtier each attempt?

"Jeff Mc" <JeffMc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:96DF6914-A1A2-4D94-8D14-E8E313647C60@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nepatsfan, answers to your questions addressed in the copied
body of your post.

"Nepatsfan" wrote:


Jeff,

I sure hope you have your important files backed up. Do that
before you try anything else.

I don't know where to start so let's get some things
explained so we've got a frame of reference to work with.

First off, forget about the small partitions. The 39MB
partition probably contained diagnostic programs that the
manufacturer put there so they'd be available when you first
booted your computer. If your computer is a Dell, then you
can change probably in the previous sentence to definitely.
These same diagnostic programs are available on one of the
CD's that Dell ships with their systems. Look for a
Resources CD if you've got a Dell. They'll be on there. For
now, don't worry about this.

Yes, it is a Dell (Dimension 8250). Yes I have a resources
CD, for now I won't worry about this.


The 8MB of unallocated space is put there by Windows in case
someone wanted to convert their Basic disk to a Dynamic
disk. You'll be just fine with your Basic disk.

Ignoring this too, for now.


Let's move on to your Boot.ini file. Originally your hard
drive had a small first partition, 39MB, and a large second
partition, your C drive. That would account for the second
entry under operating systems pointing to partition 2 since
your C drive was the second partition. That's the old
installation. Your original Boot.ini file looked like this.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect=OptIn

I'd be willing to bet that you have a file named boot.bak
that when opened with notepad will look very similar to the
above.

Now here's where things got out of whack. When you deleted
the 39 MB partition, leaving it as unallocated space, your
C drive became the first partition on your hard drive. When
you reinstalled XP without formatting the partition you
ended up installing it right back into the Windows folder
on your C drive, which was now partition 1. That's where
you got this line added to your boot.ini file.

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

And since it was the latest installation it became the
default operating system. You really don't have two
installations of XP since both entries point to a Windows
folder. Look on your C drive. Are there any large folders
with names similar to Windows or just the one Windows
folder? I'm betting there's just the one Windows folder.

Check! Just the one Windows folder.

The boot.ini issue can be resolved by editing out the
reference to partition 2. Here's what your boot.ini file
should look like.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft
Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

You can edit the boot.ini file by following the procedure
outlined in this article.

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q289022/

Understand this and believe i can edit the Boot.ini as
directed. Just didn't think that was fixing the problem as
much as directing startup to ignore it.

You say that the new installation is working OK. Can you run
all the installed programs on your computer? How about your
user account? Can you access all your old files?

New installation seems to work ok, I've had a few problems
downloading and reinstalling XP Service Pack 2 (as I've
needed to remove it whenever i've gone back to using the XP
reainstallation disk) also had some problems with Norton
Phishing Filter not DLing. Not sure what the question is
about my User Account, if I logoff this is still the only
account available to log back in to and it is the Admin
acct. I CAN access my old files, including files for
programs i thought would have been deleted/overwritten by
the clean install. Examples include Teamspeak and
WinRAR...Although I haven't reloaded nor reinstalled either
program I can still access both through my Program Files.

Finally, look in the Documents and Settings folder on your C
drive. What folders does it contain? Are there duplicates?
FYI, to see all the folders, make sure you go to Control
Panel -> Folder Options and click on the View tab. On the
View page, select "Show hidden files and folders" and
uncheck "Hide protected operating system files". Click OK.

In the Documents and Settings folder I have many duplicate
an/or additional folders. 3 Administrator variants, 2 All
Users variants, 2 Hidden Default User variants, 3 Jeffrey
variants, 2 Hidden LocalSevice variants, and 2 Hidden
NetworkService variants.


Post back with answers to the above questions. Hopefully,
editing your boot.ini file will resolve this issue.

Good luck

Nepatsfan


Thanks for the help so far. I'll see about editing the
boot.ini while waiting for reply to this.

The single Windows folder along with the extra user accounts
confirms that you only have one installation of Windows XP on
your computer. Editing boot.ini is all you need to do to
resolve that issue.

That brings us to the extra folders in the Documents and
Settings folder. When you reinstalled XP into the existing
Windows folder it simply wrote over the old Windows files.
Unfortunately, when you do this Windows creates a whole new set
of user accounts. Since you can't have two user accounts with
the same name, Windows will add the name of your computer to
the end of the new account name. You've probably got an
Administrator folder along with an Administrator.XXXXXX folder,
where XXXXXX is the name of your computer.

To determine what set of folders Windows is using, do the
following.
Go to Start -> Run and enter %userprofile% in the Open box.
Click OK.
This should open the current folder for the Jeffrey account.
Note the last part of that folder name, Jeffrey.XXXXXXX.
Any folders which have the same letters appended to their name
represent the current set of user accounts.

The bottom line is that those extra folders are probably not a
problem other than the fact that they take up hard drive space.
How you handle this is up to you. If it was me, and I didn't
plan on performing a clean installation anytime soon, I'd leave
them be. You may find yourself needing some of the files that
are in those extra Jeffrey folders.

If that was my computer I'd run it for a couple of weeks. If
major problems, or a number of minor ones, kept occurring, I'd
then do a clean installation.

Speaking of clean installations, should you decide that you
need to reinstall Windows, here are some articles that you may
find helpful.

Courtesy of Michael Stevens, MS-MVP
Clean Install Windows XP
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Clean Install with Illustrative Screen Captures
http://www.theeldergeek.com/xp_home_install_-_graphic.htm

Once you've backed up all your important files you should
gather up all the installation media for your applications
along with their associated CD keys. This time, you'll be
deleting all the existing partitions and creating new ones.
Keep in mind that any data on your hard drive will be lost if
you haven't backed it up.

As for the issues you had with Service Pack 2, that can be
resolved by creating what's called a "slipstreamed"
installation CD. Here's some information on that procedure.

Create a Slip Stream version of Windows XP
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/slipstream.htm

Here are some of the files you'll need to obtain in order to
follow this procedure:

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package for IT
Professionals and Developers
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&displaylang=en

Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

AutoStreamer 1.0.33
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1092632287/1

CDBurner XPPro
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/download.php

Here are some other resources you might want to take a look at:

How to use AutoStreamer to Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/using_autostreamer/using_autostreamer.html

Slipstreamed Windows XP CD Using SP2
http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

Slipstreaming Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Create Bootable CD
http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html

How can I slipstream service packs into the Windows 2000,
Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 media?
http://www.petri.co.il/windows_2000_xp_sp_slipstreaming.htm

Universal Windows Slipstreaming and Bootable CD Guide
http://www.msfn.org/articles.php?action=show&showarticle=49

Good luck

Nepatsfan


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