A quick newbie'sh question

[Kalmah]

I'm about to format my c drive and re-install windows xp.

That hard drive is partitioned C and D. I figure I'll just put the windows XP cd in then boot up the computer, letting that do the format and installation. I can format C without losing the stuff on D right?

I've never formated a drive that is partitioned before and just started thinking about that.

I appreciate it.

 

[Kalmah]

Also while I'm at it. Can somebody tell me how to backup IE favorites list?

 

[mechBgon]

Yes, although it's never a bad idea to back up your utterly essential stuff first, if you can burn it to CDs or DVDs or something. Also, be aware that unless your WinXP CD-ROM already has Service Pack 2 onboard, your "raw" Windows installation will be vulnerable to worm attack. You would want to have some form of firewall protection at the very least, before you plugged in your network cable or wireless card or whatever networking you have.

I made a page with a suggested plan of attack here if that helps. You could download Service Pack 2 and stash it on D: or burn it to CD, so you can install it before making a network connection.

 

[Kalmah]

Thanks alot.


No, it doesn't have SP2. I didn't know it was possible to download the service pack and store it.

One more question. Am I going to have to install the motherboard chipset drivers again after a format? I'm guessing yes but thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I'll have a look at that page you linked.

Thanks again.

 

[mechBgon]

You can find your Favorites by going to C:\Documents and Settings\youraccount'sname\ and copy the Favorites folder from there.

After the reinstallation, yeah, you'd need to install your drivers again. I'd go like this:

1) install Service Pack 2 and reboot. That also gets you DirectX 9.0C so you're up-to-date on DirectX, your firewall is on, and you've got baseline Data Execution Prevention and all the common worm vulnerabilities are closed.

2) install your motherboard's chipset drivers. Down towards the bottom of that same page I mentioned, there are links to the usual suspects like Intel, VIA, nVidia, and SiS. 🙂 You can have those stashed on D: as well.

3) after rebooting from the chipset drivers, install your video drivers and reboot again.

4) then your leftovers like TV-tuner drivers, audio drivers, etc.

5) dive into your security stuff (strong passwords on Admin accounts, full enabling of DEP, antivirus install & configuration) and then you're all armored up for connecting to the Interworm-- errr, Internet 🙂 where you can get your final Windows updates and antivirus updates.

You may be given a choice what format to use for formatting the C: partition, NTFS is what you want for security and stability. A quick format will do fine, and save some time.

 

[Kalmah]

Thanks again.

Looks like I'll be all set once SP2 finishes downloading.

I keep all my driver downloads cataloged in my D drive so that shouldn't be a problem. Allthought it's been so long since I installed chipset drivers I don't remember what I'm looking for. Going to figure that out now.

 

[Kalmah]

Oh man!! No!!! I'm currently on a different computer..

I put in the windowsxp install cd
Booted up while pressing f8
selected for the computer to load from the cd drive
it loaded
Then it asked if I wanted to install windows xp or edit a drive(something like that)
I first chose to install windows xp. I figured it might realize that it's allready installed and asked me if I wanted to format. It didn't.. so I hit the esc key to take me back to the main menu.

So then I chose the other option to edit the drive.
It showed my 2 partions. C and D.

My options where to install windows xp, delete a partition, and create a partition.
I first tried to install on C just to see if it would figure it out and format again..
It didn't.. So then I chose to delete C.

C was deleted. It showed up as unformated space. I formated C as NTFS. Then proceded to install windows.

Then it tells me it needs to reboot and installation will continue after reboot.
I reboot... see the motherboard logo screen.. then a black screen that says NTLDR is missing. Press alt-ctrl-del to reboot.

WHAT!!?? reboot takes me back to that error message.

So I rebooted again while pressing f8.. chose to load from cd.. Got back to the screen that shows my partitions. Well, it seems the C and D drive floped.
Originally my C drive was 80gb. And D was 150 or something gb.
Now it shows C 150(raw unformated) and E 80gb. Did I just lose 4 years of audio recording files!!!??? That rig is an audio recording studio. They where all on D, the 150 some gb partition which is now showing up as C raw unformated.

I tried installing again and get taken back to the same error message after it says it needs to reboot.

Somebody please give me some help.

 

[mechBgon]

Uh oh :Q At this point, I'd pull that drive out, put it into your present system as a second drive, and try to recover data off of it using something like PC Inspector. If you're super-lucky then the other system may even recognize the 150GB partition and let you copy stuff out. I think your procedural error was deleting the C: partition instead of just formatting it, but never mind that for the moment... got to get your data back.

*crosses fingers for you, good luck*

 

[Kalmah]

Ok, Windows is installing.

I removed the harddrive from the computer and hooked up an old hard drive. windows is currently installing on that old hard drive. Once I can get into windows I'm going to shutdown and hookup my main hard drive as a slave. Then see if I can burn my most valuable data to cds. Then completely format both of the hard drives and re-install windows on my main hard drive.

I don't want to keep that old hard drive in the computer because it has a slow rpm and a small catch size. well not as a main drive anyways. I might hook it up as slave for a backup drive.

Thanks again.

 

[mechBgon]

Sounds like a good strategy. You can probably stash a fair amount of data on the 20GB drive since WinXP will only take about 3-4GB of it, too. Once your regular drive is back on its feet, then you could put the 20GB one in as a slave and pull the data back.

Good luck!

 

[Kalmah]

Windows is installed. I hooked up the slave drive. It appears to be empty. both partitions are on it. Is there a chance that it's possible to recover the old files maybe?

thanks

 

[mechBgon]

Gaaah! 😛 Yeah, try that PC Inspector software I mentioned, it's a little :confusing; to use but it's freeware last I checked.

🙁

 

[Kalmah]

I just gave it a try. It didn't seem to find anything.

That's allright. I really appreciate your help though.

I think I'm going to just keep this old hard drive as the main drive. Unless I notice a major performace difference from this drive to when I was using the other one. It is quite loud.

I'm back on my computer here. Downloading windows updates. For some reason the service packs didn't appear in the update list. Hopefully they will after these stupid little updates are done. I like the way the old windows update website was better. Their new one is just stupid.

I'm behind a router so I don't believe I need to worry too much about worms. Once I get the updates I'll turn on windows firewall also.

Thanks again.