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Is it possible and how do you...

F

flamingsnoman

Member
...reinstall Windows XP Pro without touching anything else on the hard drive? Basically, I want to reinstall my OS without altering anything else on my computer.
 
You might try searching for some info regarding a repair of WinXP. I've never done it before, but it may be what you are looking for.
 
Boot to the CD with WinXP in it. It will find the OS that's on the disk and ask what you want to do. You want to get to the screen that asks if you want to do a repair install. Not Repair Console. My recolection is that you have to not choose anything but Repair Install. It will warn you that it will be able (in most cases) save all settings and preferences.

What you end up with is Windows XP in the exact shape it would be in if you installed fresh, except you will have all of your programs and prefs, address book, etc hooked in to WinXP as if you had not done anything to them. You will have to update Windows. I ended up slipstreaming SP1 into a burn of my copy of WinXP. Saves some time, as it's a big download w/o broadband. I've done it both ways when I was experimenting with XP. With broadband cable it hassle of making the slipstream disk isn'[t worth the trouble. I've still got Ghost images of the system and that is faster if it's a recent image. But there are times when the other software that I've spent a lot of time integrating and getting rid of things I don't need/want. That's when the Repair Install shines.
 
Microsoft, along with anybody else that ever wrote programs for computers, says to back up before....I've done this several times with no loss of data or programs. I may have been lucky, I don't know. But, except for having to update windows, I've had no probs at all.

PS I used to have 4 HDs and a total of 205gigs of space. I only used one OS.
 
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