Need help doing a clean reinstall of XP Pro

[Ken90630]

Hey, All,

I need to do a clean reinstall of Windows XP Pro for someone. Since I use Windows 2K Pro myself and am not that familiar with XP yet, I'm not very confident that I can do it without any problems. And I don't want to mess this person's computer up. (This will be a reinstall of the retail version, on the original equipment, and they have the CDs.)

I need to do a "clean" install rather than a "dirty" install -- in other words, I want to wipe the HD completely clean and then install XP fresh. I do NOT want to simply install it on top of the existing O.S.

Do any of you guys know of a simple step-by-step tutorial anywhere, or a "how to" resource that will tell me how to do this? What I need is just a step-by-step set of instructions. I'd prefer not to have to call Microsoft and have them walk me thru this.

I know this is ridiculously easy for those of you that know how, but I simply haven't done it before. (I'm not in the computer repair business.) Any help would be much appreciated. 🙂

PS: Yes, I know to back up all important files, documents, etc., before doing this.

 

[S0Y73NTGR33N]

1. Put the CD in.
2. Boot to CD.
3. Say that you want to install, ok ok.. blah blah..
4. Hit F8 for software agreement
5. Get rid of all existing partitions.
6. Reformat... this should happen automatically.
7. Watch the blubber fly!

As long as you delete all the partitions it will automatically reformat.

you hit like d.. then l or something.. it says how to on the install

-green

 

[mechBgon]

You'll find yourself in familiar waters. It's really similar to Win2000 Pro except a little more visually fancy 😀 You can find detailed frame-by-frame runthroughs at http://www.blackviper.com/Arti...indows_XP_Professional

He does forget about the snacks, however 😕 And I made a page of my own to try to help with the security aspect, since worm attack is such a threat nowdays and people are wandering around with weak/blank passwords on their accounts unawares, etc.

I have a comment to add, and that is to start Windows Setup, get to the place where it shows the partitions on the drive, delete all of them, and then exit Windows Setup and start it again. This ensures that you don't end up with a menu offering two WindowsXP Professional installations, one of which doesn't exist.

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks a million, Green & Tom. I really appreciate it.

BTW, in case you're wondering, Tom, I thought about referring to your mondo-valuable system builder's guide, but thought this sitch might be a bit different due to the fact that it's a reinstall rather than a new install on a new hard drive. I wanted to be sure, hence my posting. 😀

Since this looks pretty simple, I'm curious: What's the difference then between this and a "dirty" install? Does deleting the partitions and reformatting make it a "clean" install? And what does a "dirty" install do --- does it not delete partitions and not reformat the hard drive? If so, what does it do -- simply install another version of the O.S in another partition? As you can see, I'm not all that knowledgeable about HD partitioning, formatting and such. Care to educate me a bit more?

 

[mechBgon]

The three ways I know of would be a clean install, a Repair, and a Repair-install. I guess the last of these three could be called a "dirty" install.

If you start WinXP Setup and choose Repair at the first offer, that's a Repair and it generally is useless. 😛

If you turn down the first Repair offer, and go on to the part where it shows you the partitions, it'll notice there's a Windows installation in C:\WINDOWS and offer to repair it, which is sometimes handy if you had to change motherboards, but it does leave the apps and data in place, both good and bad. Plus it strips away all the service packs and patches from Windows etc, leaving the system vulnerable until it's patched up again. And I might do this as a stopgap measure but the result can be unstable. 🙁

So if you delete the existing partitions, then restart and begin WinXP Setup again, all references to the data on the drive is gone and you're on a clean slate. If you want to be extra-specially thorough, you can download and run DBAN to do a military-class wipe (or beyond), but there's not much point in that if the system's not changing hands.

 

[Ken90630]

Hmmm .... Lemme give you some brief background on what I was referring to as a "dirty" install (this was the word Microsoft tech support used with me once).

A couple years ago my mom's old Gateway computer's O.S. got badly corrupted by viruses, worms, spyware, etc. There was no way to scan & repair everything, so I had to reinstall Windows. This was Windows 98SE, by the way.

When I called Gateway to have them walk me thru it, they had me just drop the CD in the tray, then proceed to load Windows. BUT -- and this is key -- there was no deletion of the existing Windows O.S. (as far as I know). We just installed Windows, presumably on top of the existing version. The computer was very unstable afterwards and exhibited various problems (freeze-ups, weird video probs, etc.).

So I called Microsoft this time, described what the Gateway rep had told me to do, and the Microsoft rep told me I had done what they call a "dirty" install. She then walked me thru what I guess was a "clean" install, specifically mentioning that we were wiping the old O.S. completely off the HD and starting from scratch. All was fixed.

I'm not really concerned with the DOD-level data eradication you're talking about, Tom (which would apply to previously deleted files and docs and such). All I'm concerned with is wiping the old O.S. completely off the drive before reinstalling XP again fresh from the CD. Does that make more sense?

 

[mechBgon]

Yeah 🙂 For your purposes, you can just boot from the WinXP CD, delete the partitions, hit F3 twice to exit Windows Setup, start WinXP Setup again, make a partition, format it, and it'll be as clean as pie 🙂

 

[Ken90630]

Excellent. 😀

Two last questions:

1) When I get to the step where I choose the number of partitions, I'm gonna choose 1, right?

2) What step in the process actually wipes the old O.S. off the hard drive? Is it deleting the existing partitions, or the formatting, or ??? I hate to seem dense here, but I'd really like to understand this part completely (just for my own satisfaction).

I'm gonna get some sleep, so thanks in advance. 🙂

 

[mechBgon]

1) You could make one partition, or you could opt for some other approach. I like to make one bigger partition and then a second small one. For example, on my parents' system, I made about a 35GB partition and then used the leftover capacity for another partition. The small partition has service packs, patches, downloads, updates and so on, and if I have to reinstall Windows I can use the small partition as a holding tank for a certain amount of documents, email, etc while the larger partition gets formatted and a new Windows installation.

2) The deletion of the partitions is the stage that removes the references to the data on the hard drive, in the Windows Setup approach. The data is not sought out and actively destroyed, the references to where it's at on the platters are simply removed. And they are as good as gone for your purposes, you'd need data-recovery software to reverse that. 🙂

 

[Raincity]

I prefer to blow off the partitions from the recovery console. Reboot then rebuild and format from the recovery console. Reboot again to reinstall.

 

[Giantwasp]

I also am going to be doing a clean install of windows XP (Home not Pro & Dell new PC disc not retail). I mainly use linux now so bit out of touch with this. My question is I was a bit worried about the whole product activation thing. I read a page on about.com (don't have link to hand) about copying a couple of files from the system directory to disc. Then replacing the files with these copies when you have done a clean install. To save having to pay to reactivate windows.

Is this right?

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: Giantwasp
I also am going to be doing a clean install of windows XP (Home not Pro & Dell new PC disc not retail). I mainly use linux now so bit out of touch with this. My question is I was a bit worried about the whole product activation thing. I read a page on about.com (don't have link to hand) about copying a couple of files from the system directory to disc. Then replacing the files with these copies when you have done a clean install. To save having to pay to reactivate windows.

Is this right?

Dell install CDs will only install on Dell PCs. For other install discs, activation is free and painless.

 

[Giantwasp]

Originally posted by: MrChad

Originally posted by: Giantwasp
<snip>

Dell install CDs will only install on Dell PCs. For other install discs, activation is free and painless.

Can't see it being a problem that it is a Dell disc because it is a Dell laptop and is the disc that came with it.

As far as I was aware activation is always free the first time but you have to pay to activate again, with any type of win XP disc, in order to prevent the same copy being installed on more than one PC.

Why is activation any different between Dell and other installation discs?

 

[mechBgon]

You don't have to pay. The Windows installation will look at the Dell's hardware and generate a sort of "signature" of it, and when you activate, it calls in to Microsoft and "hey, here is the signature for this computer" and the server at Microsoft says "huh, same signature as last time, or pretty darn close... go ahead and activate" and there you go.

Even if you have to call, they won't charge you.