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time to do a repair install.....

rise

rise

Diamond Member
ok, i think i need to do a repair install on windows xp SP2 home. it might have been a bad install, if there is such a thing, to begin with, but for the past month i've worked out, around many ofthe kinks. alas, i still get some crappy errors, like a 16 bit ms-dos error, some problems burning discs, some power option (monitor shutdown), etc problems.

it appears when i installed xp SP2 before, i never realized that i had to hit f5 for a acpi config option, i followed the elder geeks guide and of course he inserted it at the very end or after i installed it because i never saw it until last week. anyhow, i don't know if this is part of the problems, but i'm set up in acpi as a dual processor pc, in bios only a single cpu.


anyway, will a repair install allow me to change that or d i need a full install? according to mechbgone and a few others, if i:

1-insert disc and boot from
2- hit enter for a complete install, let windows do its thing
3- when xp finds the current OS hit repair to fix that install.

then my settings will all remain, which is what i want, but i kinda doubt i could fix the acpi thing that way?
and is is at the very beginning, like the part that goes buy s quick my ratherpoor eyes can barely see it?
 
Do you have a P4 with Hyper Threading enabled? If so, then you should have a multi processor acpi HAL, that would be correct.
The OS sees the CPU as two when in reality its one physical cpu.

However if you want to do a repair, then insert the XP disk and set your bios to boot from the cd rom.
Ignore the screen which says about doing a repair using the recovery console and continue.
You should then come to another screen which will give you some options for install, one of them being the repair. I think its press 'r' for repair.
That will then re-install the OS over your old setup but retain your apps and settings.

TBH you shouldn't need to hit F5 to pick a HAL as Windows is usually good a picking the correct one.
However should you wish to use that option, then hit F5 when the 'Press F6 to install third party raid drivers' screen pops up just after booting from the cd rom.
You should then get a screen with various HAL's to choose from, but use this option with caution.

Hope thats some help.

 
that does help, thank you. it is a p4 with HT so i guess it auto-detected it correctly then.

i stil think i'll d the repair install as its been so damn quirky with various "errors" and things. as long as i can maintain allmy apps and settings, i think its worth an effort. at least the OS is on its own partition, i just hate having to go thru all the activation and i assume any registry tweaks i did, like disable balloon tips and all?

forgot one thing, doing a reinstall, can i change the size of the partion if there its on a drive with another partition that has more free space? i have 5 gigs set aside for the OS and 30 for games, but i was thinking of making it 10 and 25. there is free space on the games partition.
 
No, you'd have to delete the partitons and start again from fresh if you use the XP cd.

The only way you could change the partition sizes without deleting them first is through a third party program such as Partition Magic.
 
thanks again canterwood, never used one maybe i'll look into it, i've heard mixed results.
 
btw, you'd think the elder geek would be a little more specific as to the p4 with HT reading as 2 cpus. he talks of how the HAL setting can screw you, but not actually what the correct settings are, just general "for most users.." lol
 
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