winblowz strikes again.

[cancerkills]

Since switching back to XP from Ubuntu I've encountered many, many problems with my new XP installation. Some include my sound driver no longer working after restarting the computer, and various other hardware issues. Although these problems annoy the piss out of me, I decided to just temporarily fix them every time.

Well I bought an iPod earlier today and when I tried to install to install iTunes I got a stupid data security error and the installer would crash, despite changing the settings, restarting, and trying again. Well this was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was finally fed up with Windows' bullshit and I decided to pop in my XP disc and repair the Windows installation. Everything was going well until I got a pop-up message during the repair to insert my motherboard's driver disc. I complied and much to my surprise my computer restarted!

So I tried again, and the same thing happened, only instead of inserting the disc, I hit "cancel" and after 30 seconds of what sounded like loading, it restarted anyway.

The XP disc I'm using is a burned copy of XP SP2. Yes, I payed for Windows, but my version is from dell with tons of spyware and adware I don't necessarily want on my computer.

I installed XP using this same disc. However I'm thinking of borrowing my friend's disc and trying with that. I've repaired my windows installations before with his disc and everything was peaches.

I really, really, want to avoid reformatting and losing my 60gb of music, all my website db backups, and everything else I treasure on that system.

I'm going to try my friend's disc in a bit and see what happens. I want to rule out my burned copy being corrupt in any way. I'll post a reply/edit my post with an update after I try it.

 

[tk11]

Repair installs should be used only as a last resort. Since your familiar with linux I imagine your comfortable at a prompt. Boot from the cd>press R for repair>press c for recovery console>login with the admin pass.

From here just rename the windows and program files folders.
ren windows "oldwin"
ren "program files" oldprg

Reboot from the cd again and you be able to do a clean install into c:\windows because the old one was renamed.

Once XP is up and running install drivers and updates.

If you run into trouble in the future avoid doing a repair install.

 

[mechBgon]

Also, use a real Microsoft-produced CD, not a downloaded one, when you do your installation. Borrowing a CD is kosher as long as you have a legit license of your own, which it sounds like you have one stuck right to your Dell. Go for it

 

[TG2]

the Dell reinstall CD's I have used in the past 2 ys havent had any bloat on them at all.
I make sure the customer pays the extra $10 for the OS CD from Dell when I order them a PC.
What model Dell are you using ?

 

[Mavtech]

Yes. As an ex Dell sales rep, I can confirm that the Dell reinstallation CDs do not have the bloatware on them. They are actually more stripped down then the retail versions. The only way you get the Dell crap-ware is by restoring from the restore partition.

I tried to install from a copy once and had the same problems as the OP. Try your Dell CD.