XP question/problem and multi-partitions?

[MGully8]

I had a laptop that wouldn't let me even get into Windows with XP it was throwing a bluescreen with a missing file. So I just reinstalled XP over top the current XP since I didn't want to lose all the data that was on the hard drive. Now I have access to the data and I have burned everything I want. I can see all my old programs such as Office and Adobe on the harddrive but I am unable to run them, they say "This application must be installed to run. Please run setup from the location where you orginally installed the application."

The question I have is there a way to get these programs to work without reinstalling them or do I need to reinstall everything? If I do have to reinstall everything I might as well wipe the drive and reinstall XP again and add everything from there.

What do people think of partitioning the harddrive into two sections and installing the operating system on one partition and using the other for person files so that if you must reinstall XP again you don't lose everything again.

Thanks for all the input and responses.

 

[uncleX]

I have installed XP over itself (and W98, and W2K) a number of tiimes, and it always picked up the installed programs. About the only thng I can think of that would cause your problem is a corrupt registry that the XP intaller program excised your setups from ( unless possibly your drive letter has been changed.) Before reinstalling XP when it blue screens on startup, you can try pressing F8 as XP boots, and select "last known good system" (something like that.)

Howerver, I have had multiple OSes on a single computer, and very often you can get the programs to run by just finding the location of the program file, the one that first starts it that is, and if/when it doesn't load, it gives you the name of the missing file, you put a copy of the file in the Windows, Windows\system, or Windows\system32 directory. Make sure the shortcuts also point to the correct "Start in" directory. But there are some massive system hogs (like possibly MS Offfice and Adobe) that have hundreds or thousands of registry entries they need in order to work never get to the end of weirdness.

 

[Smilin]

How you partition your drive will make no difference in this case.

The reason your programs won't work is because you overwrote their registry entries by performing a new installation.

In the future what you wan't to do is called an "inplace upgrade" aka repair. It will reinstall operating sytem files and registry entrys but leave third party data, programs and registry entries intact.

 

[MGully8]

I realize that the dual partition have no effect on the the programs that I have installed or will be installing I was just stating the dual partition to protect my private data if I end up having to re-install XP.

Where is that option to do an "inplace upgrade" on the XP install cd?

Thanks

 

[Smilin]

Boot to CD (Hit F6 and later 'S'pecify if necessary for your mass storage controller).
F8 at the EULA
Enter to setup
R to repair.

You won't need to take any steps to protect your data either. Programs and 3rd party registry entries will remain intact. Your data will remain in your documents and settings folder. Any identical usernames will get new docs & settings folders. Administrator & Administrator.000 for instance.