XP reinstall without losing programs?

[SDOG34]

Hi all-

My mom is having some computer issues (network) and I was wondering if I could do the reinstall of XP (without formating) and keep all of the outlook express contacts, emails, etc. Or, would I have to back those things up, and if so, how do I do that?

Cheers

 

[earthling30]

What kind of problems are you having? If it's so severe beyond repairing, someone plz correct me if 'm wrong, I believe you can run the repair option from your WinXP CD without loosing anything.
HTH

 

[elkinm]

earthling30 is right. You should just be able to do a repair install.

But if the only thing you need to back up are the emails and contact list then you can wither do an export of your messages and address book from the file->export option in outlook express. You can also copy the contents of your Outlook Express store directory and the address book and restore them later for a more complete backup.

If you have other programs and settings that she needs then you can try a repair install the problem is that you will end up with your basic windows installation and all you programs but without the latest drivers and patches which may cause problem. But if it not a problem, backing up what you need and doing a clean install would be a better option.

 

[Confused]

Chuck the XP CD in the drive, and boot from it. First step is to press Enter, you don't want the Recovery Console. Then, F8 will get you through the EULA to the next screen, which will list the operating systems already installed. Pressing R here will send it off into the setup, and will reinstall all devices and network etc settings, but leave all your installed programs/documents safe.


I did this today with my laptop which I'd managed to screw up by trying to replace the uxtheme.dll file



Confused