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General discussion

Help with one final reinstall of XP before support goes away

Feb 7, 2014 7:42AM PST
Question:

Need help with one final reinstall of XP before support goes away


Hello. Before Windows XP support totally goes away, I am thinking about wiping everything off of my laptop to do a fresh install with Service Packs 2 and 3, and all of the updates. I was wondering if your community members could post instructions on how to re-install XP one last time to rebuild an XP machine from scratch (essentially). Also, if you could kindly please let me know if there are any pointers for do's and don't's that I should be aware of before I proceed, that would be very helpful. Thank you.

-- Submitted by: Marie M.

Discussion is locked

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Computers do live forever, they just need parts
Feb 14, 2014 11:05AM PST

You're wrong about computers dying. You clone your hard drive once in a while and your computer is immortal.

Drives do wear out and die. You snap the latest clone in and you're good. In fact it's very unlikely you'll ever have a drive die if, when you clone, you leave the cloned drive in and lock up the old drive.

Power supplies die. Easily replaced. Motherboards are a little harder to replace, but also not a problem.

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Not always
Feb 14, 2014 12:53PM PST

If you were unfortunate enough to get a MOBO with the faulty capacitors (between 2000~2006 or2007?)
you will have a problem with this staement. However, I still have motherboards from mid 1990's which work fine (running MS DOS)
One day I'll try a Linux distro on them Laugh

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Motherboards can be replaced too
Feb 14, 2014 5:21PM PST

You can make a clone of your system drive with Acronis that will accept a different motherboard. Alternately, there are instructions on the MS website how to make get Windows to accept a different motherboard should the motherboard fail.

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I had one DELL XPS on my network..
Feb 14, 2014 1:33PM PST

that never did die!! It ran almost 24/7 for over 10 years!! I just got tired of its performance on the bloated XP after so many service packs, that I threw it away! I think I had only one add on graphics card fail, and it didn't come OEM. So none of the original hardware ever failed completely. I even had lighting blow one of the PCI plugs on the mobo, so I moved the Ethernet card to a different one and voila! I was on a strict budget so I couldn't afford a newer CPU, and I refused to replace the gigabit card for it, because it still ran in 10Mbps mode, and that was faster than my internet speed - so I never even took a performance hit!

This machines was actually designed for Win'98 and W2k, so it is a wonder it was able to run XP as long as it did. It took some long pauses and playing taps for me to finally ditch it - a very good solid machine! Sad

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Email data.????
Feb 14, 2014 11:11AM PST

" Data in special programs that do not store their files in My Documents, Email data in hidden folders such as Outlook Express and Outlook

How does one copy or save Emails from Outlook or other programs when switching to another computer.?

I am limited in knowledge on how to do this, but have also found the paid Geeks very limited in helping with this issue also.

I recently had a hard drive problem, brought the computer to the Geek and he said it would be no problem saving my emails as well as other files, such as, what was in "My documents" folder.

2 weeks later, got a phone call saying that he had to replace the hard drive and wasn't able to retrieve anything except what was in "My Documents" folder.

When he was asked about what happened to the Outlook files and folders, he played dumb and said he wasn't aware that we had any Outlook/ email folders and he wiped the hard drive and installed a new one.

I have always been curious if my external hard drive that is set to back up all files is actually backing up my emails. If not, how do I backup Outlook or other email files.?

Thanks for any help.

Rick

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The easiest way..
Feb 14, 2014 2:02PM PST

for my clients is to use an imaging backup program like Macrium Reflect Free. There is one other called Easus or something like that, - just reading the user reviews here on CNET can help make the decision. Anytime I've had to do a recovery of the "image", it has never taken any more than 20 minutes or so, and EVERYTHING on the hard drive - just the way you left it - will be right there upon reboot from the operation. You generally have to burn a recovery disc in preperation, in case your operating system is hosed, so you have a boot environment to point to the backup file on what ever media you are using. Of course you DON'T want to use the same hard drive you boot from, to save the image file; that would be a disaster! Macrium does a good job compressing the image too, so you might even get away with burning it to a DVD! Reflect, will even periodically do incremental images if you set it up that way, to update any changes you've made to your files.

To go back to the XP issue, the Microsoft File and Settings Transfer Wizard can back up all your files including all email and settings for it [not applications]. You could deposit the resulting file on another drive or media of your choice, but it can be a really big file. I have more descriptions on another post here if you want a little more detail. The help files in your operating system should tell you the entire procedure though. You may have to download this Wizard from the MS TechNet site, as it isn't their natively, from what I remember. If the drive were getting flaky, you would only want to do this by putting the drive in another PC with a good drive and XP operating system to work with. When drives begin to fail, every time you boot to it and run the operating system on it, can be more damage done; better to slave it in another computer or as another slave drive in the same computer.

I know all this might sound like geekanese to you, but there really are good sites out there that can help you research this and they even have good screenshots. I'm sure there are many good articles right here on CNET to that fact!

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The Wrong Geek
Feb 16, 2014 8:22PM PST

I am sorry to say that it sounds like you took your computer to the wrong GEEK. I don't know why anyone would wipe your hard drive if he was installing a new one? Any competent service provider should always check for email data such as Outlook, Outlook Express, address books and address history files whether or not the customer mentions it or not. He or she should also offer to give you back your original hard drive.

The Outlook files are in different locations depending on what version of Windows and Office you are running. If you have limited knowledge about these types of things, you would probably find it best if you either purchase backup software that will do it for you or even better, simply sign up for an online backup service such as Carbonite, Mozy or Crash Plan which will do it all for you.

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Agreed, the guy's an idiot and should be unemployed.
Feb 18, 2014 3:57AM PST

He's already unemployable, even if he does have a job. He's a bloody menace. Possibly also an incompetent and a liar.
Outlook, like IE has an "Export files and settings" setting. You can copy the emails, folders, colour settings, personal preferences and whatnot to another machine, to an online cache or to some other software like Thunderbird or Pegasus, just like IE can export to disk, online or Firefox or Chrome. The Help file and the online Microsoft help pages are *excellent* in showing us how to do this. Years ago, they were well known for being rubbish but this has not been the case for several years.
Where the files are is irrelevant. The *software* knows where they live so *it* can find and copy them. Anyone who has ever used MS Office for more than a minute would know this.

A small point, Rick, did you have any personal data on that drive, like credit card numbers, purchase receipts, addresses, email contacts, photographs or anything else? If so the ****** has probably lifted them, assuming he's competent enough to know how - which I would tend to doubt.
Were that me, I would have sued the thieving scunner within an inch of his life and included the company he worked for. Such blatant incompetence, idiocy , laziness, thievery or all four should never be tolerated.

Of course, I would have cleaned the drive before sending it in, so the question would never have arisen. But, unlike Rick's "geek", I'm a professional.

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Reinstalling Windows XP
Feb 14, 2014 6:55PM PST

Use the files and settings transfer wizard, copy to a usb drive, and reload after fresh installation.

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Reinstalling Windows XP
Feb 15, 2014 3:27AM PST

I think it would be better to do what the German Government have done and go for an opensource Operating System like Linux Mint 16 MATE (Petra) 64bit edition for after it is installed it just works and doesn't need Antivirus although FreshclamAV comes pre installed just ClamTK

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German Government have done
Feb 15, 2014 7:05AM PST

I also has installed Linux even though I know neither how to conjugate nor pronounce it. After MANY MS years imposed by international company clients, and far too much time spent clearing out thieving crap from my computer which I think should be the occupation of international law enforcement agencies.
But that would be an ideal world.
I, like most people, use much percent browser and word processor, and in a few initial days have found the buchshee package pretty blinking good!

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Linux
Feb 14, 2014 11:26AM PST

I'm pretty sure your right about Linux.
There has already been a small but noticeable increase of Linux users as Microsoft tries to force people to 'upgrade'
As more paying customers (business users) move to Ubuntu they have more cash to develop compatible software plus make it more like Windows for converts. I know several IT people would prefer it if their organizations switched. Apparently, it's more stable and easier to manage 100's of computers with Linux/UNIX? (I'm a mechanic, don't get involved with IT Laugh )

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Make sure you have recover disk
Feb 10, 2014 12:45AM PST

if you never made them, then do so. If you can't make them anymore, then you would need to order them. Cost is usually about $20 from the manufacturer site.

Download Service pack 1 or SP2 since you must have one of those or SP3 won't install.

Download SP3

Burn the two service packs to a CD to keep for future. Do not waste time trying to create a slipstream CD or DVD using the manufacturer's supplied disc, it will just result in frustration.

After doing a complete restore install and doing the service packs in order, you must do all the downloads from Microsoft update

Before doing anything more after that, download Easus Todo and make a complete cloned backup of the partition or drive. Be sure to let it divide into file parts which will burn onto CD's or DVD's. In the future if you need to do complete restore of a fully updated XP system, this is what you will use.

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Yet a better solution for future use
Feb 10, 2014 12:52AM PST

Download Oracle's Virtualbox program

Install and setup for a virtual drive to which XP can be installed.

Your manufacturer supplied disc will likely not allow an install to this virtual hard drive. If not you would need a retail disc.

Install XP to the virtual hard drive (it's actually a file *.vhd).

Do the service packs

Do the full updates from Microsoft

Burn the VHD file containing all this to a DVD, so try to keep it below 4GB in size, or 8GB if burning dual layer.

From that day forward, you can run XP under any other operating system if you choose, so long as you have a Virtual Hard Drive program like VPC2007 or VirtualBox installed. All you have to do is copy that VHD file back to a hard drive and point the virtual machine program at the file.

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Probably not on an old laptop
Feb 15, 2014 4:12PM PST

I agree about virtualization. I had a problem with an XP install I need because some of the programs can't be reinstalled (vendor out of business, can't reactivate, etc.). Easus (www.Todo-Backup.com) has Todo Backup Workstation, which lets you convert a physical disk to virtual. Sysinternals also has disk2vhd or some similar name.

But virtualization probably won't be possible on an old XP laptop. It's probably too old to have more than maybe 1GB DDR memory, which is the minimum to run Win 7. Chances are the memory couldn't be upgraded enough. It probably also has a single core Pentium or Celeron and maybe even a PATA drive -- way to slow for virtualization even if the low memory problem can be cured.

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Do more than a clean install of Windows XP.
Feb 14, 2014 10:36AM PST

After getting the clean install working with all programs and before you actually start using the drive, do at least one clone to a new hard drive. Maybe more than one.

Use HDClone Free Edition. It does a wonderful job. It may take 6-10 hours but will be totally worth it. Then you will have at least two fully functional Windows XP.

If the drive you use gets messed up, you can clone back onto it.

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Help which is Always there...!
Feb 14, 2014 10:36AM PST

Simple
Go To ::
www.bleepingcomputer.com

1. Help is FREE
2. The volunteer staff are quite incredible
3. Anything problem/query to do with your computer, will find an answer there

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I agree.
Feb 18, 2014 4:04AM PST

I've used this service and they are often exceedingly helpful. When they are not being exceedingly helpful they are completely *amazingly* helpful.
No one can know all the little nooks and crannies of IT stuff but there is almost certainly someone in BC who has already encountered and solved just about any problem that can arise.

I would also thoroughly recommend Microsoft's help pages and fora. These were a well-told joke in the professional IT community when they started but today they are excellent. Some of the people helping on their community support pages are far more patient than saints and truly, deeply know what they are talking about.

There are, of course, other helpful hands out there.

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+1
Feb 18, 2014 4:10AM PST

Unsure why any negative on that post but I am encountering folk that don't understand that many helpers volunteer their time. Sometimes folk think the help is paid and DEMAND support.

I feel the pain of what the industry did to the Windows PC market. They forgot some basics along the way from command line driven computers to today's everyone should be able to use it machines. That is, until we got those newer machines with less ways to screw them up.
Bob

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No need to throw away hardware if it can do the job
Feb 14, 2014 10:48AM PST

Some people have discussed how to re-install and given clear directions, which is really good - thanks!

I can only add:

There's no need to 'panic' about support going away, you just won't get new updates, which will mostly go unnoticed.
Do a clean install, nothing better than a clean install for performance.

Assuming you're using the hardware for what almost everybody does (web browsing, email, facebook etc) you should consider a Linux distribution, as it will perform better on your hardware and will be supported for much longer - but there is a small learning curve.

If I understand you, you want to get further life out of a working system - I applaud you for not falling into the "just buy a new machine" trap.

Regards Happy

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Fresh install
Feb 14, 2014 11:10AM PST

I'm going to do a fresh install on a spare hard drive, with all the updates, etc, stash it in anti static bag then vacuum seal it for future use. I may even store in refrigerator, it's the safest place in house to store most things ;o) (plus, it will be a constant temp/ low humidity )
For laptop, I would probably get a new hard drive for fresh install and fit old drive into an enclosure. That way you don't have to worry about 'damaging' any files (it's what I'm doing) I fitted a WD 'Black' 500GB drive (longest warantee for hard drive) to laptop and use dual boot with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. No way am I going to be held 'hostage' and forced to 'upgrade' by Microsoft

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I've never seen a refrigerator..
Feb 14, 2014 2:16PM PST

with a dehumidifier in it - defrosters don't count. Everyone in IT knows you can expect corrosion to form in the hard drive in that environment. Just putting it in a cool dry place - where ever that is - is the way to go. I'd say a basement, but you'd need a dehumidifier once again, because basements are notoriously damp. Probably a totally sealed ammo box with silica gel bags included would be an excellent way to store in a basement, or even underground for that matter.

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Hi Marie M.
Feb 14, 2014 11:27AM PST

Hi,
How long ago have you done a clean install of Windows XP? Hope you have time to wipe and do a clean install as it is not a quick job as there will be at least 200 plus updates even after installing SP3 by now if I am correct but correct me if I am wrong people. If you want to wipe it clean you will need a program like wipe drive or whatever your choice or just cover it with the XP disc it's up to you. Then install an Ativirus of your choice and the basic programs you want.

Your laptop will run faster for a while until you start filling up your hard drive with whatever. Really depends on how old your laptop is and what memory and size hard drive is in it and a lot of other things too.

So do what you wanna do be what you wanna be yeah.

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What is the Issue?
Feb 14, 2014 11:59AM PST

I'm looking at some of the "youngsters" replies- I am so happy mommy and daddy are supporting their computer habits and they feel wealthy! Now to move on with your ?

I do not see a problem of when you reinstall XP depending on whether you need support. The only time I used support was when my dad sent me his P-120, my first computer and I reinstalled W'95. It took many "experts" over many time zones and a couple of mid-western storms including power outages that night. 14 hours later I had reinstalled W'95. You should have it much easier assuming you have the installation disc. If you have not done anything of the sort and you have paid for support, certainly do it now. But if you have an installation disc and feel good about your ability to follow directions go to square 2- Do It. The updates will always be there- at least for the next 5 years. While I have not tried yet it is my understanding that W'95 updates are still available. Just because they stopped developing new tools and protections does not mean you can't get everything developed up until the execution date. I believe that all developed up until the end-of -times for XP will always be available. Good luck and enjoy your XP. I will also for a long time to come Happy.

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Aah, the 'good old days'
Feb 14, 2014 12:58PM PST

You had a P120? Lucky, I had to make do with a P75 overclocked to 90mhz Laugh

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aah yes, those days
Feb 14, 2014 3:25PM PST

I dont even remember a P120 - but then I forget a lot.
my first was a kit I bought in an electronics magazine. spent
extra money to get the 8k of ram. that was something.
took a couple months to get it together to work.
then the Comadore 64,. actually had a OS. hahahaha

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(NT) Yes there was- Mine is a Gateway
Feb 14, 2014 6:36PM PST
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Go to Win7
Feb 14, 2014 12:07PM PST

I was a longtime user of XP, but eventually installed 7, and have gradually switched over to it. There are some minor annoyances, but I have either gotten used to them or worked around them, but, on the whole, I have found Windows 7 to be much superior to XP. I won't give a lengthy catalog in support of this statement, but I think the recommendations you have here to get a new computer and go with Win 7 are sound. I have finally gotten rid of all vestiges of XP use, and will eventually trash it for disk space, if nothing else, such as a different opsys. Good luck!

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Win 7
Feb 14, 2014 1:01PM PST

My step daughter, wife and granddaughter all use Win 7. It really doesn't seem to be any better at managing wireless networking than Win 95 and they STILL get BSOD occaisionally (and they all have up to date AV, firewall, etc)