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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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I have but one *BIG* "Don't".
Feb 18, 2014 2:58AM PST

My advice, after thirty years of playing with DOS/Windows machines (and many others) is DO NOT.
Never do a nuke and pave. Never, ever.
Unless your machine is jammed full of malware, adware, spyware and the rubbish that comes with a new box, *NEVER* wipe and re-install the Operating System.
Never.
There is absolutely never any need to do this, except for the cases I made above when the machine is completely unusable.
Apply the service packs. Apply every update you can get. Update all your software to the latest WinXP version available and get rid of the crud like Ebay subscriptions and offers of other stuff that comes with your machine then leave it alone.
I'm just one person and almost everyone will disagree with me and think I'm nuts, inept and an idiot but - except for moving from one OS to another (Win95 to Win98 or Win98 to WinME) - I have never needed to re-install an Operating System on a Windows box.
Cleaning the TEMP/tmp directories, clearing and making smaller the Temporary Internet Files folders, removing all the system and Anti-Virus ware logs, yes, but never a clean install from scratch.
There is no need for it on a working machine.
It's like de-fragmenting a solid state drive. Pointless work for no benefit.
Okay, everyone, I'm done.

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Reinstall XP
Feb 20, 2014 3:47AM PST
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DONT DO IT!!
Feb 21, 2014 7:58AM PST

Hi,
If your machine boots up and works if you reinstall you will create days of work.
clean up what you, I have just done one that came from a tip
uninstall any software you dont want use revo uninstaller free edition it will find left overs,
use registry repairer plenty of free ones to clean up registry, empty recycle bin.
run SFC (system file checker) from command prompt run as administrator this will find and repair all microsoft files.
control panel click on system this will tell you what service pack you have install service pack 3 if you dont already have it.
install defraggler and defrag hard disk Free
install malwarebytes free and then scan
install free antivirus software update and scan
ps if you have never installed avg before it has a fix performance which will find any errors and correct but you can only use it for 24 hours after that youhave to buy it
This was the way I fixed the tip find and is now a good working machine

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No! really don't do it.
Feb 21, 2014 8:16AM PST

A registry cleaner and defraggler? Not good advice and not needed.

Dafydd.

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Why do I bother?
Feb 23, 2014 1:16AM PST

I used to do it because I once needed, and gratefully received, help from those who had better skills and more experience than me. Then I did it because I sometimes have better skills and more experience [as I should after being a pro. for decades] than someone just starting out. I was repaying the community for the help I was given when I needed it.
And then there's persistance-uk who basically didn't bother to read what I wrote, said much of what I had already said but in poorer English and with little or no punctuation - and a poor grasp of capitalisation - and contaminated his message with dangerous and half-baked advice.
The "sfc" command does not work miracles. If a file is badly corrupted it may well be unfixable by anything short of magic. Worse, "sfc" may well replace a corrupt copy of a file with the "back-up copy" which is also corrupt, in truth that may be where the corruption came from. This is not progress. It's a useful tool but it isn't a panacea.Sometimes you just have to go to your original system restore disks and pull a clean copy of corrupted files from there.
On that subject, even if a run of sfc tells you files are corrupted, of if chkdisk does if you use that, if your box is running fine you need not fix them. It's *YOUR* computer and if you can live with a few broken files feel free to do so. If you haven't noticed them, the odds are they aren't being used much anyway. [And I do know how dangerous that advice is if you're an expert, but most of us just want our machines to *work*. If they work well enough with a few broken files, who cares?]
That last bit of "don't fix what aint broked" applies very much so to the Registry.
The Windows Registry is often huge and full of crud left over from programs you've deleted. Registry cleaners are supposed to remove all keys referring to those gone programs. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they also remove vital keys that tell Windows how to work. This can stop Windows working and convert your lovely machine into a brick. The best advice for working with the Windows Registry is simple: DON'T.
Get a professional to do it for you. Preferably someone Microsoft certified and trusted by his friends. Don't take your box into PCWorld or an Apple store and expect their "Geek Squads" to do the job. These people are sometimes so poorly trained a dyslexic pigeon would be safer hands. That's not an insult, just a fact. I will happily futz about with the Registry of my own boxes, and I've yet to break one, I've yet to even need to restore the Registry from a back-up, but before I mess with someone else's box I always tell them there is a very small chance I'll brick it and they'll need to pay a real Microsoft Guy to come fix it. I never have, but it's possible. If someone like me, with eyes and a brain can mess up the registry, think what an set of rules written for a generic Windows machine can do to your very personal copy. Remember, the program assumes your Registry is like every other. It isn't. No two are identical ten minutes after the machines are switched on. A human with skill can cope with these differences, a program often can not.
Registry cleaners can brick your machine.
Before even thinking of using one, make sure Registry.bak exists and make a backup of the real, operational one. Then do not use the software.
Disk defragmenters were handy for Windows up to wWin95, or even WinME. There is no need for such a thing in WindowsXP, Win7, W8 or W8-one.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848 tells you how to defragment a WinXP disk. You do not need third party, add-on software. Ever. It's not quite as dangerous as a Registry Cleaner, mostly, but a defragger can brick your disk. They don't do it often but it's possible.
Before anyone else says it, the Microsoft Defragmenter that comes with WinXP can also kill the disk but that is also rare. So rare that I've yet to hear of it. It has probably happened [thousands of millions of disks and ten years or more of WinXP, *everything* has happened by now] but it's rare and the one advantage of the WinXP defragger is that it does come with WinXP. It was written *for* WinXP, it doesn't come with unnecessary baggage. It mostly just works.

My last advice to Marie M. about her XP re-install enquiry is : don't. There is no need. Just clean your machine. Do it slowly. Take online advice from the BleepingComputer and other experts. Type "online support" into Google for more local help. Do the job slowly and carefully and make sure you can reverse any damage you do by having back-ups. Learn as you go and it can even be fun.
Microsoft is stopping support for Windows XP but the operating system itself will still run as long as you machine does. Just be careful when or if you connect it to the Internet and you'll be fine.

So there you go, my last posting, complete with adjectives, good syntax, nice grammar and loads and loads of well-placed punctuation marks. It even has capitalised lettering.
Why do I bother? From now, I don't.