Not my computer thank God, it belongs to my freind/coworker. Someone got on it while he was away and inadvertantly screwed it up, badly. I looked at it last week and I couldn't get into windows normally so I booted in safe mode and made some changes in startup that at least got me into windows normally. The computer is slow as hell and has no web access right now, it may be all related. I ran adaware se because he had it installed already and it found one item in the registry. Apparently some things were deleted by someone who tried to fix it.

I don't have a lot of computer skills -like some of you- and he has even less than me so would it be possible to re-install XP pro over XP pro without losing all of his saved files? Would he lose his installed programs? I've done it before with Win 98 and was able to keep everything I had but at least it fixed my windows probs.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


i

Quoted: Not my computer it belongs to my freind/coworker. Someone got on it while he was away and inadvertantly screwed it up, badly. I looked at it last week and I couldn't get into windows normally so I booted in safe mode and made some changes in startup that at least got me into windows normally. The computer is slow as hell and has no web access right now, it may be all related. I ran adaware se because he had it installed already and it found one item in the registry. Apparently some things were deleted by someone who trid to fix it. I don't have a lot of computer skills -like some of you- and he has even less than me so would it be possible to re-install XP pro over XP pro without losing all of his saved files? would he lose his installed programs? I've done it before with Win 98 and was able to keep everything I had but at least it fixed my windows probs. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. i

get a new hard drive (cheap), install xp on new hard drive, use old hard drive as secondary, pull files from that drive.

IBtc6969






I hate it when my saved files get loost.

system restore may help

Actually, what I'd reccomend, is getting a linux live cd, booting it up, burning the important files to CD, then reinstalling windows on a clean format.

Quoted: get a new hard drive (cheap), install xp on new hard drive, use old hard drive as secondary, pull files from that drive.

That's the best way. I'd also set it up so that my data files are separate from the system files. Put them on different partitions. Then use Norton Ghost or some other imaging utilities and periodically make an image of the drive with the OS on it.

Weird how you spelled lose correctly in your message body, but incorrectly in your title..

yes it can be done.   but rarely fixes the problem.   i would suggest backing up your files.   before you do ANYTHING

and then doing a fresh install

 

Sytsem restore should be your first step. Restart the computer , go into safe mode then get to system restore; "start\programs\accessories\system\system retore" and restore it to an earlier time.

If that still has problems you can reinstall windows over it self.  Rather than retype what is already there, go to http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm.

good luck

Great information guys, thank you very much for your help.
I tried system restore first because it was the least difficult for me, and I thought it might do the trick. However, it would not complete the task, actually the message was that it could not be restored to the restore point that I chose. I tried three different restore points, going further back each time until we were well before the problem started, all of which failed. I never saw that happen prior to this.

I left before the final restore attempt had been completed, but my friend called afterwards and said that it also failed.

Tomorrow I will try deleting the network card drivers and restart Windows, if everything works according to plan, he can put the files on his other computer so he doesn't lose them.

At the very least he now understands why he needs to backup his files from time to time. I learned that the hard way, more than once.

If this fails then we'll look for a cheap HDD and go that route. The Linux CD may be a problem for us to get ahold of, or use, that may be a little beyond my skill level, but thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks again to everyone, your replies were excellent, and very informative.

Quoted: Weird how you spelled lose correctly in your message body, but incorrectly in your title..

Hahaha, I didn't catch that one. I'll just go on record here and say that it was actually meant to be a 'Loose interpretation of Lose.'
ETA: Problem corrected for your reading pleasure.