1. I have windowx XP installed on C:\ and all my programs on a different partition. If C needs to be reformatted how can I still "reinstall" the programs without actually having to reinstall them. Basically get XP to recognize them. I am thinking the registry would be
erased if I had to reformat so the programs wouldnt show up as being installed.

2. Also, if there is a way, i will need to find out how to install XP. My PC came with HP's very crappy version of Windows. Reinstalling XP with their recovery cd would reformat my entire hard drive, deleting everything. In addition to installing a bunch of crapware on my PC.

Possibly I would be able to borrow a friend's XP cd and use my original product key. There is a XP home product key sticker on the side of my PC. I don't know if it would still work though. If i do borrow a XP cd and have to call windows would i be able to get a new key? The whole windows activation thing really confused me.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance G2G.

If you can boot up the windows with the other partition if it retains the old operating system then you can just burn off the info onto dvd/cd discs, however i assume you cant burn them becaus you probly would hav done that to begine with, so thier is another option, borrow someones spare harddrive or buy one, stick it inyour computer and run the os off that one, then with your own harddrive as a secondary just use the primary to pull the files from yours onto it and then format your whole disk after making sure they transfrerd properly and safely. Then put them back onto yours and if you can you might wish to clean up the borrowed harddrive and then just return the harddrives to their proper places.
Thats as good as my advice gets, unless of course you wana try something else, if so, im not sure if that partition magic 8 software works properly for yourstuff but you could google it up and try a demo of it to see if it can read your partition and do it for you simply like that, but be warned it has the potential to caus some hasel for poeple. Not to mention to actually get any real use out of it youl have to buy it... im kinda cheap but perhaps bein stuck like you are you may actually pay up the fees for a somewhat simple solution.

Have a Good Day.

This post has been edited by Destructo Roboto: Jun 7 2005, 04:16 AM

1. No, that will not work---in addition to wiping out the registry, windows/programs drop files all over the harddrive so destroying see will make your programs on d: stop functioning. Even if you exported the registry settings, after reinstalling windows on C: you will still not have all of the required files

2. resintalling with the recovery disk is your only real option. Borrowing your friends CD might work if his is the same version of windows as your cd key, but it is not guaranteed to work since there are so many different versions of windows and each cd-key works for a specific version.

I see. So it looks like it would be more trouble than its worth. Thanks everyone. goodbye