[SomeCrazyStuff]

hahahahaha!!!!!!!

i need to go to bed after that one...

PNP was disabled in CMOS... oops? now i just have to run windows updates and see where to go from there. (my non dell OS cd was SP1.. )

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OK this is where I think the problem is.
By doing this with the Dell disk and then with a XP disk we may have some conflicts happening.

[rshaffer61]

OK this is where I think the problem is.
By doing this with the Dell disk and then with a XP disk we may have some conflicts happening.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

im listening... well, reading attentively that is...

though im confused as to where that would matter because i thought that when you do the repair it trashes all previous system files.. which would be why im having to redo updates...

Edited by SomeCrazyStuff, 12 November 2009 - 05:50 PM.

[rshaffer61]

No a repair only replaces files that are corrupted or missing.
In your case when it searched for the original files they did not match the Dell installation. So a lot of them were probably replaced. Then when you did the original some were probably replaced. Therefor we may have a conflict of system files happening.
I think at this time the best thing to do is to attempt a parallel installation and see if we cna get things working right.
What do you think?

[SomeCrazyStuff]

hmm.. parallel installation.. you may have to remind me how that is done.. not something i have had to do in a long time.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

ah.. nvm.. i googled and found a microsoft page on how to do it.. I remember that now.. lol

I'll post results when i get them.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

one question i do have before i do this.. are we going to aim for moving info from one OS to the Parallel OS or are we aiming to backup and restore the info?

You may have to give me more details afterall.. lol I know how to do the parallel install.. but reason why and circumstances of doing so are more of the question in my head at the moment.

[rshaffer61]

Here is our canned speech on this. Hopefully it will answer these questions for you.

Parallel Installation of Windows XP

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

• At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
• Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
• With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
• Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
• To continue setup using this partition, press C
• Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
• To use a different folder, press Esc
• Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter

The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

what is the difference between doing this and just doing a backup and restore after reformat? the goal in the parallel install is just to recover system usability correct? If I am understanding this correctly it is more for giving you a way to recover info say if your system will not boot up at all and is definitely due to corrupt OS.

Even though i have already done the parallel install, i really don't see the point in it in my circumstances. I can boot into windows just fine. It is a bit sluggish and that may be because of the conflicts you mentioned.. but even so it is far enough into the OS that I could do a backup and just reformat, since that is basically where we are heading anyways.

... that is unless i am still missing something... (<-very possible )

[rshaffer61]

This will tell us if the problem is the actual old installation. If the new installation works then the problem is deeper then is most likely capable of being fixed. If this turns out to be true then this way the data can be moved over and saved. Old installation is then deleted and everything will work except for reinstalling the drivers and programs.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

heres a question.. since we now have 2 copies of windows on the same partition.. if it came to the worst scenario couldnt we just delete the original windows folder and that be the end of it? of course would still have to go and reinstall all drivers and programs.. but as far as the OS itself goes... yea....

[rshaffer61]

Yep that is probably going to be the ending result.
The important thing is to follow the instructions and copy the data information it suggests. This will then allow you to reinstall the programs and have everything hopefully back up and working correctly.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

ok so to effectively migrate from the old OS to the new one i need to copy the contents of my old Documents and Setting Folder to the new one.. along with any info i have saved elsewhere, correct? is there anything else that would need to be moved?

[rshaffer61]

Nope thats it and then you should reboot and click on the new installation login. If you have done Everything right you should be able to boot into windows with no problem. We will then fix the dual boot issue from there.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

ok my computer is on a domain controlled by active directory. Can I use the same user name as I did before or will i need to create a new one? either is an option, but ability to use the same one is preferred...