[ubonline]

OK. Got through the entire instructions, changed the bios boot sequence. Just restarted by holding power button, without CD, and ended up in blue screen with large cursor (looks like safe mode).

So, shut down again and restarted holding F8, chose "start normally" and got same blue screen.

Somehow must be related to change I made with Anitvir.

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Once you change the bios it should ask you to verify save and exit. You click Y and then the system should reboot on its own. You should get a black window with the words in the upper left that say "Press any key to boot from CD"
If you didn't see this then it's not booting to the cdrom. It should never get to the HD

[rshaffer61]

Once you change the bios it should ask you to verify save and exit. You click Y and then the system should reboot on its own. You should get a black window with the words in the upper left that say "Press any key to boot from CD"
If you didn't see this then it's not booting to the cdrom. It should never get to the HD

[ubonline]

Yes, I changed the boot order to CD #1, followed the repair install instructions, maybe I missed something.

Now I tried again, and after accepting licensing agreement I click R and get a message:

Windows has already attempted to upgrade.
- To retry press enter.
- To continue installing a fresh copy press ESC.
- To quit setup press F3.

Which should I select?

[rshaffer61]

Ok this is going no where.
Try doing the next instructions and then we can continue.
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.

[ubonline]

OK, seems to have worked! How do I go about getting my old stuff and settings back on the computer? Or do I need to re-install everything?

[rshaffer61]

Did you see this part?
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.
If you did this then you would need to find the old Document and Settings and copy it over to the new one.
So the OS is now up and running correctly if I understand you right?

[ubonline]

Yes, I did see that part, but this is all brand new to me so just seeing it doesn't tell me what to do with it, sorry.

So, under documents and settings I see the following folders:

all users
all users.windows0
old username
owner
owner.new username

So I copy and paste from old username the entire folder into owner.new username?

[rshaffer61]

old username
This is the one I'm sure you will need. You should be able to go into it and see your desktop settings with all your icons and links.

[ubonline]

OK, I copied all the files, looks like everything is there. However, my screen resolution is set to 640x480 and I cannot change it, any ideas how to fix it? I right clicked on desktop, properties, settings, and I can see the screen resolution but it wont let me change it.

[rshaffer61]

You will probably have to load the drivers for the video card again. Somethings do not auto switch over.

[ubonline]

That worked, looks like I am all set, on to re-installing all the rest. Thanks for all your help, much appreciated!

[rshaffer61]

That is great to hear. Please let us know how everything works once you have it all up and running. There is still the issue of the old installation which we need to address also. Let me ask when you boot up do you get a prompt asking you which os to boot to now?
If so we will need to fix this by editing the boot.ini file.
Let me know and i will monitor this topic for your reply.

[ubonline]

Yes, I do get asked which XP to install so fixing that would be a help.

Also, cannot connect to internet - I used all the CD's that came with computer, called my ISP (ATT uverse) and they said call the computer manufacturer (Dell) since my internet service is working. The computer is hardwired to router and all connections ok, router lights are all on, so I must be missing something during reinstall.

[rshaffer61]

Yes probably the network installation.
Go to Start then to Control panel
Network Setup Wizard and then follow the prompts to setup a home network. This will allow the internet to work then.
You may have to go into IE connection wizard also and setup there.

[ubonline]

I've tried everything and can't connect. Guess we just spent a lot of time fixing a word processor.