Reinstall Windows

To reinstall Windows, you will need your original Windows XP CD and the Product Key code supplied with the CD. If Windows was supplied with your computer, you might have a recovery CD instead of the full Windows XP disk. See the section on recovery disks later in this article for instructions on using a recovery disk. Assuming you have either the full Windows XP CD or an upgrade disk, follow these steps to reinstall Windows:

1. Turn on the computer and place the Windows XP CD in your CD drive.

2. Restart the computer. If Windows is running, use Start Turn Off Computer Restart. If Windows did not load, press the CTRL, ALT, and DELETE keys at the same time.

3. Watch the text messages that appear during startup, before Windows loads. If you see the Press Any Key To Boot From CD message, press the spacebar.

4. If you don’t see that message, and the computer does not automatically start loading Windows from the CD, then restart the computer again, open the BIOS Settings utility, and then change the Boot Sequence set- ting to move your CD drive to the No. 1 position. Save the new BIOS settings, and let the computer start.

5. Windows setup will run from the CD. At first, it will display a solid blue screen with a gray text line across the bottom. When the Welcome to Setup screen appears, press the ENTER key to choose the Set Up Windows XP Now option.

6. After you accept the Licensing Agreement, Setup will offer to either repair the existing Windows installation, or install a fresh copy. To repair the existing Windows installation, press the R key. To load a completely new copy of Windows, press the ESC key to choose the fresh copy option.

7. Setup will spend another half hour or more installing the rest of Windows XP. When the program asks for the Product Key and your network set- tings, enter the appropriate information.

8. After the Windows installation is complete and the computer displays a generic Windows desktop, it might automatically detect and install one or more device driver or drivers. If the driver was not included in the Windows disk, use the driver disk supplied with each device, or down- load new drivers from each manufacturer’s website (see article 5 for a list of Internet links to sources for device driver software).

9. If your computer or motherboard came with a driver disk, place it in the drive, and use the installation software on the disk to load these drivers.

10. If you have a copy of the latest Windows XP Service Pack on a CD, place the disk in the drive and install the service pack.

11. Use the Windows Update command in the Start menu (Start All Programs Windows Update) to download and install updates through the Internet. If you don’t have a CD, Windows Update will also load the latest Service Pack.

12. After Windows restarts for the last time, run Windows Update again to confirm that you have loaded all available updates. Choose the Custom option to see a list of nonessential but useful updates, including the lat- est versions of utilities, new add-on programs, and updated device drivers.

13. Allow the Automatic Updates function to find and install all of the patches, security updates, new drivers, and other updated software as it becomes available. You can specify either an automatic download or a request for a manual download.

14. Install your antivirus and antispyware utilities. If you don’t already have programs on disks, you can download a free Windows antispyware program from www.microsoft.com/downloads. Free antivirus programs (for non- commercial home users only) are available from http://free.grisoft.com, www.free-av.com, www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html, and www.clamwin.com.

15. If you used the Files And Settings Transfer Wizard to save your configu- ration, run it again now to restore your old settings.

16. If you didn’t use the Transfer Wizard in Step 15, open the Control Panel from the Start menu and set the properties for your mouse, printer, scanner, sounds and audio devices, and other peripheral devices. Each of these shortcuts opens a Properties window that shows all of the options and settings for a specific type of device.

17. If you didn’t use the Files And Settings Transfer Wizard, open the Task- bar and Start menu Properties window from the Control Panel to cus- tomize your Start menu. Open the Display shortcut to customize the appearance of your desktop. 18. If you are running a full Windows installation from scratch, install your other utilities and application programs.

Using a Windows Recovery CD or a Hidden Partition

Many major computer manufacturers supply a recovery disk instead of a full copy of Windows XP with their products. Unlike the full Microsoft Windows package, a recovery disk can restore the version of Windows that was on the computer when it was shipped from the factory, including all of the propri- etary programs and tweaks supplied by the manufacturer (whether you want them or not). Still others place the compressed “recovery” or “rescue” files on either a hidden partition on the computer’s hard drive or a folder called I386, with a special program that opens the files and restores the operating system to the C: drive. If the recovery files are stored on the computer’s drive, the manufacturer expects you to create your own set of recovery CDs or DVDs. The instructions for making those disks are included somewhere in the printed matter supplied with the computer, but many people ignore those instructions until Windows has already crashed. Most recovery disks don’t offer the choice of a partial repair installation. When you run the recovery program, it completely overwrites the existing Windows installation, including all the updates and service packs, and every- thing in the registry. If you were able to run the File And Settings Transfer Wizard (described earlier in this article), you can use same program to restore your old settings after the recovery program has done its work.

To restore Windows from a recovery disk, place the CD (or DVD) in the drive, and restart the computer. The recovery program should auto- matically run from the CD and display instructions on your monitor screen for reloading Windows. Once Windows is up and running, remember to run Windows Update and install your security programs before you do anything else. Computers that use a hidden partition or a rescue folder to recover from a Windows crash don’t do much good when solving a disk drive problem that requires either a full reformat or a complete replacement of the drive that contained the recovery files. If you didn’t create a set of recovery CDs or DVDs before the system broke down, your only choice is to telephone or e-mail your computer manufacturer’s support center and ask for help. Make that call before you buy a new drive someplace else. If you have a Dell or a Sony computer, they might send you a new copy of Windows on a CD, or even a whole new hard drive with their version of Windows already installed. Most other manufacturers won’t replace the drive unless the computer is still under warranty, but they will provide a true recovery CD upon request, some- times for a nominal charge. When you call, have as much of the original paperwork (and the CDs) that came with the computer within reach as poss- ible. You may need an invoice or a serial number to convince the support center that your computer is still under warranty. If it’s out of warranty, the support center still might want some kind of proof that you’re asking about one of its company’s products.

Reformatting the Drive

Short of dumping the whole computer or replacing major components, the most extreme form of computer repair is to completely wipe out everything on the C: drive and start over from square one. Reformatting the drive should only be done as a last resort, but if you continue to see the same problems after you run a full Windows reinstallation, you can eliminate those problems along with everything else on the drive with a reformat. If the drive you want to format is the only drive in your computer, your best bet is to use your drive manufacturer’s installation software. Each manu- facturer supplies an installation CD with new drives, and they also make them available online for free download. Most computer manufacturers, however, don’t supply hard disk driver CDs, so you will want to download the driver files directly from the disk manufacturer. Even if you have an installation CD, go ahead and download the most recent version, which might include features (such as drivers for the latest Windows service pack) that were not available when the CD was shipped. To find the name of the drive manufacturer and a web address from which you can download driver files, open the computer case and read the label on the drive. Use the following steps to use installation software to format your drive:

1. Back up the data from the drive you want to reformat to another storage media, if possible. 2. Use another computer to connect to the drive manufacturer’s website. Link to the Support section, and then download the installation software and any other programs or drivers related to Windows XP (or the operat- ing system you plan to install on this drive). 3. Follow the instructions supplied with the installation software to create an installation CD or floppy disk. 4. Place the CD or floppy disk in the appropriate drive, and then restart the computer. The computer should load and start the installation software from the CD or floppy disk. 5. Follow the instructions on the screen to partition and format the drive. In most cases, you will want to accept and use the default settings for the number of partitions and other options. 6. When the installation program is complete and the computer restarts, place your Windows XP CD (or restore CD) in the drive, and restart the computer one more time to load and install Windows on the newly for- matted C: drive.

If you have two or more hard drives in your computer, you can use the Win- dows Drive Management tools to reformat a drive that is not the system drive:

1. Choose Start Run, and type diskmgmt.msc in the Open field. The Disk Management window will open. 2. Select the name of the drive you want to format from the graphic display. Don’t use the list of physical drives on the left side of the window. The drive you select should be shaded. 3. If the drive you want to format has two or more one partitions, select one of the partitions and choose Action All Tasks Delete Partition. If necessary, repeat until the drive has only one partition left. 4. Confirm that the shaded drive is the one you want to format, and choose Action All Tasks Format. 5. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the formatting routine. 6. When the formatting program asks if you want to use File Allocation Table (FAT) or NT file system (NTFS) volumes, choose NTFS. FAT for- matting is required for some older Windows versions, but NTFS will give you better performance with Windows NT or Windows XP. 7. After formatting is complete, you can either continue to use the newly formatted drive as a nonsystem drive, or you can change the jumper set- tings on the physical drive to make it the primary master drive and use the procedure earlier in this article to install a new copy of Windows from the Microsoft CD or the computer manufacturer’s restore CD.

Reformatting a hard drive is a big deal because it destroys all the files on that drive. Running a full reinstall of Windows can be only a little less destructive. But sometimes one or the other is a better approach to problem- solving than trying to examine and repair every file on the drive, one file at a time. If none of the less brutal methods accomplish what you need to do, go ahead and reinstall or reformat, especially if you can salvage your data files first. Remember, your real objective is to get the computer working again; if you can do that without losing any data, that’s fine. The tools and methods in this article will help you fix things most of the time. But when they don’t you have better things to do with your life than chasing down a problem that doesn’t want to be found.