Reformatting..HAROLD!

[LadyG]

I need your expert advice on how to reformat?

I have no clue other than that I need to back up what I want to keep.

Then what?

 

[Calvin]

I need your expert advice on how to reformat?

I have no clue other than that I need to back up what I want to keep.

Then what?

Well.... I am not Harold but know computers very well....

Does your computer have some way to back up the data you want to save ?

Something like a CD burner, a floppy drive (small amounts of data), a tape back up drive or Zip drive, or better yet.... an external dard drive that you do not want to reformat....

then we can talk about the formatting process.....

What operating system are you running ?

 

[Calvin]

This is a fairly good article on formatting, partionning, and reinstalling.....

It does not answer all of the questions you may run into but it helps if you have not done it before.....

Reformatting

if this does not get you going in the right direction and Harold is not around, please feel free to ask for more info and I would be happy to walk you through it.....

 

[LadyG]

I'm running XP and Yes, I have a cd burner

 

[Calvin]

I'm running XP and Yes, I have a cd burner

Good...

The first thing that you want to do is to create a folder on your hard drive.... call it whatever you want.... and then copy all of the data you want to save to that folder and burn it to a blank CD.....

make sure you confirm the data on the CD.....

 

[stingray61]

No offense but if you really have no clue about reformatting you should have someone that does be there and teach you, or at least on the phone to walk you through it.

 

[Calvin]

No offense but if you really have no clue about reformatting you should have someone that does be there and teach you, or at least on the phone to walk you through it.

yes.... that is true.... unless you are very prepared and ready to go for it.... and I'm "on the case".....

your right... it can be touchy.....

 

[Ezzy]

We don't want to have a reformatted Harold.

If we do reformat him, then it is going to take 50+ years to re-load all the information that used to be in there, I don't think it is worth the time and effort.
Perhaps we could just re-load the corrupt parts of him?

 

[Calvin]

We don't want to have a reformatted Harold.

If we do reformat him, then it is going to take 50+ years to re-load all the information that used to be in there, I don't think it is worth the time and effort.
Perhaps we could just re-load the corrupt parts of him?

lol.... reformatting Harold would be about the same as reformatting me... 50+ years of data would be impossible to recreate.....

 

[Weird Harold]

I need your expert advice on how to reformat?

I have no clue other than that I need to back up what I want to keep.

Then what?

The article Calvin linked is fairly good, but it's filled with qualifications and tech-speak.

The first question is,"do you really need to reformat?"

The answer is almost always, "NO," IMHO -- especialy with XP's recovery capability..

The second question is, "do you have all of the software and updates you'll need."

Again, the answer is usually no -- especially if you routinely allow auto-updating by your programs.

The third question for XP users is, "what effect is this going to have on the registrtion/verifcation of XP?"

This one is one I honestly don't know the answer to. It depends on a lot of factors I don't think even MS understands, let alone someone like me who avoids contact with Windows XP as much as possible.


I would definitely try reinstalling/repairing Windows XP -- unless speeddisk and defrag ar reporting numerous new bad sectors on your hard-drive -- in which case I'd replace the drive instead of reformatting it.

If you must reformat, boot your computer from an emergency boot disk, or the installation CD.

Run FDISK /MBR to unlock the master boot record.

Run FDISK to assign and arrange partitions if desired.

Run Format C: /u /s to run an unconditional format and install the DOS portion of the system files.

Run your Windows installation CD.

Set to the task of re-installing all of your software, updating it again and reconfiguring it the way you want it.

Reformatting is he absolute last resort to computer problems unless you're one of those rare people who never install anything on their computer or customize any of the bundled software -- then a Restore Disk that returns the computer to it's factory configuration is all that's required -- just run it and it will take care of reformatting and installing.

 

[Calvin]

The article Calvin linked is fairly good, but it's filled with qualifications and tech-speak.

The first question is,"do you really need to reformat?"

The answer is almost always, "NO," IMHO -- especialy with XP's recovery capability..

The second question is, "do you have all of the software and updates you'll need."

Again, the answer is usually no -- especially if you routinely allow auto-updating by your programs.

The third question for XP users is, "what effect is this going to have on the registrtion/verifcation of XP?"

This one is one I honestly don't know the answer to. It depends on a lot of factors I don't think even MS understands, let alone someone like me who avoids contact with Windows XP as much as possible.


I would definitely try reinstalling/repairing Windows XP -- unless speeddisk and defrag ar reporting numerous new bad sectors on your hard-drive -- in which case I'd replace the drive instead of reformatting it.

If you must reformat, boot your computer from an emergency boot disk, or the installation CD.

Run FDISK /MBR to unlock the master boot record.

Run FDISK to assign and arrange partitions if desired.

Run Format C: /u /s to run an unconditional format and install the DOS portion of the system files.

Run your Windows installation CD.

Set to the task of re-installing all of your software, updating it again and reconfiguring it the way you want it.

Reformatting is he absolute last resort to computer problems unless you're one of those rare people who never install anything on their computer or customize any of the bundled software -- then a Restore Disk that returns the computer to it's factory configuration is all that's required -- just run it and it will take care of reformatting and installing.

Harold is back! ......

And all of what he says is very true.....

It can be a daunting task.... esp if you have tons of proggies installed...... and they are all customized....

 

[Weird Harold]

Harold is back! ......

I was never gone, unless you count sleeping and eating occasionally being gone.

 

[Calvin]

The third question for XP users is, "what effect is this going to have on the registrtion/verifcation of XP?"

This one is one I honestly don't know the answer to. It depends on a lot of factors I don't think even MS understands, let alone someone like me who avoids contact with Windows XP as much as possible.

My experience with this is that if you are running a version of XP that requires an "activation", then you actually need to call MS on the phone once you have reinstalled to get the code.... the registration is not the issue as it continues.....
If you are running the Corporate version it is never an issue (which is what I run on one of my systems) because it never requires an activation code....

But I am with you.... on several of my other machines I have stayed with Win 2000 Pro.... not as intuative but way more stable..... and I am beginning my foray into Linux....

 

[Calvin]

I was never gone, unless you count sleeping and eating occasionally being gone.

Nope.... we all gotta sleep and eat.... but I rarely see a technical question in the "How To" section that you have not answered very quickly..... I thought that is pretty cool.... I am the same way myself.... like to help out.... and of course when I saw LadyG asking and you had not responded, I gave her some info.....

 

[ReadyOne]

My experience with this is that if you are running a version of XP that requires an "activation", then you actually need to call MS on the phone once you have reinstalled to get the code.... the registration is not the issue as it continues.....
If you are running the Corporate version it is never an issue (which is what I run on one of my systems) because it never requires an activation code....

But I am with you.... on several of my other machines I have stayed with Win 2000 Pro.... not as intuative but way more stable..... and I am beginning my foray into Linux....

You can save a couple of files to avoid doint the WAP again, but you really really probably don't need to format. Before you do, boot your recovery CD and go through the repair process How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP

The following information from the internet is presented without warrenty or endorsement but only as a convience to the reader in avoiding a repeated search of the internet.

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The corporate version is simply part of the MS licensing program. It used to be referred to as the "Select" program.

The Corporate CD will prompt you for a user key. The key is registered with the corporation that bought the software.

It does not require activation, but each installation will present itself a unique number to MS over the internet. Basically, every time an installation from a specific key reports itself, MS will track one license copy on that corporations account. The corporation will be billed accordingly.

If you have a corporate version, sending it to your friends could get your company in BIG financial trouble with MS.

On the other hand, if you have a non-corporate version, and simply want to eliminate WPA, you can take the install directory, replace the 11 WPA/UELA files in your install directory with the same name files from a coprorate CD and install it with your registered cd key. This method will still show as YOUR user key but will not require activation.

Now, are there any more questions? Ok, what 11 files?

Here:

i386\dpcdll.dl_
i386\eula.txt *** cosmetic only
i386\nt5inf.ca_
i386\oembios.bi_
i386\oembios.ca_
i386\oembios.da_
i386\oembios.si_
i386\pidgen.dll
i386\setupp.ini
i386\setupreg.hiv
i386\win9xupg\win95upg.inf

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XP re-activation after fresh install
I found instructions on how to re-activate XP if you have to re-install

If you plan to reinstall XP on the same hardware, you can back up
the activation status and then restore it after you reinstall the OS. To save the activation status, back up the wpa.dbl file from the %systemroot%\system32 folder to a disk or other location.

After you reinstall the OS, perform the following
steps:

1. Start your Windows installation in Minimal Safe mode.

2. Move to the \%systemroot%\system32 folder.

3. Rename wpa.dbl to wpa.noact

4. Copy your backed up wpa.dbl file to the system32 folder.

5. Reboot your system as usual.

This procedure isn't a hack to avoid activating installations and will work only on the same hardware for an XP installation that you've already activated

 

[Calvin]

If you have a corporate version, sending it to your friends could get your company in BIG financial trouble with MS.

who said anything about sending it to my friends ?.... I own the copy.....