Reinstalling XP from scratch without reformatting

[luisr]

Hi there! I am having a problem with my CD-RW drive that appears to be hard to fix and probably reinstallation will work.

I tried to reinstall XP Home on top of the existing installation but that didn't fix the problem. I would like to reinstall from scratch but reformatting the hard drive is not an option for me (specially considering that I cannot use CR-RW disks for backup).

Is it possible to reinstall XP Home cleanly from scratch without reformatting the hard disk?

[oosik]

did you try the option to 'fix' the present installion? I don't remember how it is exactly worded.

oozik

[luisr]

I think I saw that one during the recent reinstallation. Didn't try it because I thought it was meant for failed installations.

Will try later and get back with the results.

[Alfie]

To use the repair option click on install,XP will offer the option of installing or repairing an existing OS,click on repair,skip the first repair option that will appear at initial start,as this is the XP console.

[luisr]

Ok, I tried this repair thing but can't get it to work. A prompt appeared asking for the windows installation to log into. Not knowing what to do next I typed "1" and then was asked for an administrative password. I have no passwords in my system. Only have one user who has administrative rights and doesn't have a logon password.

[morriswindgate]

Did you try going to the device manager in the control panel, delete the CD drive profile and restart the machine to let windows find it again?

[lil Jimmie]

luisr, the repair you tried was the repair consol you need to skip this step and just act as if you were going to install a fresh install the setup “will” see the prior install and ask if you want to repair or install a new install just select the repair and there you go. One thing when doing the repair you will have to reinstall the MS updates.