PC HELP: reloading XP

Hey PC and tech maggots, I'm having some troubles with my laptop lately. Probobly virus related, but not sure.

My wireless network won't work for sharing files between desktop and Notebook. I get the message "an error occured while trying to share "folder name". The server service is not started. The share resource was not created at this time."

Anyway, I was kind of wanting to start from scratch by reloading WIN XP.

What is the best way to do this. Do I have to completely wipe the HD clean and reload, or can I reload w/o losing emails, personal files etc?

Can I just use the System recovery disk? will I lose data?

Thanks,

INDY

Best to backup, whipe, and reload. <---- Slow Pitch Windows doesn't like to install itself on a partition where there's an existing copy of windows already there.

Edit: Slow Pitch, who wants it?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FNG

Best to backup, whipe, and reload.

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Sounds like The Blurred/Summit "Gay Ski Week" Marketing Slogan.

Buy a second drive $50:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=100623

Load XP cleanly onto a partition. Use the other partition for storage.

Install your old drive as a slave,
get all your old stuff off it then reformat it using the non quick method.

Rejoice in all the lost time computers deal you.

Thanks Bacon and FNG. I've actually decided to Whipe, and reinstall. Seeing that this is a laptop, that I mostly use pulling files from the network, I really don't have too much on the system.

I've backed up everything to CD, and safely placed everything on my desktop PC.

What do i do to completly clean the hard drive of the Laptop so I can reinstall a clean version of XP?

Just boot off the Windows XP CD (or whatever CD came with your laptop). Before the install, it will ask you if you want to format your drive. Say yes. It's very basic....

try starting in safe mode, I had the same problem and was able to network out, but not into my labtop which had XP. When I started in safe mode i was able to then back everything up, then rewipe.

i forget all the technical details because a friend did it for me. You have to remove part of the setup file?

i had all those same stupid errros, very annoying, but now working smoothly

Quote:

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Originally Posted by milkman

Just boot off the Windows XP CD (or whatever CD came with your laptop). Before the install, it will ask you if you want to format your drive. Say yes. It's very basic....

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I'm doing this right now, however, I get this message:

Setup is unable to perform the requested operation on the selected partition. This partition contains temporary setup files that are required to complete the installation.

To continue press enter.

What happens when you press enter? Are you using a brand specific recovery CD or a Windows XP CD?

Brand specific cd. I got it figgerd out though. Thanks for all your help.

Never had to do this before was a little sketched about messing around with this myself, but it isn't too bad.

INDY