Originally Posted by
wdwright
If safety is a real concern, pull the drive from the notebook and buy a 2.5" USB drive adapter (of the appropriate kind: SATA or IDE). Then hook it up to a working PC (kind of short of these at your house
) and copy the important files.
Yes, I am 2 PCs short
. Fortunately I have a new desktop (from which I type this msg) and my wife has 2 ^. Your suggestion noted. This will be my last-resort type of move.
Originally Posted by
wdwright
If you want to replace the Windows installation,then boot off the CD and agree that you want to install it on the existing partition. DON'T format it, just select it. If it says that it replace the existing Windows installation, say OK. It will then install Windows.
If this method is simply to re-install the XP Pro OS from the CD and nothing else (i.e. all my files will be intact), then it is what I want to try first.
From my HP Getting Started manual, I tried to follow the “Repairing the operating system” procedure. Here is what I went through so far (without success):
After CD is inserted and power is up, I see:
Windows setup
(at the bottom of screen see various files and I/O drivers being loaded…)
The comes the Welcome to Setup windows:
This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft Windows XP to run on your computer.
- To set up Windows XP now, press this
- To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, Press R
- To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3
So far I tried the REPAIR route. The following shows up:
The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality. Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart the computer.
C:\>
The above screen simply stays there for a loooooong time. From the HP manual , it said this process may take up to 2 hours to complete. (I actually gave it 3 hours) and I had to EXIT and quit.
What did I do wrong?
Originally Posted by
wdwright
(Some PC's like my Thinkpad have a copy of the operating system with drivers and original software on a separate hard drive partition. If you invoke the restore process using these, it formats the drive first, erasing everything, and then restores the disk to factory condition.)
I see that I have 3 partitions. Can you explain what they are and which should I change or not?
Originally Posted by
wdwright
..........I would never do a Windows install without backing up the data to a separate drive anyway. Hence, I usually back it up and reformat and load a fresh of Windows.
Never forget that you are dealing with Windows and err on the side of safety.
Do you mean that I can do a data backup under current condition of my notebook? If so, please detail the procedure as to how I can do that.
Thank you for your time and effort!