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    Reinstalling Windows....Sort of

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Zack, Jun 7, 2006.

  1. Zack

    Zack Notebook Guru

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    Ok heres the deal I messed up my Windows installation bad. And this is what I have done so far: booted my Windows CD and gone to the "set up" section and then tried to repair my current instolation then my computer restarted and then brought up the installation splash screen for it, insteed of the welcome screen, then I got thinking "Will this erase my files" by files I mean My Documents, programs I have installed etc. So basicaly what i want to do is reinstall windows without bothering my documents. Is this possable or will it just screw it up even more?
     
    Zack, Jun 7, 2006
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  2. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    hard to tell unless you describe what you mean by "messed up my Windows installation bad"

    that's not descriptive enough to know what you are talking about
     
    drumfu, Jun 7, 2006
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  3. Zack

    Zack Notebook Guru

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    Sorry its just hard to descrobe but this is the best I can do, I would turn it on it would load throught bios and then the XP screen that is all black, has Windows XP, and then the bar that moves back and forth on under the Windows XP (before the login screen) then it would restart over and over again this was before I started to reinstall XP.
     
    Zack, Jun 7, 2006
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  4. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    can you describe what you mean by messing up the original installation? i ask because if you did mess up and went past a certain point in the install, all your data is already gone, but i have no idea if this is true because i can't tell what happened when you "messed up"
     
    drumfu, Jun 7, 2006
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  5. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    i'm sorry...

    in your original post, did you mean "windows installation" to mean that you were installing windows and it messed up? or are you saying something else?
     
    drumfu, Jun 7, 2006
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  6. Zack

    Zack Notebook Guru

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    I mean i messed up the windows files, the ones that make windows tick. I think all my stuffs still there I just want to make shure that if i reinstall windows that it will or will not earse my stuff
     
    Zack, Jun 7, 2006
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  7. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    ok, gotcha.

    if you do a "repair" it will be ok. i believe a fresh install overwrites the files on the HD, but i'm not sure.

    anyway, you want choose "repair" when you get there. you should be ok.

    if you want to be super safe, you can put your HD in an external enclosure and plug it into another computer and backup your files first.
     
    drumfu, Jun 7, 2006
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