Help Rebuilding Windows

I was directed to here for help rebuilding my operating systems. Please see

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=206676&highlight=toseeka

for a little background. Since I was last working with chaslang I ran this scan

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

When I ran it from XP it seem to clear out some more viruses and then came back clean. When I ran it out of Vista I really got into trouble. It messed up XP and now XP will not boot. It just keeps flashing the windows screen then rebooting. Vista works fine however. So that pretty much left me with no choice but to rebuild.

How should I proceed in moving/backing up files to be able to do a clean install of XP and not loose any docs, music, media files or programs?

I have been rearranging my drive space and think that I now have enough to move everything from C to F. I do not want to loose any programs that are installed as most of them i do not have the disks for anymore.

My end goal is to end up with a clean properly installed XP on C and W7 ultimate 64 on F (on order)

Some other notes that my be helpful is that I have my house setup into a file sharing network. I have a laptop that Runs Vista home 32 (wireless) and another Tower that is running XP home and soon W7 Ultimate 32 (hardlined) They all use the printer on this machine and I use this machine for the central File base and stream movies and other files from this machine.

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

The only certain way to ensure you can recover absolutely anything at all is to use an imaging program to create an image of the partition(s) that hold your present system and data. The images created by such programs not only allow restoration of entire partitions, but also allow restoration of individual files.

Having said that, it is not practical to attempt to restore installed programs from a backup. They just have to be installed again from an installation file, so you may need to think about that.

The only imaging program that I would be happy to recommend is Acronis True Image, though there are many alternatives available, some of them free.

 

Would that also image/reinstall the Virus? How does it affect Windows itself? Would it redo the parts of XP that are not installed/working correctly? When a program installs into Windows isn't the install file usually also saved in the folder in program files? If I just copy my entire "program files" directory to another drive then move it back I should be able to just run/reinstall the program from there correct? Or am I just sol in terms of the programs?
Thanks

 

Also, after I decide how to proceed with the backup if I format my C drive can I just install XP fresh and still have the dual boot OS? I read somewhere when I first but the dual boot on that XP had to be on first then Vista. I just dont want to end up in a situation where everything is on my F drive with Vista and I can't access it.

 

When you create an image it takes a snapshot of the selected drives/partitions, and if you should choose to restore your image it puts those drives/partitions right back where they were - viruses and all. That's its purpose. However as you are planning a reinstall you would not be restoring your image but you might well have the need later to extract selected files from it. The whole point of having the image available in a reinstall situation is to ensure that after the reinstall you will still have access to every file you had previously, no more and no less. The image has to be stored on a drive other than the one you intend reinstalling to, so an external drive is ideal but is not essential as DVDs work too.

During program installation the installation files are NOT stored in Program Files, nor are they stored anywhere else. If you have programs you need to keep, and no longer have the source of those programs, and cannot obtain them anywhere else, then you should not reinstall, as you will lose those programs and will not be able to recover them from your image or from any other type of backup.

In planning your reinstall you should firstly make sure your partition structure is right, with the XP partition first (min 20GB), Vista partition next (min 30GB), and a Data partition, though personally I would double those recommendations. Providing you install XP first then when you install Vista it will automatically create the dual boot for you. It will not do so if you install XP after Vista.

 

Earthing thank you. I want to ensure that I am understanding everything so I don't screw it up again. I understand the program thing and that I am just going to have to go through all of the programs I have and find the installations files/disks again. A lot of work but I really don't have any other choice as I have pretty much lost them now as it is.

As for the OS I have to install XP then Vista (or W7). I cannot install XP leaving Vista. My C and F drives are two completely separate physical drives. I want to move all of my files (not programs) to the F drive reinstall XP on C move them to the C drive then put W7 on the F. Do I have to clear out XP and Vista at the same time? If I leave Vista on F and install a new XP on C will I only be able to boot into XP on C (which is fine I just want to know what to expect)? This would mean Vista is on the F drive still, just not being used. Kind of the reverse situation I am in currently.

 

you can install xp after vista and then install easybcd to xp to get the duel boot back

 

If I understand correctly you want to finish up with a XP/Win 7 dual boot and just lose Vista altogether?

My approach to that would be to put both XP and Win 7 on disk one in dual boot, and use disk two purely as a data drive. Depending on the size of disk one you might also want to create another data partition behind Win 7.

To get there I would start by making backup copies on DVD of any personal files on the Vista partition and then reformatting it. I would then use an imaging program to image the C drive and store the image on disk two (F at present). Then proceed to clear the C drive completely and create the XP, Win 7 and Data partitions if required, and follow that by installing XP and Win 7 to their respective partitions. Finally copy your file backups from the DVD to disk two, which will by now have a different drive letter.

Should be just a slog after that installing your software and configuring everything.

 

Perhaps I should have explained why I haven't followed your stated preference for Win 7 on disk two. The main reason is simply that if you do that then to the best of my knowledge you will not get an automatic dual boot. Dual boot would still be possible but setting it up is rather more complicated.

There are advantages too in keeping all your data on a non-OS drive.

 

Yes I want to lose Vista altogether. It is not a strong operating system for me and with W7 I will have the 64 bit capability and access to all 8 GB of memory. If I like W7 and the XP mode operates my older hardware I may just leave XP. However for now I need something that I know will work everything.

I have over 400 GB of data to back up. That's a lot of DVD's. Is W7 different than Vista in terms of setting up the Dual boot? It wasn't hard with Vista to them up on different drives.

Let me run this by you. Currently C is 500 GB; D 250GB (full with no OS); and F is 1TB
If I move everything to F format C then move all of the files to that blank disk. hopefully it will fit. Format F and install the new XP making this drive C. Then partition it in half an make a new D with W7.

Therefore ending up with C 500GB D 500GB (both on same physical drive) E 500GB (full of data) and F 250GB (full of data).

Note: For simplicity reasons I like to make each physical drive its own letter. I find this easier for me to keep track of and know what is what. Not that it would be hard to deal with two letters on one physical drive, just mentally annoying for at least a little while.

Now how do I do it so that the installations aren't all messed up like my current XP? Any special instructions an avoiding what I did last time. If my memory serves me (and this was about 4 years ago) I had Windows 2000 on C drive and XP on D. My C drive died and I built a new system out of old parts and reinstalled XP over itself making that drive C and the only OS. I think I did the repair feature as I had change more than 3 pieces of hardware and Windows would not boot. This is a clean install if I do it by formatting the drive. Right? so all of the processes should have the correct drive letters?
Thanks

 

Well ugean, if you really want to mess things up again then imo that would be a great way of going about it. Your proposition is grossly overcomplicated and would entail, at some point, quite unnecessarily switching the drive connections to the motherboard so that the first (XP) partition on the 1TB drive gets allocated C as its drive letter. I haven't thought it right through, but the safe way to do that would entail removing the 750GB drive from the system first. (It isn't up to you to decide which drive gets allocated as C, the first bootup after OS install decides it for you).

I can't possibly foresee all the problems that might arise from your approach but I honestly don't believe this is at all the right way to go, and in fact can't really see any point to it either. Just what do you expect to gain from changing the boot drive from the 750 to the 1TB? And why such mammoth partition sizes for XP and W7? This would be a huge waste of disk space.

I think you should reconsider my earlier suggestion. It is simple to implement and will not throw up unexpected problems. Now I know you have a 1TB drive available you could create a new temporary partition behind Vista, which would be massive I would think, and temporarily copy all your files there instead of using DVDs.

To do this properly you would need an imaging program and a partitioning program, and if you don't already have such software I would recommend

EASEUS Todo Backup - http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Todo_Backup_d6195.html

EASEUS Partition Master - http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Partition_Master_Home_Edition_d5967.html

OTOH if you would still prefer to pursue you own ideas on this then I will leave it to others to advise.

 

Earthling I apologize and did not mean to offend you in any way. I was simply just trying to accomplish the end goal of getting both OS's loaded correctly. I have three physical drives in the computer. a 500 GB (c first on MB), 1TB (f 4rd on MB) and 250GB (2nd on MB). Please tell me how you recommend I proceed. The only thing I see is that backing up onto DVD isn't really practical for me. I guess I don't see the reason behind separating free space from what you give to an OS. That is why I am asking for help as I do not know these things. Please tell me what I should do.

 

ugean - no apology necessary I know no offence was intended, and none was taken I assure you. However as you are basically in a greenfield position I just want you to make the most of it and I will try to help you with that if I can. However there will be much to do, and it can't all be done at once, so we just need to tackle things in a logical order. Additionally I am quite busy today so bear with me please.

The first thing we must do is safeguard what you have at present, and to do that we need to take some images and store them somewhere. For that can you start by downloading and installing the EASEUS programs and create a boot disk for each from the Tool menus. Check that each boot disk boots your system and can see all of your drives.

Can you also let me know for each hard disk what the used space is please?

 

When you say boot disks, you are referring to DVD's?

C (XP not working) 236 GB used 229 GB free (465 total)
D (no OS) 177 GB used 55.4 free (232 total) (can clean up some more space not sure how much though)
F (Vista) 536 GB used 395 GB free (931 total)

Now when I lost access to XP I panicked a little and copied a lot of files from C to F. so really everything that I need and a little more is on F. I have 206 GB of F that are also on C that I do not want to loose. In addition to 267 GB already on F I do not want to loose. These are things such as movies, music and documents that totals 473 GB (all on F) of data I do not want to loose. This is the first time I have really counted it. Now I should mention that several of the files are larger than 4.7 GB and many larger than 10 GB. I have a SATA Lightscribe DVD/CD burner combo drive and about 20 4.7 GB DVD's (can buy more if needed).

I understand you are busy and I have to go to work soon so don't worry about getting back to me timely. I am not really in a hurry to get this done. I just want to do it right and safe. I can muddle through with Vista and XP on my other tower connected to the network. (I thought about transferring files to that system but it only has a 20 GB and 10 GB drives)

Side note/question: Why is it when you buy a drive, say 1 TB you really only get 931 GB of space?

I am downloading

EASEUS Todo Backup - http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Todo_Backup_d6195.html

EASEUS Partition Master - http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Partiti...ion_d5967.html

now

 

For a boot disk you would usually use a CD-R but a DVD should be OK too.

Back later

 

I need a bit more info please. On Vista, type diskmgmt.msc in the Start > Search box > Enter. In the window that opens double click the vertical divider between Status and Capacity so all items are visible, and drag the right edge of the window so that Free Space is fully visible. Also drag the bottom edge so that all three disks are visible in the graphic representation.

Use the Snipping Tool to post a pic here. Here's mine. Thanks.

 

I think this is what you are looking for. I have to leave for work now.

 

That isn't readable.

 

OK, I can read it enough for what I need for now. I'm not even going to ask you how it came to be organised like that, as I had assumed from your posts that C (XP) was the boot drive, not F (Vista). In fact as F is a logical rather than primary partition I'm actually surprised it boots at all.

I've also been reading your thread with Chaslang, and have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the work required to get your system properly organised is imo beyond the scope of a public forum such as this, and that it would certainly make unacceptable demands on my time.

I can only recommend you try to get local assistance in setting it up logically, and I apologise for wasting your time.

 

Plodr I still get the screen asking me which version of Windows I want and always have. If I select XP I get a loop of the windows screen then rebooting. It looks like it is calling for a driver or process that is not there anymore and crashes. I will try the EasyBCD though as maybe it can repair XP. Either way I think it is time to rebuild some things As I am looking forward to W7.

Earthling Thank you for your help! I do have one more question just to clarify my vocabulary. By "Logical" do mean physical? And "rather than primary" do you mean because vista is on F not C?

My Father has a 300 GB external drive I am going to borrow. I think with that and Clearing some space on my D drive I should be able to wipe out both C and F and start over.

Thank you,

 

You might find this article helpful

Definitely the way to go. Good luck.