Anyway to restore windows without a full Reformat?

[canadateck]

Would like to clean my wife's computer up, but we don't have the restore disk that came with the computer is there anyway to format the hard drive without deleting Windows?

She has Windows XP home installed. We don't have the disk though we still have the serial number on the side of the computer. Is there anyway to make an image of Windows XP and format and reinstall?

Thanks in advance

[Denvers Dawgs]

Have you tried the system restore feature? It sets your computers settings back to a previous date. You may still be able to set it back to the first time you used it. Or somewhere near very beginning of its use. Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore

[lordsmurf]

Can you still use any install disc of Windows? And then simply enter in your own serial number.

[canadateck]

Can you still use any install disc of Windows? And then simply enter in your own serial number.

Yeah that's a good question I'd like to know that to.

[canadateck]

Have you tried the system restore feature? It sets your computers settings back to a previous date. You may still be able to set it back to the first time you used it. Or somewhere near very beginning of its use. Go to Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore

I have done that in the past, but I would also like to just do a clean install.

[Jester700]

I think you can use any version of XP HOME, but you'll have to re-activate it.

Definitely figure out a backup or imaging method so you can more easily restore the next time around. I don't like having the "restore" service running, so I take an image once a week manually. Takes 10 minutes and a reboot. If anything up to & including a HD crash happens, I'm back up in 10 minutes.

[canadateck]

When we bought the computer we never had to register other than typing in our name and location things of that nature.

So I guess if I am able to make an image it'll be really difficult to put in a new hard drive will have to call Microsoft and things like that?

[ROF]

More than likely yes. You will find as long as you have a valid key reactivation is really no problem with Microsoft. I've done reactivation quite a few times on several different machines.

If internet activation is not working or you've made to many hardware changes so that internet activation isn't possible you can call them at 888-218-5617 Mon thru Fri.

[canadateck]

Like I said I never had to call them in the past, I have for this computer because I bought Windows XP professional in the box from the store not on a computer.

My plan was to format the hard drive and put in a bigger one, in my wife's computer.

[dipstick]

Most New Hard Drives come with a utillity to transfer your OS and files from old HDD to the new one. I've never used them so, can't comment on them. I prefere to use Norton Ghost to transfer Partitions. It's also a life saver for creating Restore Images, then restoring from them.

If you've been using that PC for a while, this may be a good time to do a clean install of XP on the new HDD.

[canadateck]

There is a partition and has a little lock on it Will Norton ghost work with that?

[dipstick]

What do you mean by lock? Is the partition hidden. I don't see why Ghost won't work, give it a try and report the results.

I always use Norton Ghost from a boot disk and not through Windows.

[canadateck]

It looks like a little lock, nothing can be deleted in that file.

I'm going to go out and buy Norton ghost tomorrow, so if I've got this straight what it will do is just burn this partition to a disk? And I'll be able to reinstall Windows?

Thanks for the help dipstick

[dipstick]

You can hook up both HDDs and copy the partition of the old HDD to the new one.

You can burn a Restore image to a bootable DVDR that you can use at any time. I do this a lot, but it's a two step procces. I don't know about the current version of Ghost, but my version (2002) requires a Fat32 partition to write the image to. Basically you create a small Fat 32 partition (4-10 GIGs) to write the Restore Images to. Then you burn those images along with the Ghost.exe file to a Bootable DVDR or CD. I set mine up with an Autorun that boots right into Ghost where I can choose wich Image to reastore.

[HillJack]

Can you still use any install disc of Windows? And then simply enter in your own serial number.

Yeah that's a good question I'd like to know that to.

Yes you can do this - I had to do it with my laptop as I didn't get a proper restore disc either.

If your Windows was installed on the computer when you got it, it's an "OEM" version - provided you can get yourself an OEM version of Windows XP, you can install it using the cd-key written on the label on your case.

One thing wrt activation - before wiping out your existing installation, there should be a file called C:\WINDOWS\system32\wpa.dbl. Make a copy of that file - it holds your activation/registration information. Re-install Windows, then copy that file back to its original location - I think at most (if I remember correctly) you'll have to do a quick 0.5sec activation thingy with Microsoft over the Internet and poof, you're good to go; if your installation/key is legit there's nothing to worry about.

Once you get Windows reinstalled and activated, all the hundreds of updates installed through Windows Update, *then* Ghost the partition, imo.