Reinstalling Windows XP

Funkstard

After 3 years of it, my computer hasn't completely broken, but there's too much niggly stuff broken and it's too slow for me not to do something. It's never had a reinstall and it's well due. I think I have everything ready; I'm backing up all important stuff onto my external harddrive, and I have the following reinstallation CD's:

Logitech Mouse/Keyboard Drivers
Microsoft Office XP (3 CD's in all)
Soundcard
XP Service Pack 2
Dell Eurotools system software
Microsoft Works 7.0 (Not sure if this is left over from our old Win2000 PC
Roxio easy CD creator
Resource CD
Colour Monitor

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Do I need the CD's for my printer graphics card?

Also, my Office XP CD, is that the actual CD with Windows on it which I use to reinstall?

Is there anything I'm missing?

Ziycon

XP Service Pack 2 - This is the CD you install from, unless you have another CD that says Windows XP on it!

Put the CD in th drive and restart the computer, wait for it to show a little message on screen saying something like, "Hit any key to boot from CD..." when this comes up hit any key, follow the onscreen instructions and you should be fine!

Also the graphics card driver can be downloaded from the internet when you have XP reinstalled!

Ruu_Old

Make sure to clean reinstall and not just put another copy ontop of the old one (like repair). XP SP2 can be downloaded if you only have the XP cd.

angelofdeath

make sure you have your nic drivers so you can get back online to get other drivers/updates

Funkstard

Hmm..I hav a Netgear router that I think the PC connection goes through. Not quite sure. Don't have any CD's for that....I'll have a look in the folders

irlrobins

You won't need any drivers for the Netgear router. It won't be affected by you reinstalling windows. But if you have WEP/WPA enabled on it make sure to note the key down so you can connect to your router when you reinstall windows.

Funkstard

Eh?

irlrobins

Your router is separate from your PC. So it will not be affected by your reinstall of XP. But if you connect to the router wirelessly and have secured the wireless network using WEP or WPA then note down the key so you have it handy to enter when you want to reconnect to the router.

If you don't use wireless and connect using ethernet cable then ignore the above.

Funkstard

I understand the router not being affected..but whats this WEP WPA stuff?

irlrobins

Some bedtime reading

zilog_jones

I second making sure you have drivers for your network adaptor - get them from the manufacturer's website (Intel, Broadcom or whoever) for the latest version. And you might as well make sure your BIOS is up to date before re-installing Windows too.

Funkstard

Hmm..the more I look into this, the more I realise I'm not really able to do it

rogue-entity

Funkstard wrote:

I have the following reinstallation CD's:

Logitech Mouse/Keyboard Drivers
Microsoft Office XP (3 CD's in all)
Soundcard
XP Service Pack 2
Dell Eurotools system software
Microsoft Works 7.0 (Not sure if this is left over from our old Win2000 PC
Roxio easy CD creator
Resource CD
Colour Monitor

You have everything you need. I assume you have a Dell PC, so do the following.

Open Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager). Make a note of the model of your Network card.

Go to Dells support website: http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=ie&l=en&s=gen
Enter the details of your system, either the service tag or just the make/model.

Then choose your Operating system (XP) and you will get a list of all the drivers and applications that you got with your system. Download the drivers for your Network card.

Insert the Windows XP disc and restart. When you get the message asking to press any key to start from CD... press any key.

Follow the instructions and select, install windows (dont select repair).
At the partition screen, select C: and delete it. Then select the free space that was C: and create a new partition. At the next screen select Format NTFS (Quick) and let it work away, it takes a minute or two and the setup programme will copy the install files and reboot. When it does let it run, if it is the Dell Windows CD it will install automatically without asking any questions and restart once again into the "welcome to windows" thing where you can setup your internet connections and user accounts. When this is done you will be at the windows desktop ready to reinstall your applications and hardware drivers.

Install your drivers first where needed, you can download newer versions from dell's support site and you will also find them on the Resource CD.

Install OfficeXP, Roxio EasyCD, your antivirus etc and restart as usual.

When your finished, open Internet Explorer and go to:
windowsupdate.microsoft.com, when it opens you will find an option to upgrade to MicrosoftUpdate, do this. It takes a moment and then it goes back to the new MS update page. Update as usual and it will dowload updates for OfficeXP as well as WindowsXP.

Funkstard

These are the downloads available under 'Network':

Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Dell Dell Wireless 1450 (802.11a/b/g) USB2.0 Adapter
Dell TrueMobile 1300 USB 2.0 Wireless Adapter
Dell TrueMobile 2300 Wireless Broadband Router
Intel 10/100 LOM

And I'm using a '1394 Net Adapter'. I have an Intel one installed which isn't in use.