Reinstall XP

Question

OK I created the recovery disk when I first got my Inspiron 1200. Now a little over a year later, I need to reinstall XP. I tried to run the 'upgrade' to keep my olf files, etc. The upgrade install runs for a while then comes up with an error saying it cannot find files on the Windows XP SP2 CD. Well, I believe when I made the rcovery disc that SP2 was not on the machine (I could be wrong here). Point being, why would it not be able to find the files?? If I cancel throgh this portion and let the installation continue, Windows will operate but some features dont work. One being Internet Explorer and another is Automatic updates. I was able to download IE7 but the updates still do not work. Also, I had to call Microsoft to get XP authinticated (sp?). Whats wrong with this recovery attempt?

jleslie246 · Answer

I just read my packing slip and it does say it included SP2.

Mary G · Answer

The mistake you are making is not booting to the xp disk. You might have to change the boot order in the bios to make sure the cd drive is first on the boot list. You will then see 'press any key to boot to cd' and when you press a key, you will be able to reinstall. Then you will have to apply all the updates again, starting with SP2 since it has all previous updates and then every other update since. SP2 was available on cd free from MS.

JustAnotherTech1 · Answer

you can press F12 on dell splash screen to get to the boot device menu. from there, you can boot to cd, I think it's option #4. there's only one option there with cdrom.     Romeo JustAnotherTechGuy

jleslie246 · Answer

Here are the changes I made: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Currentversion\SvcHost then in netsvcs I added BITS and WUAUSERV This fixed my problem with auto updates not working. Could it also be why I am getting the error message?

jleslie246 · Answer

I've got it working now 99.9%. My speed is back to normal which was the whole reason for me reinstalling xp. The only thing now is I get an error message when I shut the computer down. It flashes up very fat but I believe it says 'An applicaion failed to lauch because the system was shut down'. Im not sure what application it is referring to. All my programs seem to be working now. I had to go into the registry (regedit) and add 2 lines to fix the auto update problem I had. The rest fixed itself with the 70 or so windows updates it downloaded. Any tips on the error message though? Could it be from the regedit?

Windows General

Reinstall XP

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