Help reinstalling XP

[Muse]

I'm visiting my brother TG weekend. He tells me his wife's computer has been getting slower and slower, really a mess. She's running XP on a Dell, never reinstalled the OS and had the PC for years. I told him I'd help them with it, reinstall the OS. I'm flying to San Diego on Wednesday, will be there until Sunday.

I'm not a newbie but don't know the ropes on this. I'm sure she has a lot of software around, maybe including disks from Dell, but don't know if they include the XP disk itself. Can I torrent it? I'm pretty sure she has the key, probably on a sticker on the side of the machine (someone said that in a post here, I think).

My sister-in-law's not doing anything complicated, mostly browsing, some Word documents, stuff like that. I'll bring a 2 GB flash drive and maybe a 40 GB HD based USB attachable MP3 player for file backup/restore. Thanks for any suggestions/help.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

You would probably need a XP Home OEM CD to be able to use the key that came with the PC. Dell probably supplied either an XP CD or a re-install CD that would allow you to restore the OS back to the factory fresh image.

 

[Blazer]

you should get an oem cd for the fresh install, is hers XP Pro or Home.

download the sp 2 & 3 from ms.

use the service tag # and download the drivers from dell.

if she has to buy an os cd then vista would be a better choice.
, ms offers an 'Vista Advisor Utility' to find out if her system is capable of running Vista.

vista oem' are fairly priced at newegg.

personaly i would never use an os from a torrent.

 

[SoLittle]

My suggestion is to look for the cause of the slowdown before jumping into the reinstall. I reccomend doing a thorough housekeeping on what she has first.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: SoLittle
My suggestion is to look for the cause of the slowdown before jumping into the reinstall. I reccomend doing a thorough housekeeping on what she has first.

Depending on how slow it is, it'll actually be faster sometimes to just do a reinstall of the OS and the software.

As for the Vista recommendation, if it's a few years old I wouldn't go that route.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64

Originally posted by: SoLittle
My suggestion is to look for the cause of the slowdown before jumping into the reinstall. I reccomend doing a thorough housekeeping on what she has first.

Depending on how slow it is, it'll actually be faster sometimes to just do a reinstall of the OS and the software.

As for the Vista recommendation, if it's a few years old I wouldn't go that route.

Her system is probably 3-4 years old, I'm guessing and I figure the odds that it would run Vista are almost nil.

She's probably got a mess in there and I figure a fresh install of XP is less problematic than my trying to clean up her system in the time I'll have there.

I'll call them tonight and find out if she's running XP Home or XP Pro. I'll also try to find out what she has from Dell, more likely get them started on figuring that out themselves. I have to figure that they either have an XP disk or disks that allow them to restore the system to its original configuration.

Edit: I called them and got some info

She's running XP Pro SP2

Her System Properties includes:

Intel R
Pentium (R)
4cpu 2.53 GHz
512 MB RAM

It seems to me that 512 MB RAM is pretty low and maybe she should upgrade. I have no idea what kind of motherboard she has and if there are empty slots, but figure there is at least one. I could go out with my brother to Fry's and buy a DIMM.

She has a disk labeled Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition including Service Pack 1. This puzzled me, how she's running XP Pro and she has that install disk and asked her if someone upgraded her PC. She said some guy came out a long time ago and did some stuff, and I told her I had to guess that he'd installed XP Pro.

I asked her if the disk has a key on it, and she read this and that and said she didn't see the word "key" anywhere. I just have to figure that I'll be able to determine what the key is somehow.

She also has an XP Office install disk, which I will use to install Office. Of course, I'll back up her Outlook and data to either my flash drive or my iRiver 40 GB MP3 player before reformatting her HD. Maybe she has a 2nd HD, but I'm not counting on it.

 

[RVN]

I've had several occasions to re-build other people's computers lately due to spyware and viruses. Contingent on the size of the hard drive, the ability to back up all the data and it's lack thereof of a factory restore partition, I format the disk and make a 20,480 MB (20GB) partition of which I can make incremental images (that size I find most workable for keeping the images at a reasonable size, big enough for most downloading and some data), storing them on the second partition, but preferably a second hard drive. For instance, an image of the slipstreamed XP SP3, the drivers and the imaging software (Acronis), another image that includes office software, another image that includes programs, an image that has the security updates added and at least another image for retaining their settings (email accounts, addresses, favorites, wallpaper, tweaks etc...). This ensures a 10 minute minor ordeal the next time they get infected or screw up the OS. Show them how to save their data to the second partition and how to make their own backup images for their data and changes periodically. Short of a hardware failure they're bullet-proof.

If there's a better way or something I left out, show me.

 

[Blazer]

the XP lic key should be on the bottom of the laptop, also you could download majic jellybean and it will tell you the proper key from within xp before you wipe the hard drive.

also download an antivirus software or two to carry with you for installation before the laptop sees the internet.

Crap Cleaner & Superantispyware are two highly reguarded additional utilities to help keep xp healhy.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Muse
She has a disk labeled Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition including Service Pack 1.

See my post in this thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=34&threadid=2232793

In addition to that post, the generic installation key is different for XP Home, Professional, and Media Center SKUs. So if you try to create an XP Professional install CD using the winnt.sif file obtained from an XP Home system, or vice versa, the generic installation key will need to be changed in winnt.sif to one that corresponds with the edition being installed. There are websites that have compiled a list of generic installation keys used by different OEMs for the different OS SKUs.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: RVN
I've had several occasions to re-build other people's computers lately due to spyware and viruses. Contingent on the size of the hard drive, the ability to back up all the data and it's lack thereof of a factory restore partition, I format the disk and make a 20,480 MB (20GB) partition of which I can make incremental images (that size I find most workable for keeping the images at a reasonable size, big enough for most downloading and some data), storing them on the second partition, but preferably a second hard drive. For instance, an image of the slipstreamed XP SP3, the drivers and the imaging software (Acronis), another image that includes office software, another image that includes programs, an image that has the security updates added and at least another image for retaining their settings (email accounts, addresses, favorites, wallpaper, tweaks etc...). This ensures a 10 minute minor ordeal the next time they get infected or screw up the OS. Show them how to save their data to the second partition and how to make their own backup images for their data and changes periodically. Short of a hardware failure they're bullet-proof.

If there's a better way or something I left out, show me.

Nice! Honestly, I don't think I could convince these folks to do this stuff, but I believe I'm going to adopt it basically for my next install at home, for which I'm overdue. I haven't been able to convince my sister-in-law to run her 19" LCD at the native resolution, 1280 x 1024. She insists on running it in the next lower resolution.

Thanks!

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: blazer
the XP lic key should be on the bottom of the laptop, also you could download majic jellybean and it will tell you the proper key from within xp before you wipe the hard drive.

also download an antivirus software or two to carry with you for installation before the laptop sees the internet.

Crap Cleaner & Superantispyware are two highly reguarded additional utilities to help keep xp healhy.

They don't have a laptop. She's running a mid-tower rig. So's my brother. I suggested he get a laptop last time I visited (he wanted to upgrade from his old Win2000 machine), but he wasn't interested and we ordered him a Dell midtower with Vista Home. When I came and set up the machine I was disappointed to find out that the incorporated display (built into the mobo) didn't support DVI output and we went to Fry's and bought a video card. After all, he bought a nice 22" Samsung display at the same time.

Never heard of majic jellybean. Can we use that to determine the key for my sister-in-law's XP? Thing is, she doesn't have an XP Pro install disk, just an XP Home disk, so the key in her system may not work with the disk she has. I have to figure that key's somewhere, or I can get it from Dell support in a pinch.

When I set up my brother's machine I think I had him install AVG free AV and SuperAntiSpyware. He probably has never updated the latter, although I probably told him he should do that periodically. I will hopefully have time to check out his machine and update those apps and do full system scans while I'm there.

Edit: Can I use the same XP SP2 and SP3 on her XP Home machine that I used to upgrade my XP Pro machine? I can bring them on my HD based MP3 player.

 

[Blazer]

majic jelly bean can find the key as long as the OS will load, there should be a product key stuck to the outside of the pc case, could be inside the case as well.

http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

with an XP Pro key you will need an xp pro disk, most likely xp pro sp1, and vice versa for xp home, cant be interchanged between the OS.

oem software disk has to use oem product key.

retail software disk has to use retail product key.

dont use avg, i recommend avira, but its end user choice, look here for choices.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=33&threadid=2232308

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: blazer
majic jelly bean can find the key as long as the OS will load, there should be a product key stuck to the outside of the pc case, could be inside the case as well.

http://magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

with an XP Pro key you will need an xp pro disk, most likely xp pro sp1, and vice versa for xp home, cant be interchanged between the OS.

oem software disk has to use oem product key.

retail software disk has to use retail product key.

dont use avg, i recommend avira, but its end user choice, look here for choices.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=33&threadid=2232308

Thanks. Will the key that majic jelly bean would come up with be the same as the product key on the case?

Edit: Thanks for the tip about AVG! Gonna have to ditch it when I do my own XP install, shortly.

 

[Blazer]

they should match, unless someone has reloaded the os and used another key, if it boots to the OS i would chk one against the other.

 

[LumbergTech]

my gf's father's dell has norton ghost on it..you just press a key combination when booting up and it put it back to original state in less than 30 minutes..

i thought most semi-recent dells did this

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: LumbergTech
my gf's father's dell has norton ghost on it..you just press a key combination when booting up and it put it back to original state in less than 30 minutes..

i thought most semi-recent dells did this

Hers is probably 3? maybe 4 years old. My brother's is less than a year old, so that would be "recent" but I didn't detect or get a wiff of Ghost being involved when I set it up for him. I only had a day or so, so maybe I missed it. Could be there's some restore option on her computer. Thing is, though, the fact that it's got XP Pro on it and the disk supplied to her is XP Home indicates that that somebody who came out to service her computer did an XP Pro install. No doubt he didn't leave her an XP Pro disk and didn't leave her a restore option. I figure I'm going to have to use her XP Home disk, finding the key somewhere (probably on the case). I don't think she'll miss the additional power of XP Pro.

Originally posted by: CalvinHobbes
You would probably need a XP Home OEM CD to be able to use the key that came with the PC. Dell probably supplied either an XP CD or a re-install CD that would allow you to restore the OS back to the factory fresh image.

Yep, probably the former (from talking to them the other night on the phone).

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Muse
Thanks. Will the key that majic jelly bean would come up with be the same as the product key on the case?

Not normally on OEM computers that support OEM BIOS pre-activation, the product key used with the factory software image is a generic installation key and does not match the COA. However, we don't really know here because someone installed XP Professional, while the system apparently shipped with XP Home. If the person that installed XP Pro preserved the OEM BIOS pre-activation, the product key reported by any key finder will not match the COA. If they didn't preserve OEM pre-activation, they probably used the product key from the COA during installation, which key finders will return.

oem software disk has to use oem product key.

retail software disk has to use retail product key.

But you can make retail media accept OEM keys and vice versa by editing one file using Notepad, then burning back to CD.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: Muse
Thanks. Will the key that majic jelly bean would come up with be the same as the product key on the case?

Not normally on OEM computers that support OEM BIOS pre-activation, the product key used with the factory software image is a generic installation key and does not match the COA. However, we don't really know here because someone installed XP Professional, while the system apparently shipped with XP Home. If the person that installed XP Pro preserved the OEM BIOS pre-activation, the product key reported by any key finder will not match the COA. If they didn't preserve OEM pre-activation, they probably used the product key from the COA during installation, which key finders will return.

oem software disk has to use oem product key.

retail software disk has to use retail product key.

But you can make retail media accept OEM keys and vice versa by editing one file using Notepad, then burning back to CD.

I'm kind of confused here. How should I proceed? Should I even run Magic Jelly Bean? Or should I just back up her data, look for the product key on her machine (on the case or inside of it), and install XP Home from the disk supplied by Dell?

 

[tcsenter]

Do you want to install XP Home or Professional? If XP Home, just use the Dell installation CD, it will have everything required to preserve OEM activation and shouldn't even require the product key. I am assuming the XP Home w/SP1 CD they have is a Dell branded one. If not, we can deal with that as well.

If Professional, we'll need to Frankenstein you an install CD that will preserve OEM activation, if you don't mind obtaining a copy from a netherworldly source (which I can provide a link for). The PC still has the original Dell motherboard, right?

On edit: I just realized that he couldn't have used the product key from the COA to install XP Professional, if the COA is for XP Home. So its possible he did preserve the OEM activation.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
Do you want to install XP Home or Professional? If XP Home, just use the Dell installation CD, it will have everything required to preserve OEM activation and shouldn't even require the product key. I am assuming the XP Home w/SP1 CD they have is a Dell branded one. If not, we can deal with that as well.

If Professional, we'll need to Frankenstein you an install CD that will preserve OEM activation, if you don't mind obtaining a copy from a netherworldly source (which I can provide a link for). The PC still has the original Dell motherboard, right?

On edit: I just realized that he couldn't have used the product key from the COA to install XP Professional, if the COA is for XP Home. So its possible he did preserve the OEM activation.

There's some things I'm not comprehending. In particular COA. Well, what's the link to that "netherworldly" source for XP Pro?

Anyway, I think she's going to be OK with XP Home. I'm all but certain it's got the original Dell mobo. Also, that XP Home CD, although I haven't seen it yet is almost sure to be the Dell branded one she got with the computer. In 24 hours or so I'll be there and will see what's what.

Edit:I see now (acronym finder) that COA is Certificate of Authenticity. This is interesting because she told me a year or two ago that she was getting persistent and extremely annoying messages (I think when booting, which she doesn't do much) to verify her COA!! I tried to help her with it, but never arrived at a solution. Actually, she was given some options but she decided not to bother. I think she was going to call Dell, I don't know. Anyway, I figure that reformatting the HD and installing XP Home from the Dell branded disk should resolve that stuff too.

 

[Muse]

I'm at their house now. I have a question. Looking at the \Program Files folder I see plenty of stuff installed. One is iTunes and the folder/subfolders is around 85 MB. Apparently they've downloaded a bunch of stuff. How do I preserve that? I don't see an export option in iTunes. I don't use it personally, so I'm not acquainted with how to preserve it after an OS reinstall.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't /think/ there's anything you need in the Program Files directory. The DRM information is in Application Data I believe, and the music is wherever they keep their music. look on Itunes site for the proper way of transferring the settings. DRM schemes can be a PITA if you don't follow the proper steps.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
I don't /think/ there's anything you need in the Program Files directory. The DRM information is in Application Data I believe, and the music is wherever they keep their music. look on Itunes site for the proper way of transferring the settings. DRM schemes can be a PITA if you don't follow the proper steps.

Thanks. DRM is something I know nothing about save for the fact that they are my personal initials! They really are! The iTunes help isn't getting me anywhere. When I look up transferring store purchaes to another computer it only addresses if you have an iPod or iPhone. I don't know that they do, but they have evidently made store purchases.

 

[lxskllr]

If they haven't bought music from Itunes, you're good to go. Just reinstall it on the new machine. I'm looking for information on transferring Itunes bought music settings. I haven't used the service since it was brand new. I didn't like their terms of use, and the cost for DRM laden music was too high imo.

Edit:

Check out this page. It looks like all you need to do is enter your account information to play the tracks purchased from Itunes.

Also, see this page for information on deauthorizing computers. You only have to do this if there's more than 5 computers authorized on a single account.

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
If they haven't bought music from Itunes, you're good to go. Just reinstall it on the new machine. I'm looking for information on transferring Itunes bought music settings. I haven't used the service since it was brand new. I didn't like their terms of use, and the cost for DRM laden music was too high imo.

Edit:

Check out this page. It looks like all you need to do is enter your account information to play the tracks purchased from Itunes.

Also, see this page for information on deauthorizing computers. You only have to do this if there's more than 5 computers authorized on a single account.

Thanks. Question:

Is the music resident on the computer (i.e. downloaded data) or are the tunes downloaded as they are played?

I just did a backup of the library to 2 CDR's. I figure I can restore from those but don't know if that's all there is to guaranteeing that iTunes will be restored.