Reinstalling XP Pro on a partitioned machine

cornbb

Hey all, I think its time for a clean reinstallation of XP Pro as my machine is very sluggish. I usually do this every 6-12 months. However, I recently partitioned my machine as follows:

- Partition for Ubuntu Studio
- Partition for XP (NTFS) - C:
- Partition for data/storage, shared between each OS (FAT32) -

I haven't installed Windows on a partitioned machine before so I'm just wondering - can I safely backup all my data, bookmarks, drivers etc on the safe in the knowledge that the XP installer won't touch it? Can I specify that I want windows installed on the C: partition only, thus making sure it won't format the whole disc? Will my bootloader (Grub) be affected in any way?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Ginger

When you run the windows installer from the CD, it will ask which one partition you install to. So you can can decide which one. Make sure to have a look at the FS type because you could be accident install on the wrong one ( i did that many moons ago and lost my music collection)

Throw anything you want to save on D and then install away with a format etc. Will be fine. I do this usually when I reinstall. But I usually keep the My Documents folder on a different drive to C so that when I am finished reinstalling, I just point the new my docs folder to the old one so I dont have to copy anything.

cornbb

Sweet, cheers for that mate. I'll give it a crack tonight so before my machine becomes completely unusable!

Ginger

Name your partitions just to be sure.. such as giving C like Boot and D Progies! Something to give you a better chance of not screwing it up.

Dont know how the format will affect your linux bootloader tho.

Also a handy trick.. you can right click on my documents and click properties. Click move and get it to copy the whole docs to a new folder on D .. that way you can be sure to get that at least. After that is done, log in as a local admin account such as Administrator or a different local admin account if you are already logged in as that, and create a backup of the normal account you use and pop it on D.. not essential but just in case there is anything that is not stored in my docs you can get it from there.

Also to make a quick sweep through your standard folders that you download to make sure that you save them as well

cornbb

Went about doing this last night - not a bother, my machine is nice and quick again.

Only thing is - the XP installer gave me the option to create, remove partitions etc. However, it wouldn't let me repartition my C: as it had already copied some installation files that it needed there.

So I ended up reinstalling Windows on the C: without reformatting it. A consequence of this included the retention of everything in C:\Program Files. I manually deleted most of the old stuff in here. Some (not all) of the stuff in C:\Documents and Settings was deleted or overwritten, which I was ok with. The C:\Windows folder and the registry were both overwritten though, so that was good enough for me - essentially a reinstallation of Windows without the reformatting. Just a heads-up for anyone who goes about this.

Edit: oh, any my Grub bootloader appears to be gone, so I can't boot into Linux for the moment. Luckily that doesn't bother me right now - I'll install PartitionMagic and take a look at thie when I get the urge.

seamus

When you install Windows XP, it will overwrite the MBR, which is where Grub resides. Run the Ubuntu installer CD and choose a rescue installation. From there you'll be able to boot into your normal Ubuntu OS and repair Grub.

MrVestek

Either that or install a third party boot loader, something like Acronis OS Selector. This is a very nice gui based boot loader that outdoes Grub, Lilo or most other boot loaders I've seen, including Partition Magic's.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Acronis_OS_Selector_d2237.html

Used to use this when pissing about with a quad boot of Vista, XP, OSx86 and Ubuntu.

Ginger

Ginger wrote: »

When you run the windows installer from the CD, it will ask which one partition you install to. So you can can decide which one. Make sure to have a look at the FS type because you could be accident install on the wrong one ( i did that many moons ago and lost my music collection)

Throw anything you want to save on D and then install away with a format etc. Will be fine. I do this usually when I reinstall. But I usually keep the My Documents folder on a different drive to C so that when I am finished reinstalling, I just point the new my docs folder to the old one so I dont have to copy anything.

Very sound advice, I do exactly the same things.

I only keep what's necessary on the C drive (e-mail folders, browser favourites, Send To folder etc) and have a batch file to back them up to my data partition. So if my machine does go belly up I can wipe the C drive with no risk of losing anything.