XP Reinstall, Help?

[Fatty]

Ok, all is not lost, but I'm having pains. Here's the story:

 

I'm watching a demo that I created of a hacker that I banned and then abused (banned w/o kicking). I'm laughing at myself and him and then I hit exit and I'm then met with a "no signal" message on my monitor. Oops!

 

Meanwhile, in the background, I was uploading the demo in zipped form to the site for viewing (i'll have that done another time)

 

Anyways, once I rebooted, my network was down on this pc. Couldn't see the router, nothing. Bought a new network card, nothing. Nothing, nothing.

 

Finally i reinstalled XP, a complete install right over top. While the network is back up, this brings me to my issue: I'm freshly logged in but I don't see any of my stuff. Nothing. It came up with only the recycle bin on the desktop.

 

Now, I can access my old desktop, etc, all the files are still there, but my computer shows NO PROGRAMS as installed (ie startmenu, or add/remove programs)

 

Now, I can reinstall everything, great, but is this the only way? I ran CS, but I had to reinsert my CD key (obviously new registry, etc) and I'm going to have to update my video driver (as Open GL isn't working yet) but my config, everything, is still in there.

 

On one hand, it's a nice new install of XP, but on the other hand, all my progs are filed away, not associated, and obviously not installed correctly anymore.

 

Any ideas or experiences?

[Fatty]

Ok, here's an example: I'm updating my NVIDIA driver, and although it's not listed under the add/remove programs, it says I should uninstall.

[Fatty]

Next item: with update of nvidia driver, open gl worked, but even with fps_max at 150, it's pinning at 60. Help on this one too please.

[Fatty]

Update: reverted back to 8 x 6 in open gl, pinned at 100, went back to 1024, back to 95-100 like before. Dunno why that fixt it but it did.

[Asphyxiator]

Yeah, Ive had a similar experience, I was at a lan party and had to reinstall win2k. Before you reinstalled windows you should have tried XP's system recovery. Usually that works really well, or booting with the last known configuration. It was all those registry settings you lost. Next time, make a backup of your registry for easier repair. If you want your files back, and your desktop to the way it looked before you formatted follow these steps.

 

Before doing this make sure you upgrade windows.

1.) Log into your computer as an Administrator.

2.) Go to 'control panels' and then to 'users'.

3.) Create a new user that you will want to use for the future, name it whatever you want and select administrator for privileges.

4.) After the user is made, go to your 'documents and settings' folder in your root directory.

5.) Once inside you will see a list of user folders, find the user that you used to log in with before you reinstalled windows. This has all of your critical files in it.

6.) Open up that folder, and copy its entire contents to the new users folder you just created in step 3. Make sure you allow it to overwrite the existing files. (make sure you have view all selected in your explorer properties, because there are a bunch of hidden files and folders.)

7.) Once all is finished, log out and log back into the new user that you just created, and Tadda! there is your desktop with all of your files, your My Documents folder is there, and your start menu is all there too. Even outlook express has all your emails saved.

 

Unfortunately your users registry settings are not save, so things like your destop picture are not saved. You will also have to retype your cd keys for games like half life. Basically your settings were lost, but those can be reconfigured easily to your specifications. The important thing is you got all your files back. Also your Add/Remove programs utility will be screwed up because you didnt format, just reinstall your applications over your old ones so they write to the registry.

 

This is what i did at a lan party when my ntoskrnl got corrupt, and seems to work fine still. You may have to reinstall some applications like winamp. Hope this helps.

[Fatty]

Well, I may just try to get things running slowly. I'm kinda liking the CLEAN feel. Thank you for the tips, sounds easy enough to do if things won't work out. I appreciate it.

[Guest ZDamage]

yeah, the 60 fps issue is a known issue with win2k and winxp when games go into full screen mode. When this happens, the refresh rates of these OS's revert to 60hz, which will lock your fps at 60fps if you have vsync on. SP1 for WinXP is supposed to fix this. There are some tools that will fix this as well if you use Win2k.

 

In regards to your loss of you progs fatty, that is normal for a reinstall of winxp and win2k as well. What I normally do is go into the "C" drive, go to "Documents and Settings" which is the folder that contains all your user data and desk tops, etc. I normally copy these profiles to another location then import them over later so all of my desktop icons are still there along with "My Documents" and etc. Saving the registry is not a good idea because if the problem is with your registry, then you just imported the problem right back into your system again.

[NOFX]

yea the clean install is nice, makes windows a lil faster, when you installed XP you check fresh install, not the reinstall. Everything is fine and alot of your programs will run, which is good cuz it doesnt put all the crap in your registry. Just brose your C drive and look for their .exe file. NVIDIA just seen that you already had a folder made with the drivers in it, so thats why it said uninstall(it doesnt matter) Make sure you have your vsync off if you want the high fps.

[Asphyxiator]

I disagree, smoother CS = Vsync on. You people are all into the numbers. sheesh.