# Reloading XP



## moopups (May 12, 2002)

My puter says I'm running pirate OS, W XP, so I got a legal disc coming. So how do I flush the bad program and reinstall the new one? This house is geek free so keep it simple.

Second question, is there a way to stash my favorites list so that it won't get lost?


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## legacy (Oct 16, 2005)

You can save all your favorites to a file. Folo the instructions on this site:

http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_backup_my_internet_explorer_favorites_in_windows.html

Then, either e-mail that file to yourself or save it to a disc.

As far as getting the old stuff off your computer, the only way I know to do it is to either a)take it to a computer shop and tell them you want them to "swipe" the hard drive, or b) go to a computer store and buy a hard drive cleaner, which is a CD that you run to overwrite the hard drive a whole bunch of times. (This is the same thing you use to clean a hard drive before you toss your old computer.) Data Eliminator is what I have, and I'm sorry, I can't remember the price. I used it before reloading a laptop that had a nasty virus in it. 

I wouldn't think a computer shop would charge much for a computer swipe.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Is this a retail version of XP sold by M$ or is this a restoration cd from your computer manufacturer? The restoration cd will overwrite everything without you doing diddly. The retail version will see your present install and ask if you want to repair it. Say no and it will start copying files for install and you will get to screen asking if you want to use present partition, you can either reformat or just let it delete current files on partition and reinstall. 

On the off chance it puts up a fuss, a simple win98 boot disk will allow you to fdisk and wipe the partition that way and let your new XP cd find a blank hardrive. But I dont think a new retail XP disk should put up any fuss. 

By the way just cause you got that pirate warning doesnt necessarily mean you had a pirate version installed. One of M$ wonderful updates made lots of computers suddenly think they had a pirate install when they didnt. Do a google and there were all sorts of work arounds, the best being to use goback feature to before you installed the update, then refuse that particular update. Nevada or somebody can give better details though its a moot point if you have already bought a new retail copy. Just remember M$'s prime objective is to maximize profit, not give a sucker, woops, I mean consumer, an even break.


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## Kung (Jan 19, 2004)

If you have a legal disc/license coming, and it's the same version of XP as you have, just use a keyfinder/changer to change the license key.


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Kung said:


> If you have a legal disc/license coming, and it's the same version of XP as you have, just use a keyfinder/changer to change the license key.


I defer to your experience, but if his current install of XP is truly pirated, it would most likely be a copy of a "corporate" version (requires key but doesnt require activation) of XPpro. If he priced out cheapest retail XP or OEM XP or manufacturer OEM reinstallation cd then it will be most likely be some version of XPhome. I dont remember all details but I believe these all have slightly different keys. In other words at most basic, a key for XPhome wont work with XPpro. And OEM key wont work on retail, etc, etc, etc. And if its a manufacturer reinstallation cd then it will just recognize that it belongs via the bios and not require a key or activation. Its all very complicated and annoying. And I suspect he had a perfectly legit install, especially if he had a big name pc like Dell and that stupid M$ update gave a false indication of a pirated version.

My choice is to bypass M$ products altogether, but I recently had to reinstall XP on a partition to run a program I couldnt find a linux equivalent for and didnt want to mess trying to massage it to work with WINE though it probably would. Its on its own old spare hardrive and I just pop it in the computer now if I absolutely need it and otherwise totally windoze free. I have very little patience for M$ legalistic and monopolistic game playing.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

moopups said:


> My puter says I'm running pirate OS, W XP, so I got a legal disc coming.


This is a very common problem even for legitimately licensed Windows XP users. I have even know people who were legitimate Microsoft customers who got that message, but Microsoft still tried to extort another license fee out of them when they called to straighten it out.

There are ways around that problem. Not completely legal ways, but ways. Enough said...


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

Nevada said:


> There are ways around that problem. Not completely legal ways, but ways. Enough said...


Its perfectly legal to goback to before the update and then refuse that particular update that installed the nag screen. Even if you have to completely reinstall XP, THEN set it to refuse that update. Course that requires a backup copy of XP. People do keep a ghosted image copy of original install, dont they??????? It was a sad day when computers stopped coming with a complete install from scratch cd. The only brand new pc I ever bought came with both a restoration cd (ghosted image to restore it to condition it came off assembly line) and an install from scratch win98 cd. Thats the way it still should be for any computer sold with windows or any other commercial operating system.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> Its perfectly legal to goback to before the update and then refuse that particular update that installed the nag screen.


Oh, there are utilities that can remove the nag screen. That's not a problem. Just Google for XP nag screen, or download muBlinder.

[ame]http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-17,GGLG:en&q=xp+nag+screen[/ame]
http://www.p2plife.com/forums/Official_muBlinder_Page-t320.html

The problem is that if the nag screen appears your installation probably isn't registered properly. You won't be able to install SP2 without proper registration, and even if you have SP2 Microsoft won't give you updates. Of course, if you have SP2 installed you could use a Netscape product to get security updates from 62nds without proper registration.

http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/

However, as I said above, there are ways around all this.


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