MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Mate had trouble with his laptop, loads of viruses and the thing was grinding to a halt. (Windows XP)
ran the system restore that came with the laptop, he forgot to tell me it has a fan problem aswell, halfway through the restore it shuts down as it overheated... now when it re-starts XP loads about halfway and dies.
the only way out now is to re-install a copy of XP, what i want to know ive done the XP install many times before but im wondering can i install it onto a different partition (not write it over the original)so once its got a new copy on i can search the drive to find all his old stuff on the OLD /ORIGINAL install?
if that makes sense?
cheers
PS- Can you take laptop hard drives out and put them into a USB cradle like you can with PC hard drives them connect them via USB to get at the old files?
You can definitely use a USB cradle - it will presumably be a 2.5" drive rather than 3.5" on a normal PC.
IIRC you can install windows without wiping everything - not done it for a while though sorry.
cheers,
aye i remember you can install XP but just the core windows files not a FULL wipe/install.
You can install on another partition if there is one
Repair install may be the best bet though
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
great link cheers