Re-install XP on old drive when Vista is main OS

I did a reinstall of xp. It wanted to install over the old install, which would have deleted a lot of files I would need to run my old programs. So I did a new install to a new directory. I could get into xp, but it wouldn't load as my old desktop. Should I have done a repair instead of an install??? Do I have to add files to the boot disk to do the repair???
 
See i didnt realize you wanted all your old stuff like that. I would have told you that doing a fresh install wouldnt have allowed you to do that. As it is a new isntall and you cant load the old stuff.

You can copy over the files and stuff i believe from the File Transfer Wizard i believe. Possilby copy over your profile. But as far as using the old stuff as it was with this install. Wont happen.

A Repair install is what should have been done. No extra files were needed. Just the XP Disc which you now have. After the first set of screens came up for loading the drives you would click install XP. (I know this sounds wierd) Hit F8 to accept the License agreement. Then it would continue on and find out that you have a Windows isntall already. This is where the option for the repair install would be. That is what you should have done to revive the old install.

As i said back in the 10th post of the drive i wasnt sure what it was exactly you were trying to accomplish. It wasnt clear to me that you wanted to use the old install with the new one. Sorry.
 
When I did the install, I created a second Windows directory. I didn't want to overwrite everything on the old directory. I still have all the original info. The install didn't work the way I had hoped. I tried to do a repair as you described. I get to a point in it where it asks for a file location. It's on the original XP disk, but when I type in the location, it simply doesn't go any further. There are times I get asked for an administrator password. I'm the system admin, but the only password I use for access doesn't work.
I may just set up a partition on the new drive and move all the info from the old drive to the new drive, reformat the old drive and use it as storage.

Addendum:

I backed up all the data with Genie-Soft before I started all this. If I create a new partition on the current C: drive, can I just move the backed up data to the new partition, or do I have to install xp there first, then restore the info after I have installed???

Thanks for all your help. Sorry I confused you earlier. No harm done. I have everything saved everywhere. :smile:
 
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It is my pleasure to try and help you thru this.

I personally dont know about the Genie-Soft appication. So i dont know how it will work. If it is a backup it should be able to be restored to the new install that you have. I dont know if it backed up XP or just the data. What kind of options did it give you when you went to do the backup?
 
If that is the case you should be able to just use that and put that on a empty partition. Sounds like it made a image of yoru drive rather than backed it up.
 
The genie soft application didn't work the way I had hoped. What can I use to make an image of my old HD. Then how do I copy that info to the new partition???
 
Well the first thing to ask is if you can still boot to the old profile. If so then we can work this out. If not we will have to work some tricks, if we can.
 
You have to be able to log in to the old drive in order for the image process to work correctly. Since you said you used a new directory have you tried to add the old drive info to the boot.ini file and boot to that profile?
 
I'm not sure I understand the situation right now, so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong....

You reinstalled XP to a partition that used to contain XP in the past as well(?).

If your goal was to get keep your old files and programs but get rid of _____, then this was the wrong way to go about it; since both are stored in profiles that are a part of the operating system, not just the drive/partition.

At this point, your files should still be there, and the programs too. But you can't run most of these programs becase
a) their shortcuts don't exist
b) their settings are not saved/created for this copy of XP.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing something here, so mind explaining once again what it is you want to do?
 
OK, well there is really no solution. You can't move your old programs and settings into your new setup.

The only other option is to restore your old Windows (basically, undo the installation) by recovering the Windows.OLD folder (assuming you haven't changed anything there).

I'm still not clear on the purpose of reinstalling XP though...
 
I think cause this drive was taken from another machine maybe?? I don't know off hand. I was thinking that maybe since it was installed using a different directory other than the Windows directory that maybe you could recover the old install without that much trouble. I mean it isn't like it created a windows.old folder since he used a new directory. Shouldn't that still be possible?
 
I didn't explain things very well.

I bought a new computer with Vista installed. I moved my old HD with XP installed to the new computer. I wanted to be able to run all my old programs from the old HD using a dual boot configuration. I can access all the files on my old HD but can't run any of the programs. We figured the old drive wasn't recogniziing the new hardware. I have tried to do a repair on the old drive without any success. So I thought I could copy and move all the data from the old HD to a new partition on the new HD. I figured out how to create a new partition. But wasn't sure 1)what program to use to copy the entire contents of the old drive and 2)how to move that to the new partition.

The old HD is IDE 160 GB XP. The new HD is SATA 300 GB Vista.

I'd still prefer to be able to dual boot between the two HD's. But a dual boot on the same drive would be fine. I can use the old HD for storage.

Thanks for all the time you've devoted to helping me out so far.

Addendum:

I just tried to repair the old HD once again. It asks for an admin password. I'm the computer administrator, and none of the passwords I use will take me past this point. How do I find out what the admin password is???
 
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Use a Windows 2000 CD instead, it won't ask for a password.

I see what you were trying to do now - a repair install is the only option in that case; and if that doesn't work nothing will.
 
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