midwifetoad
Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008
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I'm a veteran of about 50 XP repairs and reinstalls. The most critical thing is to make sure you don't change the CD key on a machine that has been activated. This is sometimes problematic when you have a machine cobbled together from bits and parts.
There are a couple of programs -- one of them happily named Keyfinder -- that will tell you what is installed. I have found that Dells and Gateways often have a key installed that doesn't match the sticker on the side of the computer.
The next problem is making sure your CD key matches the type of installation CD. There are numerous kinds of installation CDs. Windows comes in two flavors, Home and Pro. For each flavor there are three colors, Retail, OEM and Upgrade. That makes six possible CDs, and each is tied to a specific list of keys. To make it even more fun, there are three versions -- Original, SP1 and SP2. If you can find an SP2 CD, that's the one to use. Keys are not tied to version.
The next problem is that except for the Retail versions, activation seems to be tied to either the hard drive or the motherboard, or both. Sometimes you have to call Microsoft and fight with them over activation. The OEM versions are technically tied to the original hardware, so if you get into a fight over activation, you better be aware that Dell CD keys cannot be transferred to a new computer.
Now, I have worked around most of these activation issues, with only a couple of failures. For OEM installations, MS seems to allow you to put an old hard drive into a new computer. Or to replace a dead hard drive in the same computer. Or upgrade a hard drive. But if you do too many of these things too quickly, you can find yourself on the phone.
There is a secret version of reinstall called Repair. (This may only work for Professional. that's all I work with.) To do a Repair, you boot from the CD, follow the menus for installation. After the installation script finds an existing installation it will ask if you want to repair it. If you say yes, it replaces all the system files, but leaves all your third party programs untouched and still installed. It will look exactly like an install, even asking for your CD key. If your key doesn't match the CD version, or the version already installed, the repair will fail, leaving a mess.
I have managed to repair a lot of computers that were trashed by viruses or disk errors, mostly because I stick to one flavor of Windows, OEM Pro. All my headaches have occurred when someone bought a cheap Dell for office use, and the Home version had to be upgraded to Pro. This route sucks. It's cheaper in the long run to buy a copy of Pro and do a clean install.
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Any version of ID consistent with all the evidence is indistinguishable from evolution.
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