pc tips 'n' tricks

Windows 2000 and XP CDs

If you have Windows 2000 and XP you need to know how to reinstall windows properly as well. Insert your Windows CD and boot your computer. Upon startup you will see Press any key to boot from CD.

After clicking you will come to the welcome screen. Press Enter, then press Escape to start a restore. From the menu options select C as your current partition and then l to delete the Windows folder. Enter temp as your user name when prompted. Reboot and you will be logged in as temp.

Next you will restore your personal files. Windows 2000 users should login as temp, then Administrator and then back to temp again. Then go to C:\Documents and Settings and you will see an Administrator folder and one with Administrator: computername.

From DOS type cd \documents and settings and then press Enter. Type xcopy administrator\*.* administrator.computername /s /h /r /c, substituting for computername your folder that was appended to Administrator earlier. Your personal files will be restored.


4. For Both Windows XP and 2000

Windows XP and 2000 users need one extra step to know how to reinstall windows correctly. Create a new folder on your C: drive and label it oldData. Then go to My Documents and Settings and copy all of the folders for each username to oldData.

In Control Panel go to User Accounts and create a new account for each of these users—use their names as spelled out under their Documents and Settings folders. If you’re using XP ensure that at least one account has Administrator privileges.

For each user on your computer, log off and log in with that user’s name. Then login as Temp and drop down into the DOS command prompt interpreter. Now type

xcopy c:\oldData\*.* "c:\documents and settings" /s /h /r /c

Then press Enter. Go ahead and confirm that you wish to overwrite files. When you’re done, log off and then login as each user. Each user’s Documents and
Settings should be restored.