What files lost in XP reinstall???

[Arjay13]

If I reinstall XP in the same directory as the current installation (to fix my daughters computer - see below) what files get lost. You could do this with 98SE and retain all the groups apps etc. Can you do the same with XP?

Thanks in advance
Arjay

[lone1dog]

You can use the repair option with xp if need be

[Arjay13]

The problem is that the window where you select which "User" you want to log in as has no user icons - makes it tough to log in . If she repairs the current installation, will it repair that problem?

[PresterJohn]

is the icon problem for all people who login or only for user?

if it's only for user, delete her profile instead.

[Arjay13]

all users, not just her though occasionally she gets her user icon but cannot recall the password (sigh). I can get her in to the system restore utility if she can get in as an admin but she'll probably not know that password either....

[PresterJohn]

if it's for all users, you can try the repair.

it may not fix the problem however, since Repair tends to 'preserve' some of the previous installation settings.

[Arjay13]

Ok, will give repair a try when she gets back from class this afternoon.

If we need to reinstall, does she run the risk of losing her My Documents folder?

[PresterJohn]

>If we need to reinstall, does she run the risk of losing her My Documents folder?

provided you don't reformat..no, the MyDocs folder will be safe.

however, you'll probably need to take ownership of the old profile folder since the reinstall (reinstall is diferent than repairing) won't change the old SID on the profile folders.

the best thing to do is copy all her data to a separate folder before you proceed...you'll probably still need to take ownership afterwards (depends on where the backup folder is placed).

[Arjay13]

sorry to sound dumb but what does "take ownership of the old profile folder" mean and what does SID mean? I have been working on and repairing computers and windows installations for years but I have only little experience with XP. Thanks for your patience.

[PresterJohn]

SID stands for [S]ecurity [ID]entifer.

all accounts under nt/w2k/xp have an associated sid. the SID is used to uniquely identify a user and what memberships he is part of, including access to what resources. the SID is a unique number generated by the system and can only be used once. if you were to create an acct called User1 and then delete it and create another account with the same name, it will have a different SID than the first one.

all the SIDS are tracked & reside in the SAM database. even deleted accounts that no longer show up in user manager are there.

under the nt/w2k/xp file system security model, all files and folders created by a user have a file owner assigned to them - this by default is the SID of the person creating it.

when you reinstall xp (note i am not talking about repair) to the same machine, depending on how the reinstall is done, new sids are generated for all accounts (admin level or otherwise). even though adminstrator level accounts theoreotically (sp) have access to all files and folders, they may not be able to access certain folders because of the file ownership tag that was placed on them previously. what is needed then, is you must go to the the security permissions properties tab and you must take ownership of the files/folder before you can access them.

if my memory is correct, i think you have to turn off Simple File Sharing before you can see that tab.