Windows XP I screwed up

jeb

New Member
I screwed up - never done that before! :)

Was giving an older computer I no longer use to someone - has MS xp on it. Went through to delete all my personal files off it and saw a folder - "JIim", my name and thought it just contained my personal stuff. Deleted that folder - appears that there was a lot more there that I should not have deleted.

This XP was on the computer when I purchased it so I have no disc.

Is there any way to fix this?

If I wanted to update to Vista or Win 7 and use an update copy, would this work or does it need all the old XP files to do a clean update? - jb
 
I screwed up - never done that before! :)

Was giving an older computer I no longer use to someone - has MS xp on it. Went through to delete all my personal files off it and saw a folder - "JIim", my name and thought it just contained my personal stuff. Deleted that folder - appears that there was a lot more there that I should not have deleted.

This XP was on the computer when I purchased it so I have no disc.

Is there any way to fix this?

If I wanted to update to Vista or Win 7 and use an update copy, would this work or does it need all the old XP files to do a clean update? - jb


jeb, you may be in luck. You didn't say whether or not you can boot up your computer. If your computer came with the OS pre-installed and without a CD copy of the OS, it is probably on drive "D" on your computer. If you can boot the computer (even to safe mode), you can open drive "D" and reinstall the OS from there. If you cannot do that, it is likely that you did get a CD with your computer that is labeled "Recovery CD". If you cannot boot normally, put the CD in the CD drive and start the computer and "boot from CD" then reinstall the OS from "D" drive. If all that fails, contact the computer manufacturer with the model number and serial number of your computer and there is a good chance that you can still purchase a CD copy of your original OS from the manufacturer for around $20 plus or minus (price varies between manufacturers). You can then do a "clean install" of the original OS using the OEM installation key that is on a sticker attached to the back or bottom of your computer. If all this fails, you pretty much are out of luck and may have to buy a retail copy of the desired OS which will come with a different installation key from the OEM key that is shown on your computer. If you are thinking of upgrading, be aware that this process "brings on more talk" regarding computer hardware requirements for later OS versions than original.

Good Luck
 
Just for General Purposes and Future Reference:

When I set up a new computer for someone of my customers, they quite often just GIVE me their old computer.
I take it home and copy all their data files to a DVD, which I give back to them.
But, to delete all their personal info, identities, etc. I do this:
After saving all the old data files to DVD, I go into the USER management area of the control panel and I create
a NEW user, with Administrator Privileges.
Then I reboot the computer into that new user, make sure it's running the way I want it to and then I go back
into the Users app in the Control Panel and just remove (delete) the old user. That removes everything that was
specific to that old user.

This takes only seconds, compared to the time to manually remove everything in the computer that was created or saved
by that old user. A million thanks to the guy who taught me how to do that, quite some time ago now.

Cheers Mates!
Old Timer :)
 
Back
Top