I have Windows XP home edition; want to know how to format hard drive for a clean install. Thanks.?

December 14, 2009

I would appreciate if somebody can tell me how to format Hard drive in windows xp. I intend to do a clean install of operating system. I have Windows XP CD but it is SP-1; I downloaded SP-2 in 2004 when it was available.

So I plan to do a format of HD and clean install of XP SP-1. I would appeciate any help.

Thanks

Windows XP and Windows Me?

December 14, 2009

For those of you who knows computers, I know this is going to sound like a stupid question, but is there a big difference?

The reason I am asking is because I need a reinstallation CD for Windows XP but only found the reinstallation CD for WMe, and my question is, can I use the WMe reinstallation CD instead on the Windows XP laptop? It’s my mom’s Dell laptop. If I cannot, can I get a copy of it from Dell or Microsoft if I tell them the ID that is on the laptop?

I utilized some registry cleaner softwares because my mom had some viruses in her laptop, and it probably erased something it shouldn’t have, it takes 20 minutes for the browser homepage to open, so I figured it would be easiest to use the reinstall CD. I would do the "undo" feature except there are no records for me to undo.

Thanks so much in advance to everyone!

Need help with a clean install of Windows XP Pro.?

December 13, 2009

I have a 100% empty 120GB hard drive that I’m doing a clean install of Windows XP Pro on. It goes through the whole boot process from the CD and restarts just fine. Then, after the restart and it starts to continue the install, I get this message.

"An error has occurred that prevents Setup from continuing. One of the components that Windows needs to continue setup could not be installed. A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest."

After I click OK on that dialog box, it gives me an error log with the error message in it and this is what IT says.

Error: SXS.DLL: Syntax error in manifest of policy file "J:\I386\asms00\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\GDIPLUS.MAN" on line 4.
Error: Installation Failed: J:\I386\asms. Error Message: A component’s file does not match the verification information present in the component manifest.

I just need to know what this means and what I can do to fix it. Any ideas?
The disk is a Windows certified disk from the company and the hard drive was completely formatted without any issues. The disk is also in mint condition as well.

No Video Thumbnail in Windows XP?

December 13, 2009

I am facing a similar problem on my Windows XP Home Edition SP3.

The thumbails for all types of pictures are generating, but not for any videos including .wmv .avi .mpg. I don’t know since when this is happening, I observed this recently.

I was using Windows Media Player 11, KMPlayer v2.9.4, K-Lite Mega Codec Pack v5, Format Factory v2, Nero Vision (Nero 8). I had uninstalled these softwares and then reinstalled them one by one as I was testing thumbnails between every installation, but even though nothing worked out.

I tried to correct it by going to Windows Explorer’s Folder Options and the restoring the defaults and applying it to all folders. I cleaned my tracks, junk files, registry issues using Ccleaner & Wise Registry Cleaner. But nothing really worked out.

Please Help !!!

How do I speed up my notebook computer?

December 12, 2009

I own an ASUS A8Js laptop
Intel Core 2 Duo T2700 2.00 Ghz
RAM 2GB
nVidia GeForce Go 7700

I would like to speed up my computer without a system reformat, I am running in Windows XP Professional SP2 and am NOT looking to upgrade to Vista. How can I improve the performance and speed of my notebook computer?