Dianaroseanna
New Member
I tried to make a search in the Forum but my problems cover several areas and I couldn't find any specific answers to my various problems under the OS listing. For various reasons, I bought a copy of WinXP-Pro in order to replace my previous WinXP-Home Edition that came with my Dell. Being very nervous that I would lose something in my computer that I've held onto for at least 10 years and always before had been able to successfully back up and transfer those things, I made more than one backup DVD of the files I wanted to save... my address book, all of "my documents" including my word, excel, wordperfect, quattro, saved emails, graphics, photos, pictures, and my web files (for the approx 7-9 websites I maintain). It was also very important to me to save my Favorites" and Desktop" and Music... mostly midi's. To "backup" those files on a DVD, I now do not know for sure if I used a Nero program or a Sonic Record Now (I have the Sonic CD, but the Nero is from my workplace & confidentially speaking, is locked up!). So this past Sun night, 5/6/07, I took the plunge. I was able to lead the new CD into completing erasing/deleting my old XP OS; had a few bugs here and there but worked them out (screen resolution & broadband connection). So I'm all ready to fill that big blank 80gb space and put the DVD in my drive. I successfully installed the basic programs, such as the Sonic-RecordNow and Outlook Express and established internet access. There's where the problems started. As soon as the DVD door closed, there was a little box in the upper left screen that had the word "autoplay" and inside the box, you could see file names flying from the DVD to the hard drive. The first time this happened, I didn't know there would be a problem. After the DVD finished its autoplay, I went to see what I had. I promise that I did not "backup" any PROGRAMS!!!
But whatever backup program I used did just that. It made a file folder in My Documents calling it Programs and there is a folder for every single program I had on the old OS. But of course, these are not REAL programs that have been properly installed although some of them will actually run because the Desktop icon still works. I found my saved address book (the *wab) but wouldn't you know, even though I backed up my current address book, the one I found on the DVD and also on my memory stick turned out to be years old and is almost worthless.
At this point I thought it would be best to start over again and perhaps the install would wipe out this OS as it did before, so I put the new WinXP-Pro CD in, and I got all the warnings about losing my files, etc. and YES... that's what I wanted!! But NO, that's not what I got.
Once the reload was finished, everything was still there.... unrunnable programs and all those user accounts that were all messed up anyway. I checked both of the DVD's again, looking for those program files. Must be a lot of things hidden because I cannot see any "program files". I have tried to delete some of the non-programs. Some of the programs will fully delete but some of them won't (you can tell by what folders are left in the file). Therefore, I cannot reinstall my program files because I get a notice from the install CD that that particular file path is already taken.
The other big problem is that the new OS created so many different users... there's about six of them: (Administrator, Administrator-Diane, Owner, Diane, etc). I don't think these are user accounts because I hve not set up any of those other than Administrator which the OS insisted upon. Most all user files are supposed to have the same thirteen basic folders including Favorites, but in the files for these six or more users, some only have a couple of folders, some have all 13, some have 8 or 9, etc., some have Favorites, some have Desktop... there's no consistency. I've been able to delete some of the users but I think they come back during the night.
On my "save" of the Favorites folder, out of 200 or 300 URLs saved & categorized over the years, I have only about 10 that survived. The rest of them have the character ~ following some type of abbreviation of what the URL used to be.
Summing up:
1. How can I completely erase my hard drive in order to get a clean install of my WinXP-Pro?
2. Is it possible to save Favorites and have each one retain their full file path?
3. Why did my Copy Program copy my programs when I did not tell it to do that? (we all know you don't *copy* a program) and you sure as heck don't put it in your My Documents file (they do not appear on the Start Menu nor in the Add&DeleteProgs in control panel).
4. Is it possible to copy an Address Book (wab) from an Outlook email system (at work) and import the contacts into Outlook Express (at home)?
5. How can I prevent the OS from creating all of those user accounts? (when I go to the C drive, then Docs & Sett'gs, I want to see only my name there & when I click on it, I want to see a proper list that contains Desktop, Favorites & My Documents, etc.)
Thank you for reading and I hope someone will have some answers.
Dianaroseanna
At this point I thought it would be best to start over again and perhaps the install would wipe out this OS as it did before, so I put the new WinXP-Pro CD in, and I got all the warnings about losing my files, etc. and YES... that's what I wanted!! But NO, that's not what I got.
Once the reload was finished, everything was still there.... unrunnable programs and all those user accounts that were all messed up anyway. I checked both of the DVD's again, looking for those program files. Must be a lot of things hidden because I cannot see any "program files". I have tried to delete some of the non-programs. Some of the programs will fully delete but some of them won't (you can tell by what folders are left in the file). Therefore, I cannot reinstall my program files because I get a notice from the install CD that that particular file path is already taken.
The other big problem is that the new OS created so many different users... there's about six of them: (Administrator, Administrator-Diane, Owner, Diane, etc). I don't think these are user accounts because I hve not set up any of those other than Administrator which the OS insisted upon. Most all user files are supposed to have the same thirteen basic folders including Favorites, but in the files for these six or more users, some only have a couple of folders, some have all 13, some have 8 or 9, etc., some have Favorites, some have Desktop... there's no consistency. I've been able to delete some of the users but I think they come back during the night.
On my "save" of the Favorites folder, out of 200 or 300 URLs saved & categorized over the years, I have only about 10 that survived. The rest of them have the character ~ following some type of abbreviation of what the URL used to be.
Summing up:
1. How can I completely erase my hard drive in order to get a clean install of my WinXP-Pro?
2. Is it possible to save Favorites and have each one retain their full file path?
3. Why did my Copy Program copy my programs when I did not tell it to do that? (we all know you don't *copy* a program) and you sure as heck don't put it in your My Documents file (they do not appear on the Start Menu nor in the Add&DeleteProgs in control panel).
4. Is it possible to copy an Address Book (wab) from an Outlook email system (at work) and import the contacts into Outlook Express (at home)?
5. How can I prevent the OS from creating all of those user accounts? (when I go to the C drive, then Docs & Sett'gs, I want to see only my name there & when I click on it, I want to see a proper list that contains Desktop, Favorites & My Documents, etc.)
Thank you for reading and I hope someone will have some answers.
Dianaroseanna
