reinstalling win xp

I am reinstalling my win xp, but I have no formatted the hd, I am installing xp over the current win xp.

The problem is I got asked for a psw of the admin. What's this psw? I have no psw for the admin

 

Many disagree, but I have always found that formatting a drive with a killdisk
to be the most efficacious way to prep a hard drive for the installation of any OS. You can download a free version of killdisk @ http://www.killdisk.com.

PWS generally stands for personal web server. I have no idea what PSW is. Is it a typo?

_t

 

I meant password.
Since I had no password for the admin then I pressed enter but it went to C:\WINDOWS

that's strange

 

Sounds to me like you are entering the recovery areaconsole of XP, and it sees your previous XP installation.

If the administrator account has no password you can simply hit enter and that will take you to a command prompt, but that will do you no good if you don't know what's going on.

If your problem is in your sytem files you can try typing chkdsk /p, but like PeteC said, it would help to know why you are making such a drastic move.
If your problem is beyond scandisk and you have to reinstall Windows, I would format the drive first.

But if you can get to the recovery console, I bet your previous XP installation is fixable.

 

ok I was able to reinstall win xp over the old win xp.
Now I have a new and register file system?

 

I don't understand the question.

 

If you installed XP over the existing copy, you do not have a completely "New" system since your personal files and setting have been retained in the Registry.

As for having a "Registered" system, that would be correct if it was registered before. Your system is still "Registered" but you should use the term "Activated" since that would be the actual issue of concern. Registration is optional and Activation is mandatory.