Resolved XP, lost drivers and tech support disasters...

So, it's a long, sad story. Bear with me and try not to snicker too loudly, or the other guys won't be able to hear.

HP DC5750 Compaq business minitower, XP SP3, 4 GB ram (but only using 3gb, of course), AMD dual-core processor (Athlon 4450B) and troubles galore.

Precis: Tuesday morning I needed to install a WACOM drawing tablet on the XP box to edit some drawings for a forthcoming book, so I dragged it out of storage and plugged it in, then installed the drivers (which I have on a thumb drive) and it worked just fine. In the middle of editing a picture in Adobe Illustrator, I decided to see if I could find a better one online and discovered I was no longer connected to the internet.

So, I did the first steps: restart computer (no joy), reset modem, (NJ), take the router out of the loop and restart modem (NJ), on the off-chance the WACOM tablet was a problem, uninstalled that (NJ), sit with chin in hand and curse a lot (feels good but has no effect on the problem) and finally call the ISP (ComCast) for troubleshooting.

ComCast (CC) had me repeat all the simple fixes, then asked me to open hardware manager (no yellow checks on the Broadcom NIC) , then asked me to open the Network Connections tab in Control Panel... nothing there and no Network icon on the desktop.

We then tried IPCONFIG which said there was an internal error, request was not supported and it was unable to query host name. PING 127.0.0.1 returned unable to contact IP driver, error code 2.

At this point the CC tech asked me to hold while he researched the problem and, after a few minutes, I suddenly found myself talking (or trying to) to HP support in Bangalore. (No warning, no notice that he was passing off the problem, just a sudden connexion to Bangalore... the Tech has since been "removed for retrainingâ€)

So, after about three hours on the phone with Bangalore during which time I was instructed to remove the Broadcom NIC via control panel, start a second sign-on identity and several other steps that escape me at present, it was determined that I needed to download some drivers from the HP site. Since I did not at that time have this computer running, they promised to call me at 0800 the next day.

I managed to get to HP’s site late that nite at my office computer and d/l all the internet driver files and save them to a thumb drive, then got this monster out and set it up, JIC.

Next day they called, told me I had d/l the correct drivers and told me to run the program and it should fix things.

Ahhh... no. Still no ping, no Network Connections, no nuttin.

So they suggest we start in safe mode and see what’s there... but I now can’t START in SAFE mode.

At this point the nice man tells me that my only option is to back up the information on the computer and reinstall the XP Pro that I got with the computer.


Thanks for bearing with me as I finally get to the meat of my post:

(1) Does XCOPY still work in XP? Can I just Xcopy my C: drive onto a large USB external drive, reinstall the OS and then Xcopy back to the C: drive? I assume that I’ll have to reinstall ALL the programs but I don;t want to go copying a bad Windows setup over a good one...

(2) Would a better method be to make the present C: a slave and buy a new HDD for C:, install the XP OS to that and then just individually copy to it all the data and storage files once I have reinstalled all the programs to C:, or (and the one I like now),


(3) Would I be better off getting an upgrade set for Windows 7 Pro and do a copy-over install on the present C: drive? I was told by the ComCast and the HP people (I think) that this would be a doable thing, but reading the web I see quite a few problems where installing WIN7 completely wiped everything on the c: drive.

My apologies for being so "windy" about this but not only am I looking for help, it’s also therapeutic (and if I kick the cat once more, it’ll probably take my leg off).

I KNOW I’m missing some steps we tried but my brain is fried, the turkey is in the oven and the eggnog beckons...

Thanks in advance for reading thru this idiocy.

 

If you insert your XP cd into PC and reboot - you should beable to repair the install of XP.

Here is a web site that gives you instructions on how to do this:

How to Perform a Repair Installation of Windows XP

 

Thanks for the linky! Any idea as to why the HP Techs thought that this would completely format the harddrive and destroy all data? According to the article it shouldn't (stess on shouldn't... it IS a computer, after all!) happen and the re-install/repair should go smoothly.

I'm in process of backing up the HDD to a USB external andwill hit this as soon as it's done.

 

using xcopy to reproduce a complete drive

I just discovered that if you run XCOPY in a DOS box it will destroy any long filenames!

Read THIS link and it will give you the best idea for using XCOPY in WIN XP.

I understand that WIN Vista and WIN 7 both now use something called "ROBOCOPY" which is more robust and easier to set up...

 

Finished XCOPY

Wow! THAT took a while! Seems to have copied the whole megillah (altho I'll never know for sure until I try to re-install the copy) and am now going to attempt the XP re-install/repair trick.

Won't do this until the AM so if anyone has any words of advice or condolence for me in advance, speak now or forever hold.... (etc).

 

I gave up.

(Like anyone cares...)

After researching restore and repair options I found the consensus to be to use the HP (yeecch!) restore CD which, unfortunately, reformatted my hard drive, ate all my programs, soured my milk, introduced rats into my silage and generally (censored) things up immoderately. I found and used the XCOPY tags necessary to secure the old c:\ drive to a USB devoce (I think I got all of it).

So: here I am with a new install of XCP. I can now get online (obviously) but I need some help in restoring the appropriate parts of the OS AND such things as Mozilla's cookies and passwords, the Answer to Life (No, it is NOT 42!) and the meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls.... in short, I can't remember how to restore those files I copied, nor ever WHICH of those files SHOULD be fookin' restored.


All info is available on request!