Reinstall XP on Existing Partition

Question

I would like to reinstall Windows XP on an existing partition. Loss of files does not matter because everything is safely backed up, but I do not want to lose installed programs. I have tried automatic repairs, but nothing seems to work. I essentially want my existing XP installation to be removed and replaced with loss of nothing else. How can I do this?

Answer 1

I recently had to do this, so I'll describe this as best I can.

Assuming you have the original installation CD, boot from it. After it finishes loading the drivers, you will be taken to a selection. Press Enter.

Afterwards, the installation will ask you if you want to do a fresh install or a repair install. You want to repair. Select the partition that contains the Windows XP installation and follow the steps.

You might be asked to input your product key at one point of the process. The process is almost identical to the fresh installation process, barring that the CD actually removes most of the files present in %windir%.

This is probably more detailed than what I said here, so if you need additional guidance, use this guide.

Answer 2

The issue has been resolved. I offered my friend an upgrade to Windows 7, and he accepted. After the upgrade, the computer worked fine, the software was still there, and although the files were missing, I restored backups.

Answer 3

There's no (single) way to run any programs without any installation after reinstalling the OS

Only portable applications can run as-is on any system. Many apps have installers but in fact do not write anything in the system so they can run portably, i.e. no reinstallation

A few programs can run with some registry and/or files modification, possibly just a simple backup and then restore after reinstallation. But many others cannot run in anyway, even after restoring related registry keys and files and the only way to make them work is to reinstall from scratch

And you shouldn't stick with the ancient XP anymore