Well most people think that when things like that happen you have to erase your HD and install windows all over again,
but I'll tell you this. As long as you can get to your desktop (not in safe mode) you can install windows (only tried this
with 98, ME) Seriously you can. Windows has the ability to install over itself, and as long as you don't have windows set
to erase things that are saved in the Temp directory most programs can reinstall themselves when windows finishes reinstalling
itself. Ok, now the details. When you reinstall windows from the desktop you only need the CD and the serial number, just
follow the on screen prompts and when you get the option for saving the old OS to the HD (it needs something like 120mb) select
yes. While windows is reinstalling itself it will also be reinstalling any programs that saved any data to the Temp directory
on the main HD. The other useful thing to doing this is you don't loose the cookies from your internet browser. After its
done reinstalling itself you'll notice that any programs that were on that HD and any other info are all still there, you
may have lost 2 or 3 windows updates, but other than that you got to keep all your old info. Cool huh!
|