A couple of months ago my desktop started to behave very strange; first of all I lost my communication with the Internet (my laptop using the same router still worked), some of the Office (2003) programs ceased to work and the sound was gone. But, at the same time many programs are still working: many photoediting programs (i.e. Photoshop), Sibelius (music notation software), scanner-programs (i.e. Vuescan) etc. Re the “sound” I found that if I uninstall “Realtek High Definition Audio” via the Control Panel before I shut down the PC the “sound" is back when I start it the next time! Strange!

Although I have a decent backup-program (Acronis True Image 11) the backup was of no use – sorry. A good friend of mine took a closer look at the PC trying to repair the Windows XP Pro – installation without any success. He recommended a reinstall.

Well, since this is the first time I have to do a reinstall I need some good advice on how to prepare for the reinstall in order to get it right. I understand it will take some time and since I currently have over 200 programs installed minimizing the time for reinstall is also important. On the other hand I know there are people who “has been there, done that” that can give valuable advice for a newbie. I’m also aware there are many tools that can be used to shorten the process. A couple of programs that maybe can be of some help is still working on my PC: “All my Programs”, “Belarc Advisor”, “SIW”.

Re the system disk (C in my case) I will replace it with a new disk and keep the old one as an extra HDD.

Any advice/tip how to prepare for the reinstall of XP are very much appreciated.

Sorry for the lengthy post!

Fist, have you checked for malware? What do you use for Anti-virus? It might be a good idea to post in the malware forum here first to make sure your system is clean.

You said you have Acronis 11 but the backup was of no use. What do you mean? Did it fail to restore or that the restore did not make any difference? If it restored okay but that didn't help then that means your backup has the same problem as your XP install.

Anyway, there are several things you need to do.

1. Backup you data. Since you have Acronis and if it works, do a new, full backup. That way you will have everything, including your data. Otherwise, copy your data somewhere that you can copy it back from after the install.

2. Go to the computer manufacturers web site and download all the latest drivers for your computer. Place them on your backup device.

3. Download and save the latest version of your Anti-virus software. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and have been very happy with it.

4. Save a list of your installed software so you know what you need to install after. Often, this list is out of date and after a reinstall you will find you only need some of them, not all of them.

5. If you want to save a lot of time, you can use nLite to create a new XP Install CD slip streamed with SP3 and most of the updates released since SP3.

nLite Takes a bit of work on your part but worth the effort since it also allows you to pre-answer all the questions asked during install so all you have to do is boot the new CD, select where you want to install, format or not and go to lunch. When you come back the install is finished and your are at the latest Service Pack and Update level. See here:
nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation

You can download the SP3 .exe here: Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers

If you have an original XP Install CD with no Service Pack applied, not even SP1a then you will need to do the above in two steps. First you will have to splistream SP2 then repeat for SP3.

You can download SP2 .exe here: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers

Use this site to get the MS updates: Download Windows patches, service packs and updates for Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Server 2008, and more.

You can also get updates from an MS site but it takes more work: Store Windows Updates locally for subsequent installations

nLite creates a .iso file that you then use to burn the new install CD. A good program to do this with is ImgBurn, a freeware program. Use it and burn the new CD at 4X, no faster. That greatly increases the likelihood of the CD booting correctly in your computer. Burning at faster speeds often causes the boot to fail.

4. Do a Clean Install of Windows XP. This includes formatting the hard drive during the install, wiping out all data that is on it. For your case this is definitely the best way to go.

After the install, set Automatic Updates to Notify rather than automatically download and install.

Next, install your Anti-virus software. Install all Updates you are notified about. If you added them via nLite then this will be a short list and will take two or three steps.

The first will be a single update. The second will be a larger list, 15-30. IE8 will be included in this along with WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage). I did not like IE8 on my XP box so stayed with IE7 but that's your choice.

#Important# Create a new, full backup using Acronis. Do not wipe out your existing backup as that is where all your data is. The reason for this is so you can easily get back to this point if you ever have to do this again or if something goes wrong after this point. You could defer doing this until after you've restored your data, definitely do it before installing any applications. You would then do another full backup after your computer is fully setup.

After all updates are done, restore your data and start installing your applications. It will take a bit longer this way but nLite will have saved you a lot of time so this should not be a big deal. Only install the application you are going to use. If your not sure, hold off until you find out you need it.

Hope this helps. It nothing else, it should get you thinking about what you need to do and give you some ideas.

my computer is saying NTLDR is missing what does this meen and what can i do to fix it

Scott, start your own thread rather than appending to an existing thread.

Provide information that can help us help you.

1. Make and model of computer
2. When did this happen
3. What was done prior to this happening? Add/remove software or hardware, run chkdsk (Disk check), remove malware?