Windows XP Disk Cleanup Problem

[marinewife070204]

a friend of mine decided to do a disk cleanup on her Windows XP. it was making progress, so she left her computer for a couple of hours. when she came back, her screen was blank. she then rebooted her computer. and now it is asking her to insert the windows cd to install. can anyone tell me why this happened and how to fix it please. thank you very much.

 

[bcastner]

Follow Fred Langa's Tutorial: "XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Clinic"

http://www.informationweek.com/LP/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897&pgno=2&queryText=

There is no normal way for disk cleanup to cause a reinstallation event. The only once I can think of would be if the user had a virus or other malware that disk cleanup removed.

Some malware becomes very upset if this happens, and retaliates. But retailiates to the point were reinstallation is necessary I have nevery heard of, but it certainly is within the realm of possibility.

What Antivirus is used on this machine, and was it up-to-date with its definition files?
What anti-trojan software,and was it up-to-date and regularly used to scan?
What anti-spyware, and was it up-to-date and a regular scan performed?





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Users Helping Users

 

[marinewife070204]

Thank you for responding so quickly. I will find out if everything was up-to-date or not. Thanks again.

 

[linney]

Bcastner,

That Fred Langa link, is there anything special about it and the mentioned method that is different from the usual link below? Is it just the extra documentation supplied?

Does it worry about IE 7?

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

How to perform a repair installation of Windows XP if Internet Explorer 7 is installed

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;917964#appliesto

marinewife070204,

Was the friend just doing a basic Disk Cleanup, or were they dabbling with what is available via the "More Options" tab? This would provide access to "Installed programs" and "Windows components", which could do some damage.

 

[bcastner]

Bcastner,

That Fred Langa link, is there anything special about it and the mentioned method that is different from the usual link below? Is it just the extra documentation supplied?

Pictures and the extra discussion. People seem to have problems finding the In-place upgrade option.

Does it worry about IE 7?

No, and neither particularly should you.

While the Beta and RC candidate releases of IE 7 had a bug that could make IE 6 dysfunctional with an In-Place Upgrade of XP, IE 7 Final does not have this bug.

While the IE 7 team recommends uninstalling IE 7 Final prior to an In-place upgrade, it is not a necessity as it was with the Beta and RC versions. This from Dave Massey, the Program Manager for IE 7. MS-MVP Sandi Hardemeir has revised her site on IE 7 to reflect the fact that the MS KB does no apply to IE 7 final.




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Users Helping Users

 

[marinewife070204]

Hi, as far as I know she only did a disk cleanup. I tried contacting her last night, but no luck. And now this morning, she told me that her husband reinstalled everything last night. So now their computer has started from scratch. She said they lost everything.

 

[linney]

Both of you, thanks for the feedback, that very last comment certainly gives new meaning to the term "Disk Cleanup".

 

[bcastner]

And new meaning to the word 'Divorce'.


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Users Helping Users