Best way to start from scratch with XP?

[John]

I'd like to get my R30 back to the way it was when it arrived in 2001. I'm not concerned about user files, applications or any other settings that may have happened over the years. The R30 has IRQ issues when I start after a complete shut down requiring me to go into BIOS and go with default setup to start...kids have downloaded way too many things that affect performance...and it's generally running like crap.

Given that I'm not an advanced XP user (but not completely clueless)...what is the best way to get me back to "factory fresh"? I assume it's a full reinstallation...but I can't figure out how to do that. And once I reinstall, should I download all updates including SP2? Are Norton Antivirus and the firewall in XP sufficient enough to protect me from the evils of the web?

Thanks for any suggestions you can provide.

[ibmuser]

you might try this link:


http://www.4saad.com/WhatsNew/Fresh_XP_ ... /index.htm

[John]

That link looks great...but it's for XP Pro. I just have the standard Home Edition that came with the Thinkpad. Any idea if the instructions will be the same?

[waterside]

That link looks great...but it's for XP Pro. I just have the standard Home Edition that came with the Thinkpad. Any idea if the instructions will be the same?

The i386 dir on my thinkpad is in fact XP Pro. I've done a comparison and except for a few insignificant differences (IBM includes a few files uncompressed while MS includes them compressed) the IBM-supplied i386 dir is the same as a MS-Supplied XP Pro SP1A. I wouldn't expect your thinkpad to be different (IE: a real XP Home not "[censored]") but I'd make a backup just in case.

If you have XP Home the instructions should be similar as those for XP Pro. You'll substitute dir names appropriately (these should be self-evident)

If you have a newer thinkpad or with SP1A (instead of generic XP) you won't need to apply the SP1A update but it won't hurt if you do.

If you make a backup first (ghost, trueimage, or driveimage would be the best options) you'll be able to recover if the new install fails.