Do you have an old Windows XP machine that isn't running how it use too or you got a virus thats beyond normal repair? But you didn't know how to fix it yourself? Then this article will show you how to do just that! I will break this up into 5 sections as :

Make sure you have some place to save files AND your Windows XP Install CD before starting.

1. Back Up old files you want to keep!
2. Download your drivers AHEAD of time.
3. Install Windows
4. Install Drivers

This will DELETE EVERYTHING on your main partition So make sure to get good back ups of the files you want to save.

Back Up old files you want to keep!

I highly recommend Acronis Home 2010 for backing up your files. (Later I will link to how to use Acronis 2010.). If you have a spare partition / hard drive in your computer, ie your D: drive you can store your files here. If not you can burn them to a CD or DVD. Or if you have a usb thumb drive or external hard drive you can save your files there. Copy anything you want to keep that can't be replaced. Make sure to check the following locations:

• C:Documents and SettingsLogged On Account NameMy Documents
• C:Documents and SettingsLogged On Account NameDesktop
• if you use Microsoft Outlook you will want to get your email names cache

You will also want to save your bookmark links in your browser. I will show how to do this with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft has perfect information here.

Firefox

Open Firefox
Go To Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks from the drop downs.
after Bookmarks Manager opens
Click File > Export
Save the file where you are saving your other files to backup

Google Chrome

Open Google Chrome
Click the wrench icon in the top right corner of your screen
Click Bookmark Manager
After Bookmark Manager opens
Click Tools > Export to import do the same except select Import

Download your drivers AHEAD of time.

If you have a name brand computer ie Dell, HP go to their website find the drivers and download section of their site, and use their tools to find your drivers. Otherwise you bought or built your PC yourself you need to find out who makes your motherboard and what make or model it is. A great tool for that is CPUID. You can get it here. The main drivers you want to get are chipset, audio, network (lan / wireless card), and video. Save the installers for all those files in the same place your saving your other files.

Install Windows

First thing you want to do is to put the Windows CD in the cd / dvd drive and reboot. If you see a screen that says:

Press any key now to boot from CD ..

Then you are already set press a button on your keyboard. However if your system booted back into Windows XP then you have to look to see if you need to press a key to select a boot device. Sometimes it will tell you on screen a the start of the boot cycle. Try F2 , F10, or F12. Select your CD or DVD drive on that list. If you still cannot get it to boot from CD then we need to change our boot order in our bios. Try one of the previous F keys or your Delete key. Once in your bios you can change the boot order. Usually this is listed under Boot or Boot Order. Find where it says your boot order and make cd drive to boot before your harddrive. Exit and Save changes.

Once we get a blue background screen we are in the Windows XP installer.

Press Enter key to continue
Press F8 to agree to the terms

You should see a screen like this one. Notice the C: drive make sure that is the drive that has your old Windows XP.

Move the selected row up or down with your arrow keys to highlight our C: drive parition
Press Enter key
Select Format the partition using the NTFS file system

This will may take awhile. The pre-installer will then begin to copy files to your system for the main install. Your system will reboot when its finished. If you changed your boot order in your bios earlier we can change it back to how it was before when it reboots from this stage.

After it reboots the installer will continue. My installer cd doesn't ask for a cd key, but yours may. You will need to put your cd key in when it asks.

When you get to this screen:

Click Next
Put in your name / organization
Put in your computer's name you want to use
Put in a password for the administrator account
Click Next
Correct your date, time, and timezone
Click NextLeave your network settings how they are
Click NextClick Next

I would leave the network or domain at what it is for now. We can change this later if we need too. I usually wait on this unless I know the network card works already works.

Windows should finish up installing. We now have a functioning Windows XP base install! Let the system reboot to Windows XP

After Windows boots for the first time you will see this screen.

Click OK
Click OK
Click NEXT in the bottom right corner
Select Help protect my PC by turning on Automatic Updates Now
Click NEXT
Select your internet type
Click NEXT
Select if you want to register
Click NEXT
Put in the username you want to use as admin login
Click NEXT
Click FINISH

Install Drivers

The final step is to install the drivers we downloaded earlier. Go ahead and run any of the setups or installs that exe based. ie setup.exe Any drivers that are only ini files we will manually install if they are missing from the drivers.

Right-click My Computer
Click Manage
Once Computer Management opens
Select Device Manager in the left pane

We want to find any device that has a yellow mark next to the name of the device. For example if Windows didn't find a driver for out network card it would have a yellow question mark next to a word like Network Adapter.

Right-Click on that device
Click Update Driver
Select No, not this time
Click Next
Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Click Next
Check the box that says Include this location in the search
Then Browse to the folder that contains the install ini for that device
It should find the device and install the driver

You can now copy all your files that you backed up back to your system. I would run Windows Update until it has no more updates and then Activate Windows. You can also referrer back to the top of this article on how to import your bookmarks back into you Browser.