I have problems with Outlook, DLL missing, and Netsa or as or something, Can I reinstall XP over the top or must I clean install? If I can install over the top, how, and will everything still be there I.E. programs, contents of my documents etc?

If you install over top your current data will disappear. Have you tried rebooting with your XP disk in the drive and choosing the repair option?

I have problems with Outlook, DLL missing, and Netsa or as or something, Can I reinstall XP over the top or must I clean install? If I can install over the top, how, and will everything still be there I.E. programs, contents of my documents etc?

If you have a problem with a missing .dll in Outlook, then you should consider repairing it with your MS Office CD not our XP CD.

Insert your Office CD's let run to the setup screen, then select the Office repair option.

Do this only after you have backed up all your office data [email, contacts, excel, word etc] incase it all goes pear shaped for you.

Yep, try to repair the application that is causing the problems, reinstalling XP won't solve the issue. If you somehow cannot resolve it by re-running setup from the office CD, go to microsoft knowledgebase and enter the error message there, there might be a simple fix documented there. If all else fails, do a complete installation (clean) of XP, of course this will mean that you also have to re-install all other programs, installing XP on top of an existing XP will probably not work, and might leave you with the same problem anyway.

If you need to re-install XP, you can save your profile, either by doing right click on my computer, go to advance and user profiles, copy it to another partition, or on a USB stick. Or just copy the my documents and settings\userprofile directory.

All this depends on if you are talking "Outlook" or "Outlook Express"

The first requires MS Office, the express is bundled with your XP installation.

True, but I suspect OP is talking about Outlook not Outlook express, anyway I would go to the knowledgebase first, then think of re-installing anything. Usually the KB systems offers good solutions, the search function however is one of the worst I have ever seen.

talking about re-installing ,

whats the best slipstream option out there ?

slipstream , the combining of xp and sp2.

easy, take the original xp OS disc, download SP2 and then slipstream it.

More info http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/v...02e0689a8120a9/

You can even included any hotfixes released after SP2, and providing you have enough space on your cd, you can also include other applications.

if your system was working at an earlier date, you might want to consider using the "restore" function of xp. provided it was activated. of course, do a backup of your data before doing this as your system will be returned to the state it was in previously.

talking about re-installing ,

whats the best slipstream option out there ?

slipstream , the combining of xp and sp2.

I use nLite for the slipstreaming and RyanVM packs for the updates and applications which work directly with nLite. Very powerful arrangement.

If you install over top your current data will disappear. Have you tried rebooting with your XP disk in the drive and choosing the repair option?

Where did you get that installing over top you will use your data ? no way , you only lose something if you "format" during install, not by replacing the os (through Clean install, or "updates") what you lose by doing clean install are the "settings" but anything inside "c:\document and settings\your accoun name" stays as it is ! (what i mean by settings are : anything inside windows registry, so it's applications installed mostly)

If your XP is working but just some parts of it aren't you can just put the CD inside your computer while you are in XP, then launch the installer, and choose "upgrade" you will have to start "Windows Updates" after that again as it will replace all of the updates but besides that it's like a "quick" repair. If your XP is "not" working, you can boot from the CD, then choose "Install" if your windows XP is not badly broken the installer will find a "previous" copy of windows and ask you if you want to "repair" (this is basically like the "upgrade" from previously) (Not this is not the first "Repair" option you get while booting from the CD, that will just boot in Recovery console, this one takes place during an actual installation)

So in short : clean install or upgrade will both keeps your data (and it is like that since Windows 2K, windows NT4 used to delete profiles cause it was part of the winnt folder) but "upgrade" will keep your settings (no need to reinstall your applications besides "windows updates") the same applies with booting from the Windows XP CD, doing an install (as if it was clean) and waiting for it to show you a repair option.

Like others said though if the component that appear to be broken is "not" part of a windows install, reinstalling windows either ways won't solve anything. If outlook doesn't work just pop the adhoc office CD and try the repair options.

More help needed! Now the weekend is here I have time to repair or upgrade XP, which I've been trying to do today. The problem is this..... Repair/upgrade gets halfway through installing the drivers then stops or freezes, I know cos the infrared light on the bottom of the mouse goes out. If I restart the computer it goes back to installing the drivers point and freezes again, what can I do?

Where did you get that installing over top you will use your data ?

Thai is a clean install. Anything else is just a repair or an upgrade.

More help needed! Now the weekend is here I have time to repair or upgrade XP, which I've been trying to do today. The problem is this..... Repair/upgrade gets halfway through installing the drivers then stops or freezes, I know cos the infrared light on the bottom of the mouse goes out. If I restart the computer it goes back to installing the drivers point and freezes again, what can I do?

There's a few things that can cause the system to hang during this;

The CD may just have a blemish or scratch that makes that particular sector unreadable so when it gets there it stops and just waits. If you can borrow an XP disk from some else, see if that one hangs at the same point. If it does, it's most likely not the CD.

You may have faulty hardware (most often a LAN or Video card) and when the system tries to install the drivers and can't it gives up and hangs.

If you have a lot of addons to your system like external drives, TV tuner cards, secondary hard drives and anything else that may require drivers, try disconnecting them before beginning again.

In the end its probably easier to backup what you want to save and do a clean install.

I had to go to the office to make my last post, luckily I have keys. When I got home the computer had unfrozen itself, to get it finish the repair/upgrade I had to skip loads of files and whatnot it couldn't find on the disk (it's a genuine XP disk). Everything seems to be ok now though. I didn't lose anything, all my programs, files etc were still there untouched.

Excellent

Just a suggestion though, Firefox and Thunderbird can have all the profile info, emails, and address book backed up at a single click where in Outlook and IE it's complicated, or it costs you. You might want to give them a look. Switching is easy as they will import IE and Outlook settings easily during setup.

I don't use outlook/express very much, mostly hotmail. I went mad last year and bought the ad free version cos I was using it for prefessional purposes, now I'm not so I'll cancel my subscription when the year is up.

Thanks people for the advice, it seems I got there in the end anyway!