Symptom:
Sometimes you need to reinstall Windows but the customer doesn't want to lose any personal files. If it is not possible to back up those files then one solution is to perform a parallel install. This procedure will install a copy of Windows alongside the exisiting version and allow the user to boot to the new version of Windows to recover the files. Generally, having two versions of Windows on the same partition is a bad idea so when the customer has succesfully backed up the files, it is a good idea to start an ffr process.
Parallel Install
1. Before doing anything else - disconnect all peripherals and disconnect the computer from the Internet.
2. Start your computer from the Windows XP CD (or boot disks). To do this, insert the Windows XP CD into your CD or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
3. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press any key to start the computer from the Windows XP CD.
4. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to begin Windows XP Setup.
5. Read the Microsoft Software License Terms, and then press F8.
Setup will search for existing Windows installations. You will see the next "repair or install fresh copy" screen appear.
6. Press ESC to continue installing a fresh copy of XP.
7. Ensure that the C: partition is highlighted (assuming that this is where the customer wants to install) and press Enter.
8. The system should now warn that the partition contains an existing installation. Continue setup by pressing C.
9. Select the Leave the current file system intact (no changes) option, and then press ENTER to continue.
Now, if Windows is already installed in the \WINDOWS folder the system will issue a warning about this.
10. To setup XP in a different folder press ESC. Then enter a new folder name, \WINXP, say and press Enter.
Note: If the Setup program detects another operating system folder, it prompts you to type the name for the new folder after the backslash (\), for example, \WINXP. If there are no other operating systems detected, the Setup program automatically names the folder \Windows.
11. The system will begin to copy files and then reboot.
12. Eventually the system will prompt for all the usual questions it asks during a manual install.
13. The system will reboot and two versions of Windows will be listed. Choose the second one and press Enter.
Recover files from old Installation
The machine is likely to have an old profile that will not be 'known' to the new version of Windows. The path to this profile is likely to be c:\Documents and Settings\owner and this is where the user's files will be located. The parallel install will create a new empty profile for the Owner user in c:\Documents and Settings\owner.machname where machname is the network id of the machine.
Access Denied error when trying to access the files under the old profile
This can occur if the user created a password for their account and elected to make their files private. To get around this problem you will need to take ownership of the file or folder. To do this you will need to be logged in as the Administrator, so for XP Home you will need to reboot into safe mode.
If using XP Professional you need to disable Simple File Sharing. Furthermore, once you have taken ownership of the files you may need to give permissions to the user that was just created during the install so that that user can access the files in normal mode. This is because it is not always possible to burn Cds in safe mode.
Take Ownership of a folder so that the Administrator now owns the files. (Taking ownership of individual files is similar)
1. Locate the folder in My Computer and right click on it (the folder will either be c:\documents & settings\owner or c:\documents & settings\username - where username is the name the customer was using to log into the old version of Windows) and choose Properties
2. Click the Security tab and click OK if a message appears.
3. Click Advanced and then click the Owner tab.
4. In the Name list, click on the Administrator name and then select Replace Owner on Subcontainers and Objects.
5. Click Yes if you get a message like this.
6. Click Apply and then OK.
8. Now, we need to give permissions to another user on the system that can login in normal mode. Since it is not always possible to burn to CD in safe mode (this may be a service pack issue). You should be looking at the screen as shown in point 2.
Click Add..
9. In the Enter the Object names to Select list, type the user name that you want to give access to. This will be the user name that the user created when they did the parallel install. This is likely to be Owner if the user did not create a new name.
10. Click OK.
11. In the Group or User Names List, click the account that you just added and check all the permissions boxes and click Apply and OK.
12. Boot back into normal mode and access the files in the normal way.
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