"miami" <shmooth@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1174201685.987369.78180@y80g2000hsf.googlegro ups.com...
>I want to install a second, fresh install of XP on my laptop because
> my USB ports died on me a few months ago and I decided to try to get
> to the bottom of it (can't use my printer, mouse, ipod, external hdd,
> etc.). Tried everything else, so now i want a fresh install, but when
> i went to use the install disk that came with my Toshiba Satellite
> A105 laptop (a year or so old), it started making warnings about
> 'losing ALL of your data', etc.
>
> So, I went to the trouble of creating a new hard drive by downloading
> and burning a Linux Live CD and using that QPartition (??) program to
> create and format a new partition/drive. So, now when I boot into XP,
> I have a second drive, 'D:', with about 6 GB of space. Good.
>
> Or, so I thought. I thought I could just pop in my XP install CD - the
> one that came with the computer - and boot to it, and it would
> magically allow me to install another operating system onto my 'D:'
> drive. It doesn't. The CD cranks up and gives various 'repair' and
> other 'new install' options, but ALL of them tell me that ALL of my
> data will be lost - or at the very least that I'd have to re-install
> all of my programs. Either case was not a good solution, of course.

[snip]

What you are doing sounds over the top, but more of a last resort (just
before Format c:\). Trouble is that you don't have the right CD for the job.
You need a windows XP install disk, but you have a Toshiba XP
repair/re-installation disk.

Why not try a repair - it might fix the problem without losing your files,
then you won't need a dual boot + 2 partitions etc.
Alternatively, head over to the toshiba website and download and re-install
the USB drivers for your model.

Make sure you have a backup of everything important before you start (should
have done this before partitioning the drive!).