Toshiba 'recovery' cd prevents another XP install on 2nd drive

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.

So, what did I overlook? What did I do wrong? Is this even possible -
to have two XPs installed on two logical drives (one physical drive)?

side note: assuming this experiment fails, I want to be able to copy
new music to my ipod, at the very least. i've used itunes and xplay in
the past. if i can't get this second, new xp installed, are there any
linux version that have iPod/USB plun-n-play compatability? of course,
i could have a legitimate USB problem, since none of my devices are
recognized in XP anymore (they all just quit one day), but i just
doubt it. the reason i wanted the new XP was so i wouldn't have to
uninstall the XP service packs - if that's even possible - b/c i think
they might have crushed my USB port functionality.

"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.

<snip>

Nope that's not how the repair cd's work.
to install XP on your D drive you will need an actual XP cd.

BTW: before you do anything else...did your USB work when booted up with the
Linux CD???
if not...then you may have a hardware problem



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"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!).