Gosh, I've painted myself in such a corner that I'm not sure where to start?! Ok, I will give as much info as possible. Last year I bought myself a new laptop with Acer 6292 (Windows Vista). The old laptop (Windows XP Home) now serve as a teaching/gaming devise for my son. And occasionally I use it as well to surf the net or as a standby if my new laptop isn't available. We access broadband internet with a PCMCIA card, no LAN. We had AVG Antivirus and Firewall on the old machine but it had expired. It got to the stage where AVG told me they are going to remove it if I don't renew. Eventually it uninstalled itself and I downloaded (to new laptop and transfer with memory stick) another Antivirus and firewall. At that stage I noticed (possible due to some ignorant use of a registry cleaner) that I couldn't access “Add and Remove Programs” through Windows anymore. I wanted to make sure AVG was gone completely and I was also cleaning the old laptop from some software. Later on I downloaded some software to remove programs and also a Spyware software. There was a conflict and then the real problems started. The old laptop would shut down and restart on its own the whole time. I then forced it to shut down and turned it on with the recovery/Windows XP CD. They offered me some options of which I elected “repair” current Windows installation. After completion, Windows SP1 was on the computer. I once again had access to “Add and Remover Programs” through XP which indicated to me that I was making progress. However, I tried two or three times upgrade to SP2 directly from Microsoft's website. Each time the process would eat bandwidth (damn) and install, but just before the installation was done, I would get a “Access denied” message and it was uninstall SP2 again. I checked and there was not a trace of SP2 on the computer at all. Somewhere, possibly due to SP1 flaws I picked up some malware which opens casino and Green Card websites when I acces the net, which I tried to remove with Spybot and Ad-Aware. I also did a total AV scan of the computer. I felt SP2 probably needed a clean slate on which to install so I had to remove malware or any virusses. Then I decided to download SP2 as a file and save it on my desktop. The end result was exactly the same. Close towards the end it simply said “Access Denied” and started to uninstall again. I turned the computer off before it was done and after a while (or days later) then it didn't want to restart even into SP1. Not surprising. So I restarted it again with the recovery/Windows XP CD, and other options were presented, like partitioning and a clean Windows installation, which I did. Great. So now I have a clean Windows XP Home installation on a new part of the hard drive WITH a new username. The computer is nice and fast, but it has no programs. In Explorer, I can see the programs that were/are on the computer, but the SP2 that was saved to the desktop for example is missing. My problem is how do I: - remove the old Windows installation/or fix it? (I now assume there are two Windows installations on the same HD. And that it can cause conflict at some stage? And it is taking space on the HDD). - the new installation is nice and fast but has no programs/settings/files AND documents cannot be accessed because I'm using a new user name now. Neither can I use Restore because it's now working with the new Windows installation which is only four days old. I have read about File and Settings Transfer Wizard, but that does not quite answer my issues. Ultimately I would prefer the new installation with all the old programs/documents (less the malware obviously). Wrt FTW: I cannot access the old stuff due to the username issue and the fact that I don't start in old Windows installation anymore.

"I cannot access the old stuff due to the username issue" How to take ownership of a file or folder in Windows XP? as for resolving the mess: you can either edit the boot.ini (remove the old installation entries, set the new installation as default) and manually delete the old windows folder or wipe the drive completely (backup 'the old stuff') and start from scratch.

I agree with Oracle's suggestion to wipe and start over. I hope you are installing and running a firewall and anti-virus the first thing after the install completes!

After taking ownership of the files and folders, copy any personal files you wish to retain and reformat the entire drive and start over. You may have crosslinked files and it will be a nightmare to straighten out, if it can be. Your installation is new so it shouldn't be that big a deal. Are you reinstalling Windows from a restore set or do you have full versions of Windows?

I'm following the "take ownership" advise first. Reason: the backup I have is near present, but not 100%. I made the backup but then the new laptop had a sleep/wakeup problem, went in for repairs, I had to work for a while on the old laptop. Wrt AV and firewall. Yah well, that's a stupid mistake for being cheap lol. I tried to use freeware, amongst others Comodo, but I will just fork out and buy what I'm comfortable with ie AVG Internet Security. Remember, this is suppose to be my son's toy :-) Sofar the "take ownership" tip is working. Thank you, I never knew about it. It seems like ... correction, its working fine. I have transfered the previous username's desktop items and they are working. OtheHill: I only have a "Product Recovery CD-Rom". btw, how do I know/see/differentiate between old and new windows installation? Hold thumbs, the SP2 file is also back on the desktop, now for its installation.

Just a suggestion. Integrate the sp2 file with your recovery disk. Use autostreamer http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/... Or nlite http://www.nliteos.com/ Before posting try google. Backup. Use anti virus software.

Are you asking how to tell which is which because you intend to try and save one? I would strongly recommend against that. Different OEM computer builders have different methods of restoring back to factory settings. However, you should have the abaility to wipe the entire partition so nothing remains before applying the restore files. That is the only way to be assured you have a clean drive.