I'm preparing to upgrade my system and want to do a fresh install on the new hard drive.

I've heard some real horror stories about reinstalling WMC so if there are any guides or forum posts or such that can guide me through the process it'd be awesome.

HP PAvilion ZD8000
I've got ver.5.1.2715.3011
Update rollup 2

This'll be the first time I've installed an OS so I'm taking my time and getting prepared. Any resources someone could point me to would be greatly appreciated.

In my experience it would be worth making sure you have a driver for your network card to hand - even if you have all of your systems drivers on a disk, download another copy of the network card drive. This way if anythig goes wrong you'll be able to get online and ask for help or download anything you may need. My second peice of advice is to get an external drive and a copy of something like Norton Ghost to backup the system before you start. Should the worse come to the worse, you'll be able to easily restore your computer to it's original state.

The backup of your working system is the single best thing you can do. This will save you a lot of grief if you ever encounter problems with an update, hardware failure etc. If you have Vista Ultimate, it has a backup feature that is pretty good.

I've just had another thought about backing up before you start.......

Depending on what backup kit you already have, it may be cheaper to get another hard drive. You can then remove your current drive and do your fresh install on the new one. If things go wrong you will only need to pop the original drive back intoi the computer to be up and running again.

Alright everyone, I'm gonna try installing fresh onto my new HD tonight probably. Thanks for all the great advice. I'll update one more time with results.

Okay so I FINALLY got around to reinstalling XP. The good news is my computer is running. The bad news is I still haven't gotten WMC going and am a little lost.

This is the error message I get when I click on it: "the drive or network connection that the shortcut 'Media Center.lnk' refers to is unavailable."

Also it can't find "ehshell.exe"

I do have a Media Center icon on my desktop but it's a generic exe icon, not the green button.

The only other thing is that I installed the tuner drivers BEFORE the rollup(wasn't paying attention.)

Im my experience it's often quicker and easier to have another go installing. You can either spend several hours trying to diagnose and fix a problem or 60 minutes, or so, wiping the disk and doing a fresh re-install.

I have an OS disc(that I had to order from HP a few weeks ago. I don't think they even included one with my original purchase) and a seperate 'application and driver recovery disc' that includes "media center supplement for HP". From which of those two do the WMC components come from.? What specific files or drivers am I looking for? Obviously I've done at least part of it as my XP OS realizes that there should at least be a WMC icon on my desktop.

I'm afraid that I'm missing yet another disc. Would there be one with "WINDOWS MEDIA CENTER OS" splashed across the front in big bold letters?

Can't be too much help I'm afraid as it's been quite some time since I had an XP machine.

I had OEM disks which came on two CD's. If memory serves, part way through the installation it asked for the second CD to install the MCE components after which it wanted CD1 again to finish off the XP installation.

Do HP have a support line who could advise?

I just found the second, unopened disc so I'm pretty sure I have it all. I'll re-reinstall if I have to.

My warranty's been gone a long time ago and HP pretty much told me a couple of years ago that they wouldn't help with the reinstall. They'll take my phone calls as long as they can sell me a replacement OS disc but I don't know how much help they'd be.

I might try to reinstall again tomorrow. Failing that I'll call HP on Monday or Tuesday and try to finagle someone into helping me.

Thanks and have a happy holiday!

Okay.

Looks like I'm gonna re-reinstall. I'm going to follow Sjulty's advice on what to install in what order.

My big question is this: WHAT IS THE ONE(or more) COMPONENT THAT ALLOWS WMC TO RUN ON AN XP SYSTEM?

I can install XP on my computer and I can install drivers but the process of installing WME fades for me after that.

So let me list the components of my driver and recovery CD. I'll place an "x" next to the ones I don't plan on installing. Please point out which one(s) is the actual Media Center driver/program/whatever that needs to be installed and when.

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b220/spacemariachi/recovery-cd.jpg

Also, do I need to install the windows updates and service packs and Windows Media player 10 if I'm just going to update them to the current versions almost immediately? As you can see I'm installing neither acrobat or flash because 5 minutes on the interwebs will get me the latest update on those as well.

As long as you install Windows XP with a valid Win XP MCE 2005 installation key, it will prompt you for the second CD. That second CD is what unlocks all of the Media Center goodies. Without that, you don't get media center edition, just plain XP.

And if it doesn't prompt me for the second CD? Because it didn't when I reinstalled a few days ago.