[eidolonis]

I need to do a XP system repair. The problem is that I have an HP. The XP comes pre-installed on HP computers these days meaning I have no disk.

Is it possible to do a Sys Repair on this thing? And if so . . . how?

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You didn't mention your system model

HPs that do not come with system recovery or CDs have a hidden partition with a harddisk image built in.

Hit f10 at boot when you see the big HP screen.

This gives you two options.

Total system restore, which wipes your data out and puts you back at facotry fresh condition, and a system refresh option that supposed leaves your data intact, but restores your windows files.

The second option will sometimes disable your programs and sometimes not, but it is useful for recovering your data to a network share or CDs, prior to wiping your system out completely and doing the total system restore.

And never by HP again.

[gerryf]

You didn't mention your system model

HPs that do not come with system recovery or CDs have a hidden partition with a harddisk image built in.

Hit f10 at boot when you see the big HP screen.

This gives you two options.

Total system restore, which wipes your data out and puts you back at facotry fresh condition, and a system refresh option that supposed leaves your data intact, but restores your windows files.

The second option will sometimes disable your programs and sometimes not, but it is useful for recovering your data to a network share or CDs, prior to wiping your system out completely and doing the total system restore.

And never by HP again.

[eidolonis]

It's a A710N.

I know about the hard disk partition. But there's specific reasons for why I can't do a restore right now. I really need the XP repair function if it's possible at all to use it with this computer. What you're refering to as a "refresh" sounds like what a system repair was explained to me to do. Is it the same thing?

[gerryf]

It is, and it isn't.

It is not a repair, which overwrites all windows files and leaves settings in place.

What this does is overwrites your windows directories with an image..assuming you have a new enough HP model that comes with this feature.

You might want to do a search on your computer for a folder called i386. See if it is there, and if it is, you may be able to run a repair from it depending on what files are there.

Not all PC makers will install the files to the drive.

[eidolonis]

I actually seem to have a number of folders with that name in different locations. In the windows folder. Inside of a folder called 'sysprep'. A number of different folders like this: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ReinstallBackups\0007\DriverFiles (all numbered different numbers from 0001 thru 00011 but missing 00010 out of the sequence).

What exactly am I supposed to be looking for?

[gerryf]

a 450 mb folder with your windows installation files