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Question regarding re-installing Windows XP


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#1
Rexxy

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So, I tried to repair my windows, but I keep getting a blue screen whenever I start up, and I can't boot it in Safemode because it says setup won't run in Safe mode. I'm at the point where I want to re-install windows to try to fix the problem, however, I'm not sure whether or not I will lose all my data or not.
I'll post the blue screen error code when I get home, however, I'm more concerned about Data loss.

Please let me know!
Thank you!
Rexxy
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#2
pip22

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Welcome to Geeks2Go!

If you reinstall Windows on to the same partition as your existing installation (recommended) then you will definitely lose all data that's currently on there. So you'll need to back up everything in 'My Documents', Your emails & contacts, and your browser bookmarks to a different partition or to CD/DVD media before proceeding.

Your other option is to perform a "Repair Install" which effectively installs Windows over the top of itself but (so Microsoft claims) does not destroy your existing data such as mentioned above. The downside is that a Repair Install is not guaranteed to cure a software-related error to the same degree as a reformat & reinstall. But it does avoid the need to backup your data (allegedly, though I would still make backups anyway) and avoids having to re-install all your applications and restoring all your preferred GUI settings. Consequently, it may be worth trying the repair install first.

Clean Install: http://pcsupport.abo...nstxpclean1.htm

Repair Install: http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html

Edited by pip22, 24 April 2008 - 02:41 PM.

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#3
Rexxy

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Welcome to Geeks2Go!

If you reinstall Windows on to the same partition as your existing installation (recommended) then you will definitely lose all data that's currently on there. So you'll need to back up everything in 'My Documents', Your emails & contacts, and your browser bookmarks to a different partition or to CD/DVD media before proceeding.

Your other option is to perform a "Repair Install" which effectively installs Windows over the top of itself but (so Microsoft claims) does not destroy your existing data such as mentioned above. The downside is that a Repair Install is not guaranteed to cure a software-related error to the same degree as a reformat & reinstall. But it does avoid the need to backup your data (allegedly, though I would still make backups anyway) and avoids having to re-install all your applications and restoring all your preferred GUI settings. Consequently, it may be worth trying the repair install first.

Clean Install: http://pcsupport.abo...nstxpclean1.htm

Repair Install: http://www.geekstogo...ws-XP-t138.html




Thank you very much for the response.
I have tried to repair windows, however whenever it gets to the windows XP startup screen it blue screens. If I try to run it in Safemode with or without command prompt, it says "Setup.exe cannot run in Safemode, Windows will restart now." This refers back to when I repaired.
Should I run a chkdsk /r?
Please, I NEED my data for work, school, projects, personal information, band recordings etc. I need as much help as possible, and I will gladly take this to PM's if it means getting help.
Thank you so much, you guys are the best!
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#4
wannabe1

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A lot of times, a parallel install will get you past these sorts of problems and allow you to get to your data.

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.
  • At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
  • Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
  • With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
  • Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
  • To continue setup using this partition, press C
  • Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
  • To use a different folder, press Esc
  • Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter
The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.
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#5
happyrock

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remove the drive...slave it to a working system...backup all your data...put it back in the first system...do the repair...
don't have a system to slave the drive to..get puppylinux

puppy will load and run totally in ram...
these instructions are for moving data to a usb flash drive...for larger backup use a usb external hard drive

get puppy linux...Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd ...if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files go here and get burncdcc ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ......in this case its puppy linux
3. Select the ISO file
4. Suggestion ==> Check the option "Fix close"
5. Click on "Start"

make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is is good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yor data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...
==========================
quick guide for saving data...music..files on a system that will not boot using puppy Linux..


after you get to puppy desktop..
click on the drives icon...looks like a flash drive...top row..it will list all the drives connected to

your computer...

click on the red icon for the drive you want to mount...in this case its a flash drive ...puppy will

mount the drive..the drive icon turns green when its mounted...
minimize the drives mounter window..you will need it again in a few minutes..
drag the right edge of it sideways to shrink it to its narrowest size...then drag the window to the
right edge of the screen...

now click on the icon that looks like a filing cabinet (kind of yellow) on the main drive...it should
already be green..
you will see a list of all the folders on the main drive Usually your C: drive..shrink that window to

the narrowest you can..drag that window to the left side of the screen...
at this point you should have 2 windows open on your desktop..the flash drive on the right side..
go back to the folders on the C: drive...click on the documents and settings folder...then your user
name or all users..find the folders that has your data..
drag and drop the folder with the data you want to make copies of to the flash drive window...

your options are to move ..copy ect...JUST COPY..if its to big you will have to open the folder and
drag and drop individual files until the flash drive is full...(I have a 120 GB external USB drive for
big data recovery jobs and a 4 GB flash drive for the smaller jobs)..after you get the files copied to
the flash drive...
Click on the drives mounter you minimized earlier
UNMOUNT THE FLASH DRIVE by clicking on the green icon..you will once in awhile get error messages when
unmounting the drive..ignore them..when the flash drive icon turns red again its safe to remove the
flash drive..trot on over (stroll if you want to look cool) to another computer and plug in the flash

drive and copy all the data files ( I drag and drop) to the other computer..
make sure the other computer can read them...

now delete the data on the flash drive...take it back to the misbehaving computer and plug it in

again..click on the drives icon again and repeat until you have all your data transferred to the working
system..

Edited by happyrck, 24 April 2008 - 03:29 PM.

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#6
Mr Freeze

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if you can get a sata/ide 2.0 you can hook up your drive on another computer and get your information that way ....then to go ahead with a reinstall of windows you can wipe the drive using boot and nuke
when you boot up your windows disk are you booting from cd-rom
if you have the option of running chkdsk /r then try doing that
otherwise you may have to run memtest
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#7
Rexxy

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A lot of times, a parallel install will get you past these sorts of problems and allow you to get to your data.

Boot to the Windows XP installation cd by pressing a key when the "Press any key to boot from cd" prompt appears at the top of the screen.

  • At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press Enter to set up Windows XP.
  • Accept the License Agreement by pressing F8
  • With your current installation selected in the box, press Esc
  • Select C: Partition1 [NTFS] in the box and press Enter
  • To continue setup using this partition, press C
  • Now you should see formatting options...choose the last one, Leave the current file system intact (no changes), and press Enter
  • To use a different folder, press Esc
  • Name the folder WINDOWS0 (just type a 0 (zero)) and press Enter
The Windows installation should begin. This will install Windows to a new folder, leaving your data intact. Any programs installed on the old directory will have to be reinstalled to the new one. Device drivers will also have to be installed for all the hardware to work as it should.

The data will be located in the Documents and Settings folder (C:\Documents and Settings) under your old user account name...so when you set up the new installation, give yourself a slightly different user account name.



Hello again Wannabe,

I'm glad you've posted, your solution seems to be what I want. I have the blue screen error codes for you if that would help? I'm running a chkdsk now, so I'm on the other computer killing time till it's done.

From blue screen:
Stop 0X00000007E 0X00000005, 0XBAA98750, 0XBACC3AZC, 0XBACC3128

Let me know if you know anything regarding these!
Thanks again,
Rexxy
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#8
wannabe1

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That's a pretty generic error code that Windows spits out whenever something isn't quite right. Are there any file names mentioned with it?
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#9
Rexxy

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That's a pretty generic error code that Windows spits out whenever something isn't quite right. Are there any file names mentioned with it?


Nope, none at all :) Typical blue screen then that message.
Shall I commence with your original advice? Will it fix this error code or can it be fixed by another means? The chkdsk /r said that it had repaired one or more errors on the volume, but I still got the screen.


Like always, let me know, I greatly appreciate it!
Rexxy



EDIT: IMPORTANT:::

Having problem with windows xp Blue screen Stop 0x000007E
--go to safe mode, then msconfig>>go to services tab>>put a check Hide
Microsoft>>then disable allthe other devices..click apply then click
close>>ignore to reboot computer
--go to device manager then un install display adapters>>restart the
syste
--in Normal Mode you may see blue screen again therefore you have to
boot back to safe mode so Display drivers will rebuild itself then
restart>>that should solve the problem


I found this on the internets, will this help do you think?!

Edited by Rexxy, 24 April 2008 - 06:15 PM.

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#10
wannabe1

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The 7e error can be caused by hardware or software...so it's really hard to say.

Will the machine run in Safe Mode without throwing the BSOD?
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#11
Rexxy

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The 7e error can be caused by hardware or software...so it's really hard to say.

Will the machine run in Safe Mode without throwing the BSOD?


Yep, but it says "Setup.exe cannot run in Safemode. Windows will now restart". Then it reboots.
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#12
wannabe1

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Let's put a parallel install on there and see if we can get a look at the boot.ini file.

If it has problems with that, we are likely looking at a hardware problem. When you boot up after the install, you should be offered a choice of which operating system to boot to. Let it try to boot to the top one first...if it won't boot to that, restart and select the bottom operating system. There may be a setup option listed, too...don't select that one. :)
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#13
Rexxy

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Let's put a parallel install on there and see if we can get a look at the boot.ini file.

If it has problems with that, we are likely looking at a hardware problem. When you boot up after the install, you should be offered a choice of which operating system to boot to. Let it try to boot to the top one first...if it won't boot to that, restart and select the bottom operating system. There may be a setup option listed, too...don't select that one. :)


Done and done!
I got the parrallel OS installed, and it runs fairly well (nothing on it of course). I can access all of my old data, so that's a plus. When I select the bottom OS it gets the blue screen still. My question is, what can we do now to fix my #1 OS (my priority one with all my stuff on it) from our current state?
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#14
wannabe1

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Open Control Panel and double click on the "Folder Options" icon. In the Folder Options window, click on the "View" tab, then tick the button next to "Show hidden files and folders", and tick the box next to "Hide protected operating system files "Recommended)". Apply the change and close that window.

Then open My Computer and double click on Local Disk C:. Locate a file named Boot (boot.ini), right click on it, choose "Open With" and select Notepad to open it. Copy the contents of the notepad window that opens and paste it here for me.
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#15
Rexxy

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Open Control Panel and double click on the "Folder Options" icon. In the Folder Options window, click on the "View" tab, then tick the button next to "Show hidden files and folders", and tick the box next to "Hide protected operating system files "Recommended)". Apply the change and close that window.

Then open My Computer and double click on Local Disk C:. Locate a file named Boot (boot.ini), right click on it, choose "Open With" and select Notepad to open it. Copy the contents of the notepad window that opens and paste it here for me.


Sorry for the delayed responses wannabe. I'm running up and down two sets of stairs getting from working computer A, to my computer B.


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS0
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS0="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /maxmem=2048
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons


There's the log, I have a feeling that isn't what you're looking for though, there should be more, yes?
Let me know!
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