[ben0l0]

Hi Guys and Girls, first time poster in a right pickle as follows

- Have a 4 year old Patriot PC, at weekend ran spybot, when Spybot removing files crashed halfway through and now I cannot log into windows

- Admin log in box is shown when I start up windows but it just logs me straight out. I cant get in via Safe mode either.

- I have seen the topic on here to reinstall Windows XP, however in moving house I have lost my CD and some years ago when upgrading my PC I change the case and therefore don't even have my windows number anymore

- Summary - I have a PC with lots of data on that I cannot access and can't see a way to reinstall windows as I dont have a CD - any help would be appreciated. Can I somehow reinstall windows without having the CD/ download a bootable version of windows.

Thanks

Ben

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If you don't have Windows CD...
Download Windows Recovery Console: http://www.thecomput...om/files/rc.iso
Download, and install free Imgburn: http://www.imgburn.c...hp?act=download
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
Then, follow the steps from here: http://icrontic.com/...pair_windows_xp, starting below this picture on page 1:

[Broni]

If you don't have Windows CD...
Download Windows Recovery Console: http://www.thecomput...om/files/rc.iso
Download, and install free Imgburn: http://www.imgburn.c...hp?act=download
Using Imgburn, burn rc.iso to a CD.
Boot to the CD...let it finish loading.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
Then, follow the steps from here: http://icrontic.com/...pair_windows_xp, starting below this picture on page 1:

[ben0l0]

Thanks for the reply. I pressed R to start the recovery console, it went through three checks and rebooted windows. However, I still can't seem to log in. When I select Boot CD now it still proceeds to try and load windows. Have I selected the wrong thing?

[Broni]

it went through three checks

What checks?

[ben0l0]

I think I was checking consistency of the drives, although I could be wrong.

[ben0l0]

Just found this post and pretty sure the same happened to me:


When I press enter to "Setup Windows XP" instead of the license agreement coming up there is just the blue screen with "Windows XP Home Edition Setup" as the title and "Examining 114471 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi...". Clearly this is not supposed to happen.

I should also admit to pressing the "R" key when I first tried to repair windows

[Broni]

You can't use setup option, because you don't have Windows CD.
Did you create that RC CD, and are you booting from it?
Put the CD in, and restart computer.
Look for the message:
Press any key to boot from CD
Is the message there?

[Broni]

Just found this post and pretty sure the same happened to me:

You created this thread

[ben0l0]

Just found this post and pretty sure the same happened to me:

You created this thread

You misunderstood, the "When I press enter......." I copied from another thread in this forum, it gave a better description of the three steps it went through. That user also pressed R by mistake.

With regard to your first question, I created the CD, booted from it first time around and clicked R and instead of the license agreement coming up it rebooted the PC. Now when I select Press Any Key to Boot it now just loads up Windows like normal although it still logs me out straight away

Thanks

[Broni]

Was the CD drive working before all this happened?
Turn off computer. Wait few minutes. Turn it on, and try to boot from CD again.

[ben0l0]

No luck sadly, it is recognising the CD but for some reason now won't boot from it.

[ben0l0]

Managed to boot from the cd now however when I follow the steps it says it cant find the license agreement? Can anyone help?

[The Skeptic]

What do you need licence agreement for? you just boot to recovery console, don't you? since you already ran several procedures you should know how to get to the prompt on the DOS like screen. Please try to restore your computer to an earlier date by doing this:

* At the prompt Type: CD \
* Press Enter
* Type: cd system~1\_resto~1
* Press Enter
* Type: dir
* Press Enter

After you press enter you will see a list of folders (like rp1, rp2) If the list of restore points has more than one page then press the Enter key untill you reach the end of the list

* Type: cd rp {number of the second to last folder in the list). Example: cd rp9, if rp9 is the second to the last restore point where the last restore point no. is 10
* Press Enter
* Type: cd snapshot
* Press Enter
* Type: copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system
* Press Enter
* Type: copy _registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\software
* Press Enter
* Type: Exit
* Press Enter

Your PC will reboot.

If you get an access denied error when doing the above, then do the following at the recovery console:

* Type: CD \
* Press Enter
* Type: cd windows\system32\config
* Press Enter
* Type: ren system system.bak
* Press Enter
* Type: Exit
* Press Enter

Your PC should reboot

If you still cannot get access in anyway to your installation in the recovery console then your SAM database files are corrupt. There is no way you can restore these with the recovery console. You may need to do a fresh install.

[ben0l0]

After pressing R for Recovery

The screen I get askes Which Windows Installation would you like to log onto


It seems like I can only type a one letter response

[The Skeptic]

When asked for XP installation, type 1 (assuming you have only one operating system installed).

When asked for password type your password or press Enter if you don't have a password.