[st22]

Excellent guide, i wish i had it when i reinstalled xp on mine at the start of the year!

[Advertisements]

I was wondering if there is any way to repair WinXP if it was preinstalled when I bought the computer? I didn't receive a WinXP disk, just a product key. I called the place I bought it from to find out about a hidden partition that MIGHT be on my pc that has a system recovery option incase you ever need to reinstall Windows, but I couldn't see anything about a partition in BIOS, although I'm not really sure exactly what I'm looking for. He said it would be there unless they deleted it while installing XP. Is there somewhere online where you can download and make a back up copy if you can produce a valid, legal product key? He did mention that if I knew someone with a copy of WinXP Home Ed. I could use my product key to reinstall windows and format the drive, but he said it has to be an OEM disk, not retail.
I recently tried to do a system restore but it kept failing and by the time I figured out why it wasn't working(I had to remove the protection from my Symantec Auto Update for Norton AntiVirus) it had deleted two months of restore points (I needed my "Brand New" restore point that I created when I first got the computer). So, now all the restore points have the same problems.....if I had the disk and could do a repair it would probably fix my problems because I have some updates from Windows that are corrupt and Add\Remove won't remove them from my pc. I checked all the help files from Microsoft Windows and tried all the "fixes" but none of them worked. I've even developed some new problems along the way, the Rogers Self Healing software kept switching my default email program back to Outlook Express (I had upgraded to Outlook) and stopped being able to send \ receive emails, so I used the Live technical support option and since then when Windows restarts the Windows Installer pops up trying to install "Scan", but then says I have to put in the disk.....but I don't know what disk and when I click Cancel it just keeps trying and trying to install "Scan"????? (Scan.msi) I thought it may have something to do with my HP All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Photocopier, but now I'm not sure of anything, the problems just keep pilling up. Does any of this make sense? Incase you need this info....

Dell OptiPlex SX260
Pentium 4 CPU 2.66 GHz
512 MB of RAM
Windows XP Home Edition
Service Pack 2
Version 2002

Edited by CrankyCheryl, 13 October 2007 - 02:48 PM.

[CrankyCheryl]

I was wondering if there is any way to repair WinXP if it was preinstalled when I bought the computer? I didn't receive a WinXP disk, just a product key. I called the place I bought it from to find out about a hidden partition that MIGHT be on my pc that has a system recovery option incase you ever need to reinstall Windows, but I couldn't see anything about a partition in BIOS, although I'm not really sure exactly what I'm looking for. He said it would be there unless they deleted it while installing XP. Is there somewhere online where you can download and make a back up copy if you can produce a valid, legal product key? He did mention that if I knew someone with a copy of WinXP Home Ed. I could use my product key to reinstall windows and format the drive, but he said it has to be an OEM disk, not retail.
I recently tried to do a system restore but it kept failing and by the time I figured out why it wasn't working(I had to remove the protection from my Symantec Auto Update for Norton AntiVirus) it had deleted two months of restore points (I needed my "Brand New" restore point that I created when I first got the computer). So, now all the restore points have the same problems.....if I had the disk and could do a repair it would probably fix my problems because I have some updates from Windows that are corrupt and Add\Remove won't remove them from my pc. I checked all the help files from Microsoft Windows and tried all the "fixes" but none of them worked. I've even developed some new problems along the way, the Rogers Self Healing software kept switching my default email program back to Outlook Express (I had upgraded to Outlook) and stopped being able to send \ receive emails, so I used the Live technical support option and since then when Windows restarts the Windows Installer pops up trying to install "Scan", but then says I have to put in the disk.....but I don't know what disk and when I click Cancel it just keeps trying and trying to install "Scan"????? (Scan.msi) I thought it may have something to do with my HP All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Photocopier, but now I'm not sure of anything, the problems just keep pilling up. Does any of this make sense? Incase you need this info....

Dell OptiPlex SX260
Pentium 4 CPU 2.66 GHz
512 MB of RAM
Windows XP Home Edition
Service Pack 2
Version 2002

Edited by CrankyCheryl, 13 October 2007 - 02:48 PM.

[Nishinoran]

Okay, I'm having a problem that could be fixed if I could manage to get my partition of my harddrive to work properly, but for some reason it is skipping asking me whether I want it to only replace system files, or reboot the entire computer. I need to get files off before I reboot, safe mode is not working, but I'm wondering if recovery CD's made by another computer would be able to replace the XP CD.

EDIT:
I have a Windows 98 CD, and I'm wondering if it would be possible to boot off of that instead, I plan on trying it in a few hours.

Edited by Nishinoran, 25 November 2007 - 08:49 AM.

[olfnut]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU !!!!!!

YOU ARE MY HERO!!!!

[Jackal23]

I don't have a normal CD i have a toshiba one which won't repaire it only erases everything and i don't want that what can i do??? PLEASE HELP. i can't boot into Xp only Ubuntu (Linux)

[Roc2008]

I have tried repairing windows but it asks for password and i dont know the password because I bought the comp used. Is there any way to reset the password? Please help!!!!!!!!!!

[akuff]

Hello Guys,

I have read through the XP repair installation and it is very interesting. Well, I have lost the cd of my currently installed windows XP professional OS and I just got a new one.

Can I use this new cd to do a repair install on my old OS?

Thank you, your suggestions will be highly appreciated.

[sundalongqueso]

Am I understanding things right? I need to clarify some things before I repair my laptop using this Windows XP feature.

My laptop did not come with a normal Windows XP CD. Does this mean that all I need is a CD of a similar version and then I can already do a repair? If yes, are all my files left intact (including desktop files and files on other disk partitions)? If no, what files get deleted or what remain? What settings are left intact? What settings are reset? Does the repair require me to uninstall all existing software on my computer and reinstall them probably because the registry is reset?

Thanks in advance!

[admin]

You cannot use a restore partition, or OEM restore CD that restores factory settings. You need to have a bootable Windows XP CD. It has to be the same version you have installed for your CD key to work, ie. Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro, Windows X64...

[swaps4]

You cannot use a restore partition, or OEM restore CD that restores factory settings. You need to have a bootable Windows XP CD. It has to be the same version you have installed for your CD key to work, ie. Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro, Windows X64...

Hey im ganna do this my windows acting up to much (cpu usage 100% never goes down so i lagg and slowness etc) but how do i get my key for my windows when i got it it was alredy installed

[FUState]

Hi there...

I just replaced my mobo... went through this list verbaitim... after it installed... it did not load windows... it tries (scrolls through windows files) and then restarts. It does not even load windows in safe mode... I'm not sure what to do next...

Should I just repair install again?

[mooseye]

Since you can get to the recovery console, and if you had windows restore installed and opperating, you may be able to do a system restore from the recovery console.
Do a search on windows\system32\conifig\system and you can find several solutions.

Hey all,

I am having a windows repair issue, and my hdd's are striped. I have tried everything I know of, when I try to boot it will not even let me into safemode. I was thinking of trying ERD but I want to try something simple. The computer will boot into the recovery console, but it's not doing any good. I would appreciate anything you have to offer




Thank You

Rob




P.S. I am running XP Home. I have 2 80 gig Sata HDD's striped ...this is just frustrating.

[Canorro]

I cant do it from
Step 3: Boot from your Windows XP CD. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD. Can't boot from your CD? Please see the note at the bottom of this page (Configuring Your Computer to Boot from CD).
because Emachines didn't bring windows xp home disk it came with nortons ghost
So what would you suggest instead of this step please not system restore so what about SFC(but it wont work if i cant access safe mode & if ntldr is missing right)?
I wanna know because i once deleted my computer because of NTLDR (aka nt loader right) and i don't want it to happen again i couldn't go to safe mode
any help its apreciated thank you all

[mooseye]

I cant do it from
Step 3: Boot from your Windows XP CD. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD. Can't boot from your CD? Please see the note at the bottom of this page (Configuring Your Computer to Boot from CD).
because Emachines didn't bring windows xp home disk it came with nortons ghost
So what would you suggest instead of this step please not system restore so what about SFC(but it wont work if i cant access safe mode & if ntldr is missing right)?
I wanna know because i once deleted my computer because of NTLDR (aka nt loader right) and i don't want it to happen again i couldn't go to safe mode
any help its apreciated thank you all

It is a little confusing, but it is possible to do a "go back" type of restore if you had the function running before the problem occured. You have to do it from the recovery console. Do not use the recovery partition, but boot it up as if you were and then choose the c:\ drive or what ever your main/normal operating drive was. You have to use dos commands to find and then replace the windows/system*/config/system* files with a good previous restore poiint. This is only one way and may or may not work for you. Just trying to help as so many have helped me over the years.

Peace

P S This is done without the use of any kind of CD. The information is backed up on the HDD.

Edited by mooseye, 22 February 2008 - 08:55 AM.

[Canorro]

By that you mean you can run system restore point in dos? how? what must i write if it were to happen to mee?