Repairing XP Pro

smeagoly1 · 21-02-2008, 16:55

Hi all

A few times now my XP Pro system has froze while installing an application, once the PC has rebooted I get the "Windows did not close properly" due to software or Hardware changes"
Load as Normal, Safemode Last good configuration and a few more options I get,
But non of them will boot windows up, I get the black XP loading screen but it never reaches the "Blue Windows" boot screen and alwats resets the pc.

I have the XP pro disk and can boot from cd and get to the repair screen, but after that my knowlege is a bit poor on how to proceed. What are the commands to get back to a previous restore point or get rid of the last failed install?
my XP64 system allows a Restore but not my Xp 32bit

21-02-2008, 17:06

Does this help?

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Or this with screenshots:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winx...exfullpage.htm

**Rob** · 21-02-2008, 18:07

Have you set checkdisk or similar to scan. It often does this only at startup, and unhelpfully all you see is the blank screen. If you have a large HD it could take a very long time (read hours) to work through. If your PC has crashed a couple of times, the checkdisc may be trying to run anyway. Might be worth switching on the PC and seeing what it achieves overnight?

smeagoly1 · 21-02-2008, 19:08

Thanks for the replies, I'll leave the 32 bit machine on overnight and then try the very useful links also about repair if it's not the chkdsk. yep it's a 160gig one so probably will take all night haha
All that information is much appreciated guys

Smee

**Kymmy** · 21-02-2008, 19:16

XP repair console is dire, the best way is to use the 2nd repair option that does a reinstall but keep all your old settings/programs, the only thing you'll need to do then is updates/service packs and a few device drivers.

Boot with the XP CD, do not choose repair but go as though you you want to install, after the EULA Agreement screen when you press F8 to continue it'll then checki the discs this is when it'll find the current XP install and then give you a 2nd repair option, choose this repair and it'll go through a total repair.

The only time this 2nd repair will fail is if you're doing a major architecture change (this happened to me when I went from a P4 to a Athlon 64 x2)

Kymmy

downquark1 · 21-02-2008, 19:26

if the chkdsk shows no problems it may be worth getting memtest (http://www.memtest86.com/) burning it on a cd and running it for a few hours to see if a memory problem caused the corruption.

smeagoly1 · 22-02-2008, 10:09

Just done the repair install as suggested and everythings working fine now

I was so glad i could get my old apps up without having to reinstall the lot.

I will try the mem test also as I think there might be a problem lurking in the background.

All your advice has been much appreciated guys and saved a lot of cursing to the heavens on my part

**Kymmy** · 22-02-2008, 10:27

Glad you're sorted, not many know about that 2nd repair option and although it takes as much time as a re-install at least all your old apps/settings are kept. If anyone does it and they find that some apps don;t work it's normally a case of that the need one of the service packs to run and reinstalling the latest normally solves the problem.

Kymmy