Repair XP installation

Placebo

long story short, pc aint working, if i use repair option after booting from win xp cd, do i lose data ?

i have some important stuff on my desktop..


and if so is it possible to install windows xp to c:\windows1 or something and make a new user and get my stuff back that way ? or will that mess with c:\documents and settings all together ?

Pacifico

I dont think so. afaik it just reinstalls windows files.

Basq

You could:

(a) Try to boot from your Windows CD. Providing it's just a system file that's the problem, and recover those important files onto a CD / Floppy(s). Then format and reinstall a fresh operating system.

(b) There is an option to repair just the operating system files if you use the Windows CD.

The problem with installing a new version of the operating system to a new folder (such as Windows1) is you may get duplicate files and it can cause problems.

Placebo

i was repair installing and nearly done and BAM

blue screen of death... all my stuff

Basq

I doubt all your stuff is gone just because you got the BSOD.

Did you try booting using the CD?

Try to recover the important stuff that way. Then format and reinstall a fresh copy of the Operating System.

Placebo

how do u try botting using cd ?
well when u boot from cd it says press enter if u want to continue i did that and i let it load, still didnt work.
anyway i did clean install and at the end its going up to Blue screen....

possible to get in through recovery console andcopy stuff to A ?
or make a prtition using that ? cause all that is importnt now is my website proto type.. few kb.

thanks

Placebo

ok installation does complete BUT before windows even starts oading i got Blue screen..

silverside

a) if you do a repair installation it just overwrites files in windows\system. i don't know if you lose desktop contents - these may be in a user settings folder so MAY be safe.

b) sometimes repair installation doesnt work so you have to reinstall windows onto the c: drive afresh. Then you lose everything on the c: drive.

if you have anything on the C: drive that you dont want to lose, before doing b), you can stick it into another PC and read the data off from there.
if your hard drive is FAT32 you can also read it from a dos boot disk, or from Linux.

for future reference: This shows why it is a good idea to install the OS on a separate small partition, apps on another, and all your data on another.

Placebo

everything failing///also tryed getting damn small linux, i could view my files but i couldnt do aything,
hell i am installing to windows2, if this fails, bill will hear from me *sniff*

Fr0g

Probably the best approach at the moment is to put your HD in another machine (if you have access to one) and get all the dat off that you need. Then you can concentrate on fixing windows (or better still wipe and reinstall). If the file system is FAT32 it can be read by Windows95/98/2000/XP if NTFS by 2000/XP

Placebo

well guys, got a few errors, but it worked, i am off to burn burn burn, thanks for the help/

i willclean install after this, hopefully with a partition for prevention of future data loss