Repairing Windows XP

I was trying to talk my friend through repairing Windows XP tonight (by phone).
I had a site up on my end which went through the steps one at a time, even
though I've done it myself in the past. Everything went as it should until the
screen came up that supposedly showed copies of Windows XP already on his
machine, which you highlight then hit "R" to repair. No copies of Windows showed
up in the box on the lower half of his screen at this step. The only thing that
showed up was C: .We know he has Windows XP installed on his computer/ Why
wouldn't it show up in the box so he could choose it for repair?

wrote:
I was trying to talk my friend through repairing Windows XP tonight (by phone).
I had a site up on my end which went through the steps one at a time, even
though I've done it myself in the past. Everything went as it should until the
screen came up that supposedly showed copies of Windows XP already on his
machine, which you highlight then hit "R" to repair. No copies of Windows showed
up in the box on the lower half of his screen at this step. The only thing that
showed up was C: .We know he has Windows XP installed on his computer/ Why
wouldn't it show up in the box so he could choose it for repair?


If the installation is extremely corrupted...
such as a missing registry (for example) it will not show up.

Best to remove the drive and slave it to another machine for data retrieval

An alternative would be to get a Knoppix cd and copy the data to an
external drive

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Read the part where it says:
"To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R",
(you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To
repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com


wrote in message
...
I was trying to talk my friend through repairing Windows XP tonight (by
phone).
I had a site up on my end which went through the steps one at a time, even
though I've done it myself in the past. Everything went as it should until
the
screen came up that supposedly showed copies of Windows XP already on his
machine, which you highlight then hit "R" to repair. No copies of Windows
showed
up in the box on the lower half of his screen at this step. The only thing
that
showed up was C: .We know he has Windows XP installed on his computer/ Why
wouldn't it show up in the box so he could choose it for repair?

On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 21:39:30 -0500, "JS" @ wrote:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Read the part where it says:
"To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R",
(you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To
repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".



Interestingly enough, that's the site I was working off of on the phone. So we
did not use the "R" option, but went to the installation option, agreed to the
license then the box came up which should have shown an installed version of
Windows XP, but it didn't.

Then read philo's post

wrote in message
...
On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 21:39:30 -0500, "JS" @ wrote:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Read the part where it says:
"To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press
R",
(you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To
repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".



Interestingly enough, that's the site I was working off of on the phone.
So we
did not use the "R" option, but went to the installation option, agreed to
the
license then the box came up which should have shown an installed version
of
Windows XP, but it didn't.

On Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:07:02 -0500, wrote:

On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 21:39:30 -0500, "JS" @ wrote:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Read the part where it says:
"To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R",
(you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To
repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".



Interestingly enough, that's the site I was working off of on the phone. So we
did not use the "R" option, but went to the installation option, agreed to the
license then the box came up which should have shown an installed version of
Windows XP, but it didn't.

What you did is correct.

There are 2 Repair options when you boot to a WinXP Setup CD.

The 1st Repair opens the Repair Console.

At the dialog with the 1st Repair option, if you select to Install
windows, AND if you already have Windows installed, a 2nd Repair
option is available, this is the Repair Reinstall.

Note, what type of hard drive do you have?

If it's a SATA, the WinXP Setup does not include SATA drivers, which
MAY be the problem.

IF the hard drive IS SATA, try this; go into BIOS Setup and see if the
SATA Drive Setup has a Compatibility Mode. The Compatibility Mode
makes a SATA drive load as an IDE drive. We did this on a Laptop at
work.

After that you should be able to do the Repair Reinstall.

Once you get to the desktop, see if Device Manager still lists SATA
under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers." (it should be listed)

If it does, you just reboot and go into BIOS Setup and set the SATA
Drive Setup back to what is was.

If SATA is NOT listed, you will have to reinstall the SATA drivers for
your motherboard.

REMINDER: After a Repair Reinstall, you must redo ALL Win Updates.
Highly suggest you do only 3 to 5 at a time, reboot (asked to or NOT),
run Win Update again and install the next 3 to 5. (voice of experience
on a Repair Reinstall on home PC)

Note, installing SP3 BEFORE running Win Updates will result in less
updates to install.




--
======== Tecknomage ========
Computer Systems Specialist
IT Technician
San Diego, CA

Not using a SATA drive by any chance and
if so is the BIOS set properly?

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com


wrote in message
...
On Mon, 2 Mar 2009 21:39:30 -0500, "JS" @ wrote:

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Read the part where it says:
"To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press
R",
(you Do Not want to load Recovery Console). I repeat, do not choose "To
repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R".



Interestingly enough, that's the site I was working off of on the phone.
So we
did not use the "R" option, but went to the installation option, agreed to
the
license then the box came up which should have shown an installed version
of
Windows XP, but it didn't.

On Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:59:43 -0500, wrote:

I was trying to talk my friend through repairing Windows XP tonight (by phone).
I had a site up on my end which went through the steps one at a time, even
though I've done it myself in the past. Everything went as it should until the
screen came up that supposedly showed copies of Windows XP already on his
machine, which you highlight then hit "R" to repair. No copies of Windows showed
up in the box on the lower half of his screen at this step. The only thing that
showed up was C: .We know he has Windows XP installed on his computer/ Why
wouldn't it show up in the box so he could choose it for repair?


Thanks. The drive/s are IDE not S-ATA.