Fix, Recover and Repair Windows XP When a PC/Computer Crashes or Fails to Boot - Introduction

Introduction to recovering and repairing Windows XP

This section of this website deals with all of the available methods of repairing or recovering an installation of Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Edition. Read through the list of them, below, and click on the relevant link(s) to go to that information.

Microsoft has made Service Pack 3 (SP3) the last service pack for these versions of Windows available. There have been many hotfixes and security updates released since then. Those versions of Windows are now in their extended period of support, which means that security updates will be provided free of charge until 2014. Other support, such as the provision of hotfixes and telephone support now has to be paid for. Microsoft provides all of the information on the lifecycle support of its products. Although, Windows XP is not being sold as a retail product, Windows XP Home Edition is still being provided on most netbook computers, because its low hardware requirements suit them far better than the much higher hardware requirements of Windows Vista. That said, when the latest version of Windows - Windows 7 - is made available in October 2009, Microsoft says that it will run comfortably on a netbook computer, so the company is not creating a netbook version of Windows Vista.

Table showing support dates for the different versions of Windows XP -

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&x=23&y=16&C2=1173

CONTENTS OF RECOVERING AND REPAIRING WINDOWS XP

Click the relevant link to go to that information

Methods of recovering Windows XP

System Restore

How to create a boot (startup) CD/DVD for Windows XP

How to perform a repair installation/install of Windows XP

Recovery by reinstalling Windows XP over itself and the consequences of so doing

Using the Recovery Console and the CHKDSK Hard-disk-drive Diagnostic Tool/Utility

How to use the Recovery Console to restore a corrupt Windows XP Registry when the PC/computer won't even boot into Safe Mode

Copying files and making backups: Using the Xcopy and Robocopy commands from the Command Prompt in Windows XP and Windows Vista