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

Fix Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 Black Screen of Death problem

February 13, 2010. - Here is a link to the latest problem, with a solution provided, that is affecting many, but certainly not all Windows XP users. Read the comments below the article:

Microsoft security patch brings BSOD misery for [some but certainly not all] XP users - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/355507/...

Comment: "Seems to be certain hardware configurationsare falling over. Looking through the pages at the support forum, it seems to be linked primarily to Dell machines with a few HP's mentioned. In general, the specifications posted are of older Intel Pentium 4, Intel Celeron and first generation Intel Centrino [Core Duo] processors with the odd smattering of Netbooks (HP and Asus), suggesting some Intel Atom processors are affected."

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December 4, 2009. - If you start up your Windows XP/Vista/7 computer and you are greeted by a black screen, this is a problem that has affected many thousands of computers. Here are the details:

Microsoft Windows 7 'Black Screen of Death' blamed on malware - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/microsoft/6709584/...

An affected computer will work in Safe Mode, which can be accessed by pressing the F8 key repeatedly just before Windows starts to load. The best solution is to use System Restore in Safe Mode to restore a restore point that predates the problem. One of my computers went down with this problem today (4 December) and I restored a restore point created on 3 December successfully.

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 was being provided on most netbook computers, because its low hardware requirements suit them far better than the much higher hardware requirements of Windows Vista. However, that is not the case because Windows 7 was made available in October 2009 and, unlike Windows Vista, which has higher hardware requirements than Win7, it runs comfortably on a netbook computer, so the company will not be 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

How To configure and use Error Reporting in Windows XP

Windows XP provides a feature called Error Reporting - Microsoft's first attempt at automatic crash analysis and repair. Using it could be useful if the problem is not serious enough to prevent you from booting your computer and you have web access. For more information read the following Help and Support article:

How to configure and use error reporting in Windows XP -

"You can enable, disable, or modify the way that error reporting works on a Windows XP-based computer. When an error occurs, a dialog box is displayed that prompts you to report the problem to Microsoft. If you want to report the problem, technical information about the problem is sent to Microsoft over the Internet. You must be connected to the Internet to use the feature. If a similar problem has been reported by other users and information about the problem is available, you receive a link to a Web page that contains information about the problem." -

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310414/EN-UK/

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 find out the cause of a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error message - Shutdown and reboot in Windows 2000, XP and Vista

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