Fix, Recover, Restore and Repair Windows XP - How to Perform a Repair Installation/Install of Windows XP |
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How to perform a repair installation/install of Windows XP
You can perform a repair installation of Windows XP as long as the file system and the bulk of the operating system are intact - and you have a Windows XP installation/setup CD. You cannot perform a repair installation if your PC came with a proprietary Recovery CD (created by the PC's manufacturer) instead of a Windows XP CD.
A repair installation, which installs over the existing installation, is an effective way of repairing damaged or corrupt files and settings, because it leaves all of the programs and preference settings intact. The Windows Registry isn't replaced by a new version that has no knowledge of the installed programs, so they don't have to be reinstalled. For that reason, the process can't remove unnecessary entries that have accumulated in the Registry which can slow the system down if there are too many of them. To remove the clutter, you have to use an effective Registry cleaner, such as RegSeeker, or perform a clean, time-consuming installation of Windows. Note that a repair installation can leave mismatched versions of files behind, because it can reinstall some but not all of the necessary updates. For that reason, after performing a repair installation it is necessary to install the missing Service Packs and then run Microsoft Update to install all of the updates it deems as being necessary. Service Pack 2 (SP2) incorporates SP1, so you don't have to install SP1 first, just install SP2. The SP3 update will update a Windows XP Service Pack 1 installation and a Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation. Windows XP SP3 aggregates all of the previously-released XP fixes, but Microsoft says that at least SP1 has to be installed on a system running the original release of Windows XP before installing SP3. It recommends installing SP2 first as well to the original 2001 release, but that is not a strict requirement. If you installed Internet Explorer 7 or 8 as an upgrade from version 6, which came on the installation CD, you'll have to reinstall it as well.
Read this warning before you attempt a Repair installation: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#Warning1.
Next, just boot from the Windows XP CD as if you were doing a clean installation of Windows.
Note well that if your computer has an SATA hard disk drive, the Windows XP installation disc does not have SATA device drivers (only device drivers for IDE hard disk drives), consequently, the installation disc won't be able to recognise the drive and you won't be able to go any further using it to boot from unless you have the SATA drives on a floppy disk and your computer has a floppy disk drive, which most recent computers don't have. That means that unless that SATA drivers are installed you won't be able to perform a repair installation or use the Recovery Console from the installation disc.
Most recent computers have SATA hard drives. You can find out if your computer has an IDE or an SATA hard disk drive by entering devmgmt.msc in the Start => Run box to bring up the Device Manager, opening Disk drives in it by clicking on the + beside that heading. If the hard drive's manufacturer's device drivers are installed for the drive (not the standard Windows drivers), the drive should be named. On my laptop the named drive is: Toshiba MK1032GSX. Enetring this make/model in Google reveals it to be an SATA drive. -
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/toshiba-sata-drives-lack-performance-increase,1173-2.html
Read the following article on this problem:
Resolving "Setup did not find any hard disk drives" during Windows XP Installation -
When you have a boot disk that works, Windows XP will present you with these three options:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.
To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.
Don't enter the Recovery Console! This is important.
Press the Enter key and allow the CD to load the Setup program into memory. After pressing the F8 key to accept the license agreement, the setup program searches for any previous installations of Windows. It should discover the existing corrupt installation and give you the option too perform either a 'New' installation or 'Repair' the existing one.
Select the Windows XP installation that you want to repair from the list, and press R to start the process.
If Repair is not presented as an option, read this warning: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#warning2
Windows Setup copies its files to the hard disk drive and reboots.
Note well: when the message appears asking you press any key to boot from the CD don't press any key.
The Setup program then continues as if it were doing a clean installation, but the previously installed applications and the customised settings will remain intact.
I've used this method on several occasions to recover someone's Windows XP system.
Remember that this method of recovery makes it necessary to reinstall the missing service packs, hotfix updates and security patches.
In order not to have to perform so many reinstallations in the event of a future system failure, it would be a good idea to slipsteam the Windows XP CD that you have with the subsequent Service Packs to create a bootable CD/DVD that contains them.
Click the folowing link to go to that information on this website: Slipstreaming Windows XP/Vista: How to create a Windows XP/Windows Vista installation CD/DVD containing the service packs and missing drivers.
This page contains full instructions on when and how to perform a repair installation: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
This is the printable text version of the above page: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/repair.txt
Here is another illustrated article on performing a repair installation - XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option -
http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189400897
To view the whole article on a single page, choose the Print option in the box at the top of the page.
And this MS Knowledge Base article - How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP - also covers the subject.
CONTENTS OF RECOVERING AND REPAIRING WINDOWS XP
Click the relevant link to go to that information
Introduction: Recovering and repairing Windows XP
Methods of recovering Windows XP
How to create a boot (startup) CD/DVD for 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
Windows XP: Password problems - Password and document recovery
How to install a complete copy of Windows XP on an USB flash drive
How to troubleshoot and fix shutdown, restart (reboot), and startup problems
Windows XP: How to use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
How to avoid reactivating Windows XP after a fresh installation
Using the Windows XP Command Prompt
The System File Checker (SFC) and Roll Back Driver features in Windows XP
Using "Automated System Recovery" (ASR) and Restoring Windows XP to a serial ATA hard disk drive
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