Missing DLL - trying to repair Windows XP

Marty999

I am trying to help repair a friend's Dell laptop, it won't fire up into Windows as it says a DLL is missing or corrupt. I can boot it up off my XP Home CD (although he has the Media Center edition - does this matter?) and have tried the recovery console but this doesn't seem to do anything.

I am now at point of trying to repair the exisitng Windows installation on the C: partition but I am worried in case I wipe out all his data. Should I have the option to repair at this stage, or do I need to press Enter first and then will it give me the option to repair?

Needless to say, he has not backed up any data...

Marty999

I took a chance and pressed Enter, but I still do not have a repair option. It wants to install XP on the partition and I have 3 options, two involve formatting the partition using NTFS and the other one says it will elave the current file system intact (no changes).

Is it safe to do this? All I want to do is repair the Windows installation, not re-install it.

Sirkent

Some Windows XP CDs simply don't offer the repair function, or won't do it for a particular install. That seems to be the case here.

Is it possible to boot into safe mode? You can do this by pressing F8 just before the Windows XP boot up screen would usually appear and then choosing 'Safe mode'.

It sounds like you may be at the point where you can't repair or boot into Windows. If that's the case, then you'll be forced to reinstall windows. As you've already said, you could install without formatting but things can get quite messy frankly. That would at least leave you in a position to copy off any data you wanted to keep and then format and reinstall.

Another option would be to download and burn to CD, Ubuntu (https://www.ubuntu.com), boot from that and use it to copy off any data from the hard drive you want. You can boot into Ubuntu without making any changes to your computer. Once you've copied off your data, you can safely format and reinstall Windows.

Marty999

Thank you for your reply. To be honest I haven't tried booting into safe mode as I have not been offered that option, but I can certainly try. But are you suggesting that I should be able to re-install Windows on top of the existing installation and that all the data should still be accessible?

Sirkent

Yes, you can install them and it will leave any existing data accessible.

But(!), any previously installed programs won't be installed and things can get quite messy because all the old files are still there. This can lead to some conflicts and make things a little unstable, so I wouldn't really recommend it for long term use.

As I said, you could also boot into an Ubuntu live CD and then you wouldn't need to install anything.

spud17

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't have thought you could use a Home XP CD to repair a Media Centre version.

That's why when you boot from the CD it only gives you the option to install.

If you used a Media Centre version it would detect it and offer a repair option.

Marty999

spud17 wrote: »

I could be wrong, but I wouldn't have thought you could use a Home XP CD to repair a Media Centre version.

That's why when you boot from the CD it only gives you the option to install.

If you used a Media Centre version it would detect it and offer a repair option.

Yes that's what I have been wondering too. Anyone out there know for sure? My friend has mislaid his XP MC disk of course. I don't know anyone else who uses XP Media Center edition, so I can't borrow a CD off anybody.

cmatt360

Marty999 wrote: »

Yes that's what I have been wondering too. Anyone out there know for sure? My friend has mislaid his XP MC disk of course. I don't know anyone else who uses XP Media Center edition, so I can't borrow a CD off anybody.

pretty much mate - and to be honest - i would take a note of everything he has and reinstall.

never get caught up in dll hell mate... seems like you have spent quite a while on it already!

TRRER

plenty of websites where you can download media edition, of course your mate will need his key to install

Laz123

Or you could try and replace the missing dll http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?setupx

bubblesbonbon

If you can get into safe mode, try running the System File Checker.

Start - Run then type sfc /scannow (Space between c and /)

You may be lucky (I reckon 50-50) in that it may find the missing DLL in the DLL Cache but if it asks for the installation CD I'm afraid you are back to square one.