Windows XP home Repair - success

Dave_C_2

Hi folks, just a heads-up:

My desktop was stuck in a loop at boot time and wouldn't get past the loading windows screen.

I tried all suggestions found on the internet using the recovery console, such as fdisk, fixmbr, fixboot etc. all to no avail. So I bit the bullet and did a repair using the XP installation disk.

The good bits:

• It wasn't too hard and took less than an hour, the above link was for XP pro but the home installation was about the same.
• All of my personalisations were saved, desktop layout, icons, printer settings and so on.
• Even the home network settings worked (I chose no at the relevant point)
• Everything external to the OS wasn't affected, games, Office, programs etc.
• Windows update still worked - see below

The bad bits:

• The next 12 hours were spent updating XP (using windows update). It updates from the date on the installation disk.
• Downloads amounted to about 500MB
• My XP disk was for SP2 so I had to update to SP3 including IE8 and WMP11
• I think the bookmarks from IE were lost, but I only keep it as a "just in case Firefox won't load this site" measure.

In my opinion, better than a clean install as the non-OS stuff is preserved and I didn't have to re-install anything.

Dave

GunJack

See, it ain't too hard is it

well done

John_Gray

Time now to look into Disk Imaging programs, such as Macrium Reflect (even the free version), Shadow Protect, or Acronis TrueImage, ready for next time.

Restoring back to a recent image with Shadow Protect takes me just less than 20 minutes, and it's just a matter of updating any new software that has been added since the image was taken. (And copying across my most recent backup of the Outlook PST.)