Dan said:
On starting I get a screen that says windows could not start because
following file is missing or corrupt: system32\drivers\Fastfat.sys
Suggests attempting to repair using the XP CD-rom and hit r at first
screen -- however, will not run setup -- I get an error message --
error 7 or error 4 on trying to load setup from cd.
What is going on? Thanks.
# 1. Do you have the XP CD that should have come with this pc? ( and NOT the manufacturer's "restore" CD. That beast would reset your system back to where it would be when it left the factory).
#2. It appears the suggestion is to do a Repair-Install of Win XP.
#3. Only if you have a "full" XP CD ----
The object of this exercise is to do an in-place upgrade or an in-place installation for purposes of "repair".
It needs to go to the same partition as before , and the same directory as before.
Usually for example XP is on C drive and is on folder/directory \Windows or \WINNT.
Configure your computer to start from the CD-ROM drive. You do that from the pc BIOS setup screen. You specify CDROM as the first drive to boot from.
Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM drive, and then restart your pc.
When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message is displayed on your
screen, press a key to boot pc from the XP CD.
When you see the following message displayed on the Welcome to Setup screen,
press ENTER:
To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.
At this point an option to press R to enter the Recovery Console is displayed. Do NOT select this option.
On the Windows XP Licensing Agreement screen, press F8 function key to agree to it.
Make sure that your current installation of Windows XP (in your case, the one you wish to repair) is selected in the box, and then press the R key to repair XP.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
