How does XP know where there is an install to be able to repair it

[Guest]

Hi all

A guy I know needed a new PC as his had gone belly up, he was also aware
that his XP home wasn't a legal copy and wanted to be legit. I pointed him
in the right direction to buy a new (clone) PC and an OEM XP Home with SP2
license.

Went round to set it all up for him on Saturday.

I decided the pain free way to do this would be to do a repair install, I
put his IDE disk in (along with the SATA drive already installed) and booted
to the XP CD, past the 1st repair option, accepted the EULA, No R to repair
option was shown!!

So I installed XP on the SATA drive that was supplied with the system, once
the gui was up I looked on his old IDE disk and saw the original XP install
was still there as was his data. I edited the BOOT.INI with an entry to the
old IDE disk, rebooted and it started up, to a point where I could see his
old desktop briefly before it restarted.

Used the XP CD again and tried the Recovery console, it found the old
version and the new install of XP. Restarted and went to the real repair
option I wanted but the only listed XP install was the new one.

So to cut to the chase, how do I let / force the repair option to see the
other install that it doesn't know about and more importantly is there
anywhere I can see an explanation of the mechanics of how it functions?

If there isn't a way of forcing it to fidn the old verison how do I repair /
upgrade the old install, can I do run an upgrade on the non active install
from the new install of Windows XP?

I've seen Michael Stevens excellent site but don't think this topic is
covered at all and I can't find this information in any other public forum.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Cheers


Mark

 

[Og]

Explain to your friend that, in computer matters, you have abundant
willingness to help but lack the knowledge needed to actually provide help.
By design, it is 'impossible' to perform a cross-version repair of Windows
XP.
A generic OEM version CD will 'only' repair another generic OEM version .
Steve

 

[Guest]

Explain to your friend that, in computer matters, you have abundant
willingness to help but lack the knowledge needed to actually provide help.

Thanks for the answer however I'd respond that I'm a experienced IT
professional who is searching for the knowledge to be able to do this and
expand my knowledge in this area.

I'd be shamefaced if I didn't at least ask if anyone had an answer to this
issue which is of both practical and intellectual interest to me.

By design, it is 'impossible' to perform a cross-version repair of Windows
XP.

A generic OEM version CD will 'only' repair another generic OEM version .

Please expand as I don't believe I understand what you're trying to say, I
could misconstrue your meaning in many ways.

Thanks


Mark

 

[Nightowl]

So to cut to the chase, how do I let / force the repair option to see the
other install that it doesn't know about and more importantly is there
anywhere I can see an explanation of the mechanics of how it functions?

If there isn't a way of forcing it to fidn the old verison how do I repair /
upgrade the old install, can I do run an upgrade on the non active install
from the new install of Windows XP?

Hi Mark

Michael Stevens' site does have a couple of fixes to try if the Repair
option isn't shown: see
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#warning2

If those don't work, perhaps there's a chance of getting the old install
working again by accessing its files from the new drive? Then you could
run an "in-place upgrade" from within the GUI to legitimise the install
(see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341
Method 1).

If your friend was using System Restore before his computer failed, you
could try restoring the Registry files manually from a restore point
folder as detailed in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us
(You'd only need to do Part 2 and could copy the renamed snapshot files
directly to \System32\Config as you wouldn't be using the Recovery
Console. Also the warning in the article about OEM XP installs wouldn't
apply because again, you're not using the Recovery Console).

Hope some of this might be helpful; let us know what happens

 

[Og]

The OP is attempting to put the boot drive with a pirated version of Windows
XP Home into a different computer and perform a Repair install using a legit
version of Windows XP OEM.
Unless the pirated version is also Windows XP OEM, he will not be able to
perform a repair install.
Steve

 

[Og]

From both a practical and an intellectual perspective, these are the facts:
Microsoft coded their product so that:
Windows XP CDs will 'only' repair installations that are 'like'
versions.
An XP CD will 'not' perform a "cross-version" repair.

If the pirated version is XP Home Retail, then the Windows install routine
will not perform a repair install unless the legit CD is also XP Home
Retail.
If the pirated version is XP Home OEM (generic, non-branded), then the legit
version must also be XP Home OEM (generic) in order to perform a repair.
If the pirated version is XP Home OEM (branded), then the legit version must
also be XP Home OEM (branded) in order to perform a repair.

To reiterate: If the installed version does not match the CD version, the
only "...practical and intellectual..." solution is to reverse-engineer the
code of the Microsoft Windows XP installation routine.
Good luck,
Steve

 

[Nightowl]

The OP is attempting to put the boot drive with a pirated version of Windows
XP Home into a different computer and perform a Repair install using a legit
version of Windows XP OEM.
Unless the pirated version is also Windows XP OEM, he will not be able to
perform a repair install.

That's true, and I apologise for not being clear enough in my original
reply.

However, while a repair install may not be possible with different
versions, an in-place upgrade is (although the legit OEM disk will not
work for this, alas). I have twice used full retail copies of XP Pro to
"legitimize" people's dodgy "volume licensed" installs, so your blanket
assertion ". . .If the installed version does not match the CD version,
the
only "...practical and intellectual..." solution is to reverse-engineer
the
code of the Microsoft Windows XP installation routine" is incorrect.

 

[Og]

My "blanket" assertion is, as your own experience indicates, correct .
Volume license copies of Windows XP only come in one flavor:
Pro [corporations do 'not' establish a Domain and then install an OS on
their workstations that can NOT join a domain.]
You did, in fact, "...use(d) full retail copies of XP Pro..." to
"..."legitimize" people's dodgy "volume licensed" [read Pro] installs,".
Steve

 

[Nightowl]

My "blanket" assertion is, as your own experience indicates, correct .
Volume license copies of Windows XP only come in one flavor:
Pro [corporations do 'not' establish a Domain and then install an OS on
their workstations that can NOT join a domain.]
You did, in fact, "...use(d) full retail copies of XP Pro..." to
"..."legitimize" people's dodgy "volume licensed" [read Pro] installs,".

Well, let's not argue about it, but my point was that the dodgy
installs, though also Pro, were "volume licensed", not full retail, and
thus the original CDs were *not* the same (different volume label,
different key prefix and channel). Perhaps I misunderstood you, but it
seemed to me you were saying the two disks must not only be the same
flavour of XP (Home or Pro) but the same type, OEM and OEM, volume and
volume, retail and retail. This might be the case for a repair done
booting from the CD (don't know, haven't done it) but for an in-place
upgrade through the GUI I think you could use a Pro disk on a Home
installation.