microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

[kathie]

My XP Pro system won't boot after I installed some applications.

It won't boot to safe mode either. (After the Windows boot screen
I get shown a "DOS" list of DLLs in System32 and my system hangs at
this point.)

I heard of various methods to recover XP Pro but I don't want to
lose data or applications.

What's the best approach?

 

[Pen]

My XP Pro system won't boot after I installed some applications.

It won't boot to safe mode either. (After the Windows boot screen
I get shown a "DOS" list of DLLs in System32 and my system hangs at
this point.)

I heard of various methods to recover XP Pro but I don't want to
lose data or applications.

What's the best approach?

Copy all your data files to another machine. Then clean
install XP.

 

[Conor]

My XP Pro system won't boot after I installed some applications.

It won't boot to safe mode either. (After the Windows boot screen
I get shown a "DOS" list of DLLs in System32 and my system hangs at
this point.)

I heard of various methods to recover XP Pro but I don't want to
lose data or applications.

What's the best approach?

Insert Windows XP installation CD and choose to do a Repair
Installation. That'll overwrite the Windows files, redetect hardware but
importantly, it'll keep applications and data in place.

BUT TO BE SAFE, I'd boot the computer off a Ubuntu Linux CD and copy any
files to a USB memory stick.

You may get a harsh lesson in the reasons why you back up.

 

[John Doe]

My XP Pro system won't boot after I installed some applications.

It won't boot to safe mode either. (After the Windows boot
screen I get shown a "DOS" list of DLLs in System32 and my
system hangs at this point.)

I heard of various methods to recover XP Pro but I don't want to
lose data or applications.

What's the best approach?

Always keep a backup copy of important data to removable media.

The frequency and number of backup copies you have of important
data from your hard drive depends on the value you yourself place
on that data. If the data on your hard drive is very important to
you, the very first thing you must do is figure out how to make a
copy of that data, and you do nothing else before doing so.

 

[VanguardLH]

My XP Pro system won't boot after I installed some applications.

Hmmmm, they must be secret applications. Wonder if one of them was a
registry cleaner.

It won't boot to safe mode either. (After the Windows boot screen I
get shown a "DOS" list of DLLs in System32 and my system hangs at
this point.) I heard of various methods to recover XP Pro but I
don't want to lose data or applications. What's the best approach?

So why not submit your post to the newsgroup that you mention in your
subject header? And use an appropriate subject when posting there, one
that introduces the topic of your post.

So can you reach the boot menu (by pressing F8 just as Windows starts to
load)? If so, have you tried using the "Last known good configuration"
selection?

Can you boot into Windows' Recovery Console mode? If you didn't install
it to have as an F8 boot menu choice, you can boot using the Windows XP
install CD and select to go into Recovery Console mode. From there, run
the System Restore program (rstrui.exe) and revert to a snapshot before
you installed those unidentified applications.

You might get stuck having to do an repair install (aka in-place
upgrade). See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315341 (method 2)

 

[kathie]

Insert Windows XP installation CD and choose to do a Repair
Installation. That'll overwrite the Windows files, redetect
hardware but importantly, it'll keep applications and data in
place.

Will hotfixes I have already applied survive the Repair
Installation?

 

[Daave]

Hmmmm, they must be secret applications. Wonder if one of them was a
registry cleaner.


So why not submit your post to the newsgroup that you mention in your
subject header? And use an appropriate subject when posting there,
one that introduces the topic of your post.

She already did that before posting here:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ral/browse_frm/thread/16fbf291226d4fb8?hl=en#

Apparently, she didn't post a reply to a single suggestion (including
mine!).

 

[kathie]

She already did that before posting here:

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.
general/browse_frm/thread/16fbf291226d4fb8?hl=en#

Apparently, she didn't post a reply to a single suggestion
(including mine!).

Give me time! You folks post much more frequently than I do!

 

[VanguardLH]

She already did that before posting here:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ral/browse_frm/thread/16fbf291226d4fb8?hl=en#
Apparently, she didn't post a reply to a single suggestion (including
mine!).

Oh, she *MULTI*-posted (and use an invalid subject header in the other
copy). So, to Kathie ...

Learn to cross-post:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossposting
http://www.blakjak.demon.co.uk/mul_crss.htm
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/usenet/xpost.html

A point not made is that N multi-posted copies will consume N times the disk
space for each of the separate copies of the same post. Cross-posted
messages have just *one* copy on the server with links in the newsgroups
back to the same single copy. Multi-posting wastes disk space on the
server. Yes, your post may be small but remember that you consume N times
the space on one server and then do so again on all the newsgroups servers
worldwide. You waste more bandwidth getting N copies of your multi-posted
message distributed to all the newsgroups servers worldwide. Cross-posting
has just one copy of the message on an NNTP server, and only one copy gets
propagated to other NNTP servers.

To those visiting the newsgroups, cross-posting helps them see ALL the
replies from those in the other RELATED newsgroup to which you linked your
post. That way, they don't waste their time duplicating similar replies.

Don't cross-post to more groups than needed if at all. Many consider
cross-posting to more than 4 groups as rude and may filter out your post.
The more groups you add, the less likely that they are related, the less
accurate or focused are the targeted groups, or some of the included groups
may already be encompassed by an included parent group. If they are
subgroups under a topic, choose whether you will be specific or general in
the targeted groups to which you post. Usenet-ignorants that shotgun their
posts across multiple groups trying to capture as large an audience as
possible will offend netizens with the poor aim. Multi-posting instead of
cross-posting when shotgunning across multiple groups evidences you as a
newbie, troll, or spammer.

 

[Daave]

Give me time! You folks post much more frequently than I do!

Fair enough.