Missing files in XP Home - no install CD

  • Thread starter Thread starter iceman
  • Start date Start date
I

iceman

Hi,

I've got an HP desktop with XP Home installed. When I boot into XP in
either Safe Mode or Normal mode, there is a completely blank screen with
only the mouse pointer - I can't do anything else.

I don't have the reinstall CD and the separate HP partition is unaccessible.

My question is - if I connect this hard drive to another healthy XP PC (Pro
SP2), is there any way I can connect to microsoft or another site, to check
for missing/corrupt files on the Home PC?

Thanks in advance for any help

iceman
 
No! You won't get anywhere by doing that.

Perform a repair install using the Windows XP CD that came with your
computer or by using the media supplied to you when you purchased the
computer.

Call the manufacturers help desk.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard, thanks for your response.
Perform a repair install using the Windows XP CD that came with your
computer or by using the media supplied to you when you purchased the
computer.
Click to expand...

See me initial post - I don't have the CD, and I can't access the recovery
partition.

I spoke to the manufacturer's help desk - £1.50 per minute - and they can
send me out new recovery disks for about £50!

I was hoping there would be a way of replacing files by accessing the Home
computer from a healthy PC

Any other suggestions?

Cheers
 
'HP partition is unaccessible' why?
Are you able to enter the BIOS?
Perhaps you have a hw fault?
 
Disk had bad sectors. I used Drive Image to backup existing partitions,
excluding bad sectors.

Then formatted the NTFS boot partition and reloaded the image. Ran chkdsk
on it from another PC. So the XP boots now, but I suspect some of the
corrupt sectors had important files on them because now I only get the blank
screen with a mouse pointer.

I've tried Safe Mode - it's the same, and Last Known... doesn't work either.

I can get to the HP Recovery Partition by making it active from FDISK, but I
get a BSOD from there, suggesting it too has bad sectors.

So it looks like some of the critical OS files are missing.

I thought there'd be some utility where I could connect the hard drive to a
healthy PC and the utility could detect missing files on an OS on another
Hard drive?

Doing a complete reinstall isn't even a great option because I don't have
the reinstallation disks and it'll cost over £50 to get them from HP - so I
don't mind a bit of work to repair the OS.

Any more ideas?

Cheers

iceman
 
Iceman

What you need is a decent hard drive and a full version of XP.. look around
for best prices, and don't get taken in by 'to good to be true' offers..
 
No. You need to contact HP for assistance.

How to obtain HP Recovery CDs
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...3&lang=en&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=bph07143

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"iceman" wrote:

| Hi,
|
| I've got an HP desktop with XP Home installed. When I boot into XP in
| either Safe Mode or Normal mode, there is a completely blank screen with
| only the mouse pointer - I can't do anything else.
|
| I don't have the reinstall CD and the separate HP partition is unaccessible.
|
| My question is - if I connect this hard drive to another healthy XP PC (Pro
| SP2), is there any way I can connect to microsoft or another site, to check
| for missing/corrupt files on the Home PC?
|
| Thanks in advance for any help
|
| iceman
 
Thanks for all your help guys.

I was hoping to not have to buy disks from HP, as I thought the cost was a
bit excessive.

I'll maybe try a friend for a copy of XP Home OEM and see if that will
repair the missing/damaged files.

iceman
 
that wont work

iceman said:
Thanks for all your help guys.

I was hoping to not have to buy disks from HP, as I thought the cost was a
bit excessive.

I'll maybe try a friend for a copy of XP Home OEM and see if that will
repair the missing/damaged files.

iceman
Click to expand...
 
Hi DL,

why won't that work? I appreciate your input, but a little more explanation
would be useful.

iceman
 
Back
Top