Order of repairing Windows XP Pro

[Christopher]

I have been searching more than 1000 pages of the
Microsoft Windows XP "Inside Out" book and it gives many,
very many ways to restore Windows XP Pro in the event of
the many problems, I as a 71 year old newcomer to
computers,am experiencing. Please. Can you tell me in
which order I should choose recovery options. i.e System
Restore, in safe mode or otherwise. Last known good
configuration. Repair. ASR. Put XP over the top, assuming
one can get to the desktop.( Recovery Console looks too
intimidating for this newcomer) Reinstall XP Pro. Whatever.
Help will be most appreciated. Can one boot from the CD (
I have downloaded a programme and installed on 6 floppies.
assuming if I can't boot from CD I will be able to boot
from the floppies. Depending upon the method use to repair
(Cwhat steps do I need to take before problems occur. I
have had a second hard drive installed and have created an
Automatic System Recovery on it, including the floppy. I
had better sign out beforethe novel is finished.
Many thanks.

C.S.

 

[dev]

Christopher said:

I have been searching more than 1000 pages of the
Microsoft Windows XP "Inside Out" book and it gives many,
very many ways to restore Windows XP Pro in the event of
the many problems, I as a 71 year old newcomer to
computers,am experiencing. Please. Can you tell me in
which order I should choose recovery options. i.e System
Restore, in safe mode or otherwise. Last known good
configuration. Repair. ASR. Put XP over the top, assuming
one can get to the desktop.( Recovery Console looks too
intimidating for this newcomer) Reinstall XP Pro. Whatever.
Help will be most appreciated. Can one boot from the CD (
I have downloaded a programme and installed on 6 floppies.
assuming if I can't boot from CD I will be able to boot
from the floppies. Depending upon the method use to repair
(Cwhat steps do I need to take before problems occur. I
have had a second hard drive installed and have created an
Automatic System Recovery on it, including the floppy. I
had better sign out beforethe novel is finished.

These sites may help you to sort it out...

http://WWW.WEBTREE.CA/windowsxp/
http://michaelstevenstech.com

 

[T.C.]

Do a Repair Install, which saves all of your programs, data files, etc.,
just repairs Windows XP.

Go to:

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm

When the page opens, scroll down and click on: How To Run A Repair
Install. There is a step by step walk through including images. Your
software, data files, desktop, etc. are retained.

Windows XP Repair Installs have save me a few times...

 

[Alex Nichol]

Can you tell me in
which order I should choose recovery options. i.e System
Restore, in safe mode or otherwise. Last known good
configuration.

Those make a good start. After Restore though, I would put in a refresh
of the system files: With the XP CD ready in the drive (exit the
autorun) - Start - Run and run the line
SFC /SCANNOW

Repair. ASR. Put XP over the top, assuming
one can get to the desktop.( Recovery Console looks too
intimidating for this newcomer) Reinstall XP Pro. Whatever.

You can't effectively do a repair reinstall without starting at a fresh
boot directly to do the setup. You should be able to boot your CD -
only use the six floppies if your machine positively will not boot a CD
(which is not common)

As you power on hit the hotkey to enter BIOS setup (see the manual, or
try DEL; F2; F10 which are common ones). There either

a Boot page, where select the CD drive and use the number pad + key to
push it to the top; or

a BIOS settings page and use PageDn to cycle the Boot order value round
to CD first.

Either way then hit ESC to exit, have the XP CD ready in the drive, and
exit saving settings to boot the XP CD direct. (you will probably have
to hit a key to confirm that you want to)

Now start Setup (do not take 'Repair' at this stage), then after the
license agreement take 'Repair Installation'. This will retain your
existing software installations and most settings. But Updates will
have to be run again, especially SP1; It is important to activate the
basic XP Firewall before you ever connect to the net to get the
patches, so as to be protected against things like the BLAST worm.

Last resort would be a new clean install. For that follow the same boot
of the CD, but after the agreement, instead of Repair, take New Install.
When it asks you to confirm where, hit ESC; select and delete the
current partition and make a new RAW one to be formatted at the next
stage. The important point is the delete. Without that it will just
go ahead and make a new install over the top of the old one