reinstalling XP Pro

[Tom]

I hope this posts this time. I have tried three times, it it shows up
multiple times, i apologize.

I have been having issues with my XP machine. For some reason it is now
wanting to boot to WIN98 after years of running XP, however it is missing
numerous files. For the complete thread see RE: Missing files at boot
up...in this same newsgroup.
Anyway, i can not correct the problem and was wondering if i could just
reinstall XP with out losing all my information? I have backed up everything
i can think of, but there may be some things i missed.
Thanks for the help....Tom
ps Any possiblilty a virus could do this?

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

All your posts showed up and you received some replies
to the first of them.

 

[Guest]

I hope this posts this time. I have tried three times, it it shows up
multiple times, i apologize.

I have been having issues with my XP machine. For some reason it is now
wanting to boot to WIN98 after years of running XP, however it is missing
numerous files. For the complete thread see RE: Missing files at boot
up...in this same newsgroup.
Anyway, i can not correct the problem and was wondering if i could just
reinstall XP with out losing all my information? I have backed up everything
i can think of, but there may be some things i missed.

If your machine is configured to boot from a CD, do so with the same XP CD
that you used when you originally installed. Take the first repair option 'R'
which takes you to recovery console. If it asks you which windows
installation you would like to log on to (should just show one, in
c:\windows) enter the number associated with it. If it then asks you for the
adminstrator password, press enter or if you entered an administrator
password when you installed xp, enter that instead. Run chkdsk /r and note
whether it said that it found and fixed errors (it will take quite a while to
run - be patient). If it finds and fixes errors, type exit to reboot and
repeat the process until chkdsk /r no longer reports any errors. Then try
booting again - you might get lucky, but if you don't...

Boot as before, but bypass the first repair option - press <enter>. After
pressing F8 to acknowledge the EULA, setup will look for previous xp
installations. If it finds yours, take the repair option, which will leave
your programs and data intact. Have your xp product key handy, as setup will
ask for it.

ps Any possiblilty a virus could do this?

Yes, if you got hit by a boot sector virus, but these are now rare, so your
problem is likely due to some sort of disk/file system corruption.

If you get it to boot again without doing a fresh install, look at the Event
Viewer - System log, click on the Source column heading to sort
alphabetically and look for errors from ATAPI and/or Disk. If they appear and
are associated with IDE0 or hard disk 0, your hard drive is failing and you
need to copy the image to a new h/d asap.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE]

I hope this posts this time. I have tried three times, it it shows up
multiple times, i apologize.

I have been having issues with my XP machine. For some reason it is
now wanting to boot to WIN98 after years of running XP, however it is
missing numerous files. For the complete thread see RE: Missing
files at boot up...in this same newsgroup.
Anyway, i can not correct the problem and was wondering if i could
just reinstall XP with out losing all my information? I have backed
up everything i can think of, but there may be some things i missed.
Thanks for the help....Tom
ps Any possiblilty a virus could do this?

In OE click
View | Current View | Show Replies to my Messages.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the show replies to my messages tip, i didn't even know about
that. For some reason they weren't showing up in the group messages by
conversation view. I apologize for any inconvience to the group....Tom

 

[Tom]

Thanks for your reply and help. I am going to be out of town tomorrow, but I
will try what you suggested Thursday and see what happens.
If you could check back in a day or 2, I would appreciate it, I may need to
know how to get to the Event Viewer. I am not familiar with that. I will
also post back my results from my repair or reinstall. Thanks for the
help...Tom

 

[Tom]

I tried to boot to the XP CD, but it didnt work. It went right back to the
Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu.
I tried to run setup from the XP CD, but it said it could not run in DOS. I
can't boot to windows in order to run setup for XP. Only thing i know to do
is reinstall 98, then reinstall the XP upgrade. Any other suggestions would
be apprecaited...thanks tom

 

[Plato]

I tried to run setup from the XP CD, but it said it could not run in DOS. I

To install from a dos bootup. Run smartdrv first. The hit winnt.exe from
the i386 folder.

 

[Tom]

I am not familiar with smartdrv. I think it may be the driver for the cdrom,
if that is the case i used a boot disk from 98 and it installed the cd
driver. That driver is installed. However i cannot find the i386 folder.
Is it in the root directory, windows or someplace else? I cannot find it in
either place. Maybe that is my problem, that entire folder is missing or
corrupt. Thanks for the help...Tom

 

[Tom]

I looked on my laptop which has XP on it and I found out that1386 should be
in the C root directory. However there is no C:\i386 on the XP machine that
i am having problems with.. It appears i have something bad wrong....Thanks
tom