Repair installation option not available - WinXP Pro

[Guest]

I originally posted this in a couple of other newsgroups, and I've since learned (thanks to Hans-Georg) that this is where it should be. Sorry - learning curve..

I have a Gigabyte GA-7VRXP motherboard that went bad on me. I purchased a PC Chips M848ALU to replace it, and after swapping the motherboards (all other components remained the same) XP won't boot. I've done a lot of searching on this topic, and I've found that in this case a repair installation is the way to go. But, when I get to the screen in the Windows XP Pro Setup where the repair option should be it's not there! I can use the recovery console, and log into my installation that way, but when I get to the place (just past the license screen on the XP installation CD) where I should have the repair option I don't

Other sites and resources I've checked have said when the repair option is not there you need to do a clean install. If I must I must, but I have to think there's a way to add the new drivers needed for my motherboard to my current installation so I can get it to boot again

I can't remember for sure, but I think I converted my drive from basic to dynamic to play around with it and see what additional features I got by doing so. Could this be part of the problem? If so, is there a way from the repair console (or some other utility I can boot to) to switch back to basic

If not, can I put my dynamic drive in another system as a slave and pull files off it, or is that not possible w/dynamic drives

I'm a pretty advanced user (at least advanced enough to get my hands dirty w/out getting scared), and I'm willing to try anything to get this back up, so please post replies no matter how difficult the task may be

Also, if I truly am up a creeck w/out a paddle, can someone please direct me to a free utility that will allow me to boot into my ntfs partition and connect to my DHCP network so I can copy files from my hard drive to a network folder

Thanks in advance for your replies! I appreciate any help anyone is able to offer

Charlie Sumpte
(e-mail address removed)
Remove the caps from my email to reply..

Cheap domain names - danggood.com!

 

[Guest]

In keeping all info on this in the correct place so others can find help on this as needed, I wanted to post a response I received from Mr. Hans-Georg

Charlie

when the new motherboard needs different drivers, and this is rather likely in your case, no amount of stopping services will help. You need to do a repair installation, and for that you need a full, not OEM, Windows XP installation CD

The best place to ask is the newsgroup
microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deploymen

But in this case I doubt that you would get any other advice there

Greetings---Hans-Geor

 

[Guest]

Mr. Hans-Georg

Thank you so much for your reply. As you can see, I've posted this question in the group you mentiond - thanks for the guidance there

How can I tell if my CD is OEM or not? I originally built this computer myself, and I got the CD from an online dealer (purchased it with other components), so I'm assuming it may be OEM, but I'm just not sure

Also, I have access to a CD that I know is a full install of WinXP. I tried booting to it to see if it would produce anything different, and the results are identical - no repair option

Thanks again for your help

Charlie Sumpte
(e-mail address removed)
Remove the caps letters to reply

 

[Guest]

Try this. Get the recovery console going. Then type bootcfg. This
should fix any boot.ini errors causing setup not to see the old o/s
install. You may want to "type boot.ini" before this just to see what
it contained before. Then try the repair install

As far as a boot floppy, you need to copy ntldr, ntdetect.com and
boot.ini (which correctly points to the o/s) onto a formatted floppy.
There is a way to make the recovery console write to floppy by setting
some environment variables, but i don't know them off hand

 

[Guest]

Please note - I received a suggestion that this issue should go in the setup_deployment group. Please post all further responses off this thread

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...yment&mid=fa20b521-c916-41fc-95ee-5678e578aee

Thanks, and sorry for putting this in the wrong spots initially

Charlie Sumpte
(e-mail address removed)
remove the caps to repl

Cheap domain names - danggood.com

 

[Guest]

I'm an idio! That post was supposed to be attached to one of the other threads NOT in this group! Sorry...

 

[Guest]

Rob

You are a genius! Thank you so much! I just followed your suggestion and when I booted up the setup the repair option was there! It's performing the repair install as we speak

Sorry for all the exclamation points but I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I am. I've been wrestling with this for days now...guess I should have just posted my question at the first sign of difficulty

You live and you learn. Thanks to all who shared their knowledge with me

Charlie Sumpte
(e-mail address removed)
Remove the caps letters to reply

Cheap domain names - danggood.com!

 

[Michael Stevens]

Rob,

You are a genius! Thank you so much! I just followed your
suggestion and when I booted up the setup the repair option was
there! It's performing the repair install as we speak.

Sorry for all the exclamation points but I can't even begin to tell
you how relieved I am. I've been wrestling with this for days
now...guess I should have just posted my question at the first sign
of difficulty.

You live and you learn. Thanks to all who shared their knowledge
with me.

Charlie Sumpter
(e-mail address removed)
Remove the caps letters to reply.

Cheap domain names - danggood.com!

Charlie,
Can you post exactly what you did step by step?
PS, can you please adjust your line length to 72.
--

Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Guest]

Michael

Sorry...it's been a while since I've been back in the newsgroup. I'm not sure how to adjust my line length...I'm just replying with Microsoft's web based newsgroup functionality on their site...not using a reader or anything of the sort, so I'm guessing that's a setting they have in the way they post my message??

Anyway, here's what I did. I booted to the recovery console and typed out my boot.ini. It didn't have my Windows XP Pro installation listed in the operating systems section. So, as per Rob's suggestion, I ran bootcfg (I think with the /scan switch?), and let that repair my boot.ini file. After that Windows XP was listed in the operating systems section. So, I exited the RC and rebooted, got into the Windows XP setup, and viola! my repair installation option was now there

I did run into one problem doing it this way...after the repair install completed and Windows rebooted I got an error about the signature being wrong and the system could not boot. So, I searched for that online and found that sometimes that happens when you rebuild your boot.ini with the bootcfg. So, I copied the boot.ini that I had on another machine running Windows XP that had the default settings for the main partition on the first hard drive with the OS installed to the Windows directory, booted to the RC again, made a backup copy of my boot.ini, and then copied this new one on, rebooted, and all was well

For the record, here's the boot.ini file that I ended up using. I think I probably could have copied or replaced my original w/out doing the bootcfg /scan and I would have been fine

[boot loader
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW
[operating systems
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetec

If I had it to do over again, I would have just modified my original boot.ini file (or replaced it) so it was identical to what you see above. You may need to modify the info if you're running it off of the secondary IDE channel, off a slave hard drive, or off a partition other than the default, but this should get you going IF you experience the same problem I had

It worked like a charm for me. Thanks again Rob

Good luck

Charlie Sumpte
(e-mail address removed)
Remove the caps letters to reply

Cheap domain names - danggood.com!

 

[Guest]

That's supposed to be idiot...not idio. I guess that shows just how much of an idiot I am!