Restore / Repair / Clean Boot

[Big Al]

Watching these messages for months, people have bantered around these
terms. I use the word restore meaning a restore like Acronis backups.
But have never used (and hope not to) the other two. I read a MS KB
article on clean boot but no luck. Yes it explained it but missed enough
'whys' for me.

Could someone who uses and prescribes these tools explain what they do
to your system. Just how much is altered and why do you want to use them.

Or links will work. I've searched and of course either get 10000
irrelevant or just not sure what I'm reading. Odd that I've been
working in PCs for 40years, building, rebuilding, repairing them, and
using them and have never done more than a reload or restore. Do I live
in that much of a sheltered life? (thats not a question).

Thanks. And I'm not looking for detail procedures. I've seen the
procedures.

 

[Daave]

Watching these messages for months, people have bantered around these
terms. I use the word restore meaning a restore like Acronis
backups. But have never used (and hope not to) the other two. I read
a MS KB article on clean boot but no luck. Yes it explained it but
missed enough 'whys' for me.

Clean booting is for troubleshooting. Is it possible you are confusing
"clean boot" with "clean install"?

Could someone who uses and prescribes these tools explain what they do
to your system. Just how much is altered and why do you want to use
them.

The confusion stems from the fact that one word can have more than one
meaning.

Restore:

1. System Restore, which restores the registry and some other settings
to a previous state. Useful if something in the operating system got
corrupted. it does not (generally) affect your data or programs. See:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/systemrestore.mspx

and

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

2. Restore PC to the state it was when it was first purchased. This is
accomplished by either booting off a Restore (or recovery) disk or a
hidden restore (or recovery) partition. (Similar to performing a clean
install, which is mentioned below.)

3. Restoring an image of your hard drive or partition (s). This is part
of a backup strategy. You can use software such as Acronis True Image to
make an image of your drive (this image can be saved to another hard
drive or perhaps a series of CDs or DVDs). Then if there is a serious
problem (e.g., your drive is not bootable), you may use the software to
restore your image.

Repair:

1. You may repair (or restore!) certain files using System File Checker:

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/howto-24.html

2. It is also possible to repair a program using Control Panel | Add or
Remove Programs.

3. You may perform a Repair Install, which is basically reinstalling
your operating system, but your data and programs remain intact (not
considered destructive):

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Clean Install:

Instead of performing a repair install, you may opt for the clean
install, which *is* destructive. That is, you wipe the entire hard drive
(thus erasing all data, programs, etc.) and start from scratch. This is
similar to "restoring your PC" mentioned above:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

Clean Boot:

This is used to troubleshoot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

Finally, there is also something called the Recovery Console!:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654/en-us


Hope the above helps to clear up some of the confusion1