MalcolmO said:
My friend's XP machine will not boot. Period. On boot attempt, it will
eventually flash some registry error message for a sliver of a second
and simply reboot to the same result.
Safe mode doesn't work. Last known good doesn't work.
I booted with a utilities CD that said it would attach itself to an NT
Workstation installation (despite the fact that hers is XP). When you
tell it to attach, it gives the message "SOFTWARE hive missing or
corrupt". This seems fairly catastrophic. When I tried to use the
'revert to a prior restore point' utility, it stated that there were NO
restore points and that only XP had them. ????
What can she do? She cannot find her OS disc at all. Will another OS
disc see that there's an XP installation and attempt to fix it? Will
that require a 25-digit number be given?
What can she do?
The operating system is well and truly hosed and requires a clean
install. Use the utilities CD or something like Knoppix to retrieve her
data if you need to (see below for general data retrieval suggestions).
If your friend has an OEM machine (like a Dell, HP, or generically built
OEM,etc.) then there will be a product key sticker somewhere on the
machine. With a machine like a Dell or HP, reinstallation should be done
with that OEM's media (either call the OEM and get replacement disks)
and no product key will need to be entered. If the machine is a
store-built generic, a generic OEM install disk is used with the product
key on the sticker. Most local computer shops will be able to do this
for her.
If she does not have an OEM sticker and has lost her OS disk, she will
need to purchase a full retail copy of XP.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand
Data retrieval suggestions:
1. Pull the drive and slave it in a computer running a working install
of XP. Depending on the target drive's characteristics, you may need a
drive adapter; i.e., laptop-to-IDE or a SATA controller card, etc. A
usb/firewire external drive enclosure works very well, too. Use the
working Windows Explorer to copy the data to the rescue system's hard
drive and then burn the data to cd or dvd.
2. Often XP will not boot with a slaved drive that has a damaged file
system. In that case, boot the target computer with either a Bart's PE
or a Linux live cd such as Knoppix and retrieve the data that way. Here
is general information on using Knoppix for this:
You will need a computer with two cd drives, one of which is a cd/dvd-rw
OR a usb thumb drive with enough capacity to hold your data OR an
external usb/firewire hard drive formatted FAT32 (not NTFS). To get
Knoppix, you need a computer with a fast Internet connection and
third-party burning software. Download the Knoppix .iso and create your
bootable cd. Then boot with it and it will be able to see the Windows
files. If you are using the usb thumb drive or the external hard drive,
right-click on its icon (on the Desktop) to get its properties and
uncheck the box that says "Read Only". Then click on it to open it. Note
that the default mouse action in the window manager used by Knoppix
(KDE) is a single click to open instead of the traditional MS Windows'
double-click. Otherwise, use the K3b burning program to burn the files
to cd/dvd-r's.
http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ - Bart's PE Builder
Malke
