bry...
You can, of course, run the chkdsk /r command from the Recovery Console (the
first "Repair" process) using your XP installation CD to arrive at the
"Welcome to Setup" screen. Just type "r" (no quotes) and a prompt will
appear asking for the administrator password. If you don't have an
administrator password just press Enter. The screen will then show a
numbered list of all your Windows installations (most likely you'll have but
one). It will ask, "Which Windows installation would you like to log onto?"
Unless you have a multi-boot system, enter the number "1" (no quotes) and
press Enter. The Recovery Console will load and provide a command prompt
where various system tasks can be performed as discussed in the MS article
to which Rich referred.
In your case you'll enter the chkdsk /r command. Hopefully you'll be lucky
and the end result will be a bootable functional system. But then again, it
might not have the desired result.
If it doesn't you'll need to run the *second* Repair* install of the XP OS
to (hopefully!) return your system to that bootable functional state. We're
assuming here that there's no hardware-type issue that's causing the problem
and it's just a case of a mildly corrupted OS. I'm assuming you have a
non-OEM-branded XP installation CD at your disposal and not merely an OEM
recovery CD or recovery partition situation; in other words a XP OS
installation CD that will allow you to run this Repair install of the OS.
In case you haven't done this before, here is some general info on the
process...
Undertaking a Repair install of the OS is a relatively straightforward
process. It would be roughly akin to making a fresh install of the OS, but
in nearly every case your existing programs & user-created data would be
retained. Notice I said "nearly". While it would be a rather rare situation
where data would be lost or corrupted as a result of the Repair install, and
as unlikely as it may be, it *could* happen.
So if there are any programs and/or other data on your present drive that
are absolutely crucial to you and you could not tolerate their loss, then I
would strongly suggest that before undertaking this Repair install operation
that you first use a disk-cloning or disk-imaging program to "clone" the
contents of your existing HDD (or create a disk image of same) or, if that's
not practical, install the HDD in another machine as a secondary HDD so that
you can pull off whatever data you want onto some removable media, e.g.,
flash drive, CD, etc.
Again, while it's a relatively rare event that a loss or corruption of data
will occur even when the Repair install is unsuccessful, it *can* happen. So
I want you to be aware of this. Actually the same thing is true concerning
invoking the chkdsk /r command; while it's unlikely the system will be
further corrupted even if that process is unsuccessful, it *can* happen.
There are a number of websites that contain detailed information on the
Repair install process. Let me assure you that it's not a difficult process
and not terribly time-consuming. As I've indicated it's roughly similar to
making a fresh install of the XP OS. If you do a Google search on "XP repair
install", you'll be pointed to many of these websites that contain
step-by-step instructions for undertaking a Repair install. Here are a
few...
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm#RI
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=138
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341
Assuming the Repair install is successful, you should use your A-V program
to immediately check out your PC for any virus infestation. Also, you will
need to download/install *all* the MS critical updates since SP3. (I'm
assuming that if you undertake this Repair install of the XP OS, you will be
doing so with a XP installation CD that contains SP3). That, of course, is
one of the downsides re undertaking a Repair install in that it's usually an
onerous task to download all the Critical Updates from MS especially if you
have a dialup phone connection rather than broadband. However, if you're
using an XP installation CD that contains SP3 to undertake the Repair
install that shouldn't be a problem because the number of critical updates
since SP3 was released is minimal.
Anyway, give this some thought if you can't get your system back to a
functional state any other way.
Anna
