XP Recovery CD does not work

[Des]

My XP Home PC recently became non-bootable after a power cut during start-up.
Windows will not start, Last Known Good Configuration and Safe Mode are also
not available. I have booted with the Mesh Recovery CD to try and Repair
Windows via Windows Setup but have recently been informed that this is a
'crippled' CD and cannot be used to repair Windows. Does anybody know how I
can fix this ??

A complete re-install would be a total disaster for me.

I do have a really old (un-used) XP Pro CD - could I use this to Upgrade my
broken XP Home install ?? Would this 'repair' the Windows system files and
get me back to a working PC with all my existing settings or am I likely to
make things worse.
Thanks for any help !

 

[smlunatick]

My XP Home PC recently became non-bootable after a power cut during start-up.
 Windows will not start, Last Known Good Configuration and Safe Mode arealso
not available.  I have booted with the Mesh Recovery CD to try and Repair
Windows via Windows Setup but have recently been informed that this is a
'crippled' CD and cannot be used to repair Windows.  Does anybody know how I
can fix this ??

A complete re-install would be a total disaster for me.

I do have a really old  (un-used) XP Pro CD - could I use this to Upgrade my
broken XP Home install ??  Would this 'repair' the Windows system files and
get me back to a working PC with all my existing settings or am I likely to
make things worse.
Thanks for any help !

You can not repair Home with Pro and vise versa. If the XP Pro is a
complete Retail version, you will need to create a revised CD with
"slipstreaming" SP2 into it. Then, you "could" use it to "upgrade" to
Pro.

 

[Andrew E.]

"last known & safe mode unavailable",try tapping the F8 key on start-up.If
unavailable,not positive but booting to xp pro cd,recovery might be ok to
try,
that utility might work even with home installed.

 

[Ty G.]

I would use the old XP pro CD to boot to the recovery console. You may need
the local administrator password to gain access to the install. Once you get
to a C:\ prompt try running chkdsk /r
It could take a while to run but it will likley fix your issue.
Thanks,
Ty

 

[David B.]

"Last Known Good Configuration and Safe Mode are also not available"
Not available or they don't work?