XP repair question

[Greg]

I am trying to run a repair from XP CD. I boot from the CD but it does not
give me the option to repair. The strange thing is I have booted other pc's
from the same XP CD and the repair function was available. Can anyone tell me
why this happens and how I can get the repair function?

Thanks in advance.

 

[inavlis]

Hi Greg,

When you say there was no repair option shows up, did the machine actually
boots up from the CD? Maybe you need to change the boot sequence at the BIOS.

 

[philo]

I am trying to run a repair from XP CD. I boot from the CD but it does not
give me the option to repair. The strange thing is I have booted other pc's
from the same XP CD and the repair function was available. Can anyone tell me
why this happens and how I can get the repair function?

Thanks in advance.

I don't know if this applies or not,
but I have seen that happen when the Windows installation is so badly
corrupted
that the installed does not recognize it as an installation at all.

I know that can happen with a partially missing registry.

The solution is to slave the drive to a functioning system
and perform the necessary manual editing or chkdsk function

 

[Greg]

Yes, I am 100 percent sure that it is booting from the CD

 

[Daave]

I am trying to run a repair from XP CD. I boot from the CD but it does
not
give me the option to repair. The strange thing is I have booted other
pc's
from the same XP CD and the repair function was available. Can anyone
tell me
why this happens and how I can get the repair function?

There are two possible fixes for this situation mentioned here:

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

Scroll down to:

Warning!! #2
If the Repair Option is not Available

 

[Greg]

Thanks for all the responses but I have found the answer. After extensive
troubleshooting the problem was with the boot.ini file. So I copied a
boot.ini file from another pc to the one with the problem and now the repair
function appears when I boot from the XP cd. Thanks again.

I don't know if this applies or not,
but I have seen that happen when the Windows installation is so badly
corrupted
that the installed does not recognize it as an installation at all.

I know that can happen with a partially missing registry.

The solution is to slave the drive to a functioning system
and perform the necessary manual editing or chkdsk function

I to thought that it may have to do with curruption so I ran a few tests. I
tried booting up to the CD on 2 other working systems, all at SP2. Dell
Optiplex 330 and an IBM T41 and they both SHOW the repair option. The repair
function does NOT show with my IBM T42. Unfortunatly I do not have another
T42 to test with.

 

[philo]

Thanks for all the responses but I have found the answer. After extensive
troubleshooting the problem was with the boot.ini file. So I copied a
boot.ini file from another pc to the one with the problem and now the repair
function appears when I boot from the XP cd. Thanks again.

Thanks for posting back...
that took some good detective work on your part

 

[Anna]

I am trying to run a repair from XP CD. I boot from the CD but it does not
give me the option to repair. The strange thing is I have booted other
pc's
from the same XP CD and the repair function was available. Can anyone tell
me
why this happens and how I can get the repair function?

Thanks in advance.

Greg:
First of all, I'm assuming you're referring to undertaking the "second"
Repair install of the XP OS, i.e., you're *not* talking about the "repair"
process via the Recovery Console, the one where you press the "R" key when
the initial Setup screen appears. That's right, isn't it?

While there may be another issue involving this problem...

In many cases the user is using a different edition of the XP OS
installation CD than the edition he or she is attempting to Repair. In other
words if the OS to be repaired is the XP Home edition and the user is
employing an XP Pro installation CD, the Repair option will not be
available. And vice versa.

It doesn't matter if the Service Packs are different, i.e., a XP Pro edition
with SP3 can be Repaired with an XP Pro edition installation CD containing
SP2. (The user can later install SP3 assuming the Repair install was
successful). Again, what's mandatory is that the *editions* be the same.

As I've indicated I'm unsure as to whether that's the problem in *this* case
but I thought I'd mention it.

As a final point we're assuming there are no OEM issues involved here.
Anna

 

[Greg]

I think you need to check that out. It most certainly isn't true of
repair installations on an SP1 or SP2 system with a disc with an
earlier version. I see no reason why that would have changed with
SP3.

Thanks for all the responses but I have found the answer. After extensive
troubleshooting the problem was with the boot.ini file. So I copied a
boot.ini file from another pc to the one with the problem and now the repair
function appears when I boot from the XP cd. Thanks again.