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XP Crash/restore

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7 replies

by cruffin

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On an XP pro pc, turned the pc on, it booted thru Starting Windows, a blue screen with two paragraphs flashed too quickly to read, then system rebooted. When trying to reboot normally, system keeps rebooting. Same is true for Safe Mode. Booted from cd to Recovery Console, but only boots to a c:/windows prompt. I did a parallel install to a different directory, got everything up and running, all data files intact. How can I troubleshoot the original problem? If I can repair the problem, I can boot to that installation and retain all my settings (four users, profiles, programs, etc). or: Is there a way to transfer all programs, profiles, etc. to the new installation, then delete c:\windows dir?
Thanks in advance!

7 replies

by phil.hall

Have you tried booting from the install CD and having XP attempt to automatically recover a damaged installation? That might solve your problems right there. Otherwise, you are in for a long weekend of copying data and recreating users, and installing software onto the parallel installation.

by wcp

Boot to Recovery Console and run CHKDSK C:/R.

If this does not resolve your problem, you need to

Freeze the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) screen so you can troubleshoot.
The BSOD could be caused by hardware (HW), drivers, applications, or Windows.

If it is due to HW, you simply replace it (them).
If it is due to Windows, you reinstall Windows on top of the current one. All your applications and data should be intact.
If it is due to driver(s) or application(s), you run System Restore.

To freeze the BSOD screen, please refer to MS KB article 314466 (or http://tinyurl.com/yrejb) that explains how to disable ?Automatically Restart? feature when there was system failure. Pay attention to Method 2 that explains how to access your original Windows? Registry and disable the feature.

If you have to run System Restore, please refer to MS KB article 304449 or (http://tinyurl.com/3cf7r) that explains running the System Restore from Command Prompt.

by cruffin

Thanks very much, all helped except I could not freeze the BSOD, even after changing AutoRestart. But after running CHKDSK (took about an hour) the system booted successfully to the original OS, all programs/profiles intact.

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