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XP Repair

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by stephen

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i have an XP system that will not boot in windows. I have done an XP repair but does not work. I have put the HDD into another xp system and can read data no problem.
My question is can you run an xp repair from the other system on the 2nd hard drive O/S and if so how.
HDD is a 250gb Sata that needs repaired.

10 replies

by jamesatmaisonverre

That procedure has issues which can cause errors in the installation as the hardware will probably cause this because it is significantly different to what is recorded on you own computer.The second issue is that you will rewrite the boot.ini folder to boot from the second hdd and even if the repair works,the other computer will not boot as this boot.ini file has been rewritten.I would not try it.Just recover your data and reinstall a fresh copy using your own system.

by stephen

Thanks James what i had thought just needed a second opinion

by hal 9000

Like what's shown here?

http://tinyurl.com/g4bv8

This will work in the majority of cases unless you have corrupted the Registry and then you'll need to perform a new install of Windows.

As you can read your data without any problems you don't need to worry about Taking Ownership of the files or any form of encryption being used so I would suggest that you backup everything of any importance then wipe the HDD and perform a clean install of Windows on it. You can download Boot & Nuke from here

http://tinyurl.com/4rfur

This will write zero's to every sector of the drive so there is no possibility of anything that was wrong with the previous installation being carried through to the new installation as to the installer the HDD will look like a new clean unused HDD that you can install Windows upon.

Once you have Windows Installed load an AV Program and update it and any other M$ products that you intend to use once you have this done and it's working correctly you can activate the copy of Windows then log onto their Update Web Site and install any available Updates Service Packs and that will be all that is required.

When this is finished you can copy your data back to the HDD and replace all your data back to your My Documents Folder as well as your Favourites and the contents of your E-Mail Client and Address Book by importing these last two directly into your Mail Client.

Col

by willcomp

What happens when it "will not boot into Windows?" Reboots, blue screen? Any information displayed?

You may have a corrupt registry, but that is repairable in most cases. A repair install will not repair a corrupt registry.

by willcomp

What happens when it "will not boot into Windows?" Reboots, blue screen? Any information displayed?

You may have a corrupt registry, but that is repairable in most cases. A repair install will not repair a corrupt registry.

by trollins8173

My computer did exactly the same as yours but when I used my new computer with Vista, using the old hard drive as an external source, to open up the files it says that I don't have ownership of the files and can't view them, I've tried going thru and taking ownership of the file but still not able to get into them!? I did have the old hard drive pass word protected, does that matter? Please help!!??

by hal 9000

You'll have to look on the M$ Knowledge Base about [b]How to Take Ownership of Files with Vista.[/b] As that is a new OS that is now only 26 Days old there are quite a few unknowns involved. It's also possible that you may not be able to take owner ship of the files depending on the version of Vista that you have installed as things like [b]Home Basic[/b] have far fewer tools than [b]Ultimate[/b] does. You need to do a Knowledge Base search with the above wording as see if M$ lists any possibilities. If they don't contact M$ for a solution as they need to know what needs to be incorporated into the Service Pack that will be coming for Vista.

Col

by trollins8173

I cannot acces the files when I connected the old hard drive to my new computer with Vista! Says that i need to tak ownership of the files which I try to do but still can't get into them!? The old drive was password protected, will that make it impossible for me to ever get into them?

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