55. How Do I Repair My Windows XP
Installation
There are times when you may have problems with
your pc. Sometimes these are somewhat minor, at
other times they may be major problems. When a major
problem occurs and you cannot satisfactorily get
your machine working correctly, you have two basic
options. A Clean Install or a Repair. While a clean
install may be rather drastic, the Repair option may
get you up and running in a shorter time.
The repair option simply renews all of the
operating system files, therefore all your personal
data should remain intact. However, there is always
the first time for everything, so even before
attempting a repair make sure that you have 'backed
up all valuable data' Better to be safe than sorry.
- Before you proceed make sure that your pc is
set, via the BIOS, to be able to
boot from a CD.
- If you cannot boot from your CD you can always
use a Windows 98/Me startup disk to begin the
install. Boot to the DOS 'A'
prompt, making sure you select the option to install CD drivers. Once at the 'A' prompt
change the drive letter to that of your CD-ROM and
then locate the I386
Folder on the CD. Once you have
changed to the I386 directory type, at the prompt,
WINNT.EXE and press Enter.
- Insert your Windows XP CD
into the CD-ROM and reboot
your PC.
- Your system will reboot and the an option will
appear which sates 'Press any key to boot
from CD'.
- Press any key and the
Windows XP setup will begin to load from
the CD.
- At the 'Welcome to Setup'
screen press Enter.
- Setup will search your hard drive for any
copies of Windows. When it locates a copy you will
be asked whether you wish to Install a new copy or
Repair.
- In this instance select the 'Setup
Windows XP Now' option by pressing Enter.
- On NO ACCOUNT press the
Repair option. At this stage this
will only invoke the Recovery Console
and you do not want that option.
- The license agreement should
be the next thing that pops up on screen. Press
F8 to accept the agreement
- In the next window you will see a list of
your hard drive. If you only have one copy of
Windows installed this will be all that is in the
box. If you have
multiple copies of Windows operating
systems these will also be displayed.
- Make sure the Windows copy you wish to repair
is highlighted and then Press the 'R'
key to begin the repair operation.
- Now follow the onscreen instructions to
repair your installation.