Guide To Repair Installs (Windows XP)

[rspassey]

For many reasons, including major hardware changes (such as motherboard replacements), a Windows XP Repair Installation is required. I have recently had to do a repair install myself, and found the steps a little tricky. So, I decided a quick guide wouldn't do any harm.

1) Boot into your Windows XP Install CD. To do so, you may have to alter the Boot Order from within BIOS so that your CD Drives are at the top of the list.

2) At the Welcome to Windows Setup Screen, Select "To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.. Do NOT select "To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.". You will be pressing ENTER to select the proper option.

3) Press F8 to accept the License Agreement

4) At this moment, Windows will search for existing installations of Windows XP

5) Now, you must select the Windows XP installation you wish to repair and hit R.

6) Windows XP Setup will copy over necessary files, and will automatically Reboot. Pay close attention not to press any-key to boot into the Windows Setup disk.

7) XP Setup proceeds like a clean install - but this is not something to worry about, as (if everything goes as planned) all your data will be OK.

8) After a successful Repair Install, you have a few things that need to be done:
a) Re-install drivers from your motherboard CD (check Device Manager to determine when all needed drivers are installed)
b) Any Service Pack manual updates you have done will be reversed and will have to be done again
c) Run and install all Windows Updates - including Security Updates (Enable Windows XP Firewall First)

I hope that helps,
Ryan

[Panama Red]

Gary beat ya by a few days, Ryan. But you've added a few good ideas.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=151522

[rspassey]

Originally Posted by Panama Red Gary beat ya by a few days, Ryan. But you've added a few good ideas. http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=151522

Oh lol... I searched " Repair Install" or something of those sorts on the homepage and didn't notice any writen Articles or 'Guides' on it... so without further searching I wrote that up. I should have looked deeper.

[Cricket]

I've been pointing people to this guide for quite some time now: How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

Cricket

[digitalDunce]

i just did a Repair Instal, it said i wouldnt lose my personal files, i lost my favorates and all my Documents...

I think my problem is a defective XP program.. i have recovered this thing about 6 times.. and it never works right. The first time i recovered, when i was reregestering someones name was already there, leading me to believe that they, knowing more than I.. returned it to Circuit City and then they resold it to me..On Sale. this Compac preserio 2.6 only has 3 pci slots .. i just got screwed.

I downloaded a 6 piece set of 3 1/2" floppies to re-configure the 'Windows' from the Microsoft download center ..
i managed to get them to work once, but they stopped on the 5th foppy with a message that there was an error, and stopped working. i tried to do it again and cant get to work again.

i have bought a registry fix program, that works pretty good, but it seems to just disentegrate into dust anyway.. it gets to where you cant do anything till you recover it again.. and there is so many bits and peices of downloads in the program files, it is nearly impossable to reload the origional programs back in.. i did a registry program repair and get a message that many parts of the registry is missing. i once did a cd set recovery and the first thing i did was a Windows maintence scan and it had over a hundred problems in 8 areas

i guess i will just have to buy another XP program with a cd, i was told that it was worth the money to just get XP-pro because it was the complete XP and XP is a downgraded version, only a part of it.

i have a recovery cd set, but not an XP cd... and my existing is aparently XP is screwed up.. and needs replacing.. i have been fighting it for years, i took it to a shop and they had to remove ActiveX to get it to run, after i recovered it. it doesnt look good

depressed in Tennessee

[glc]

Important question, ryan - did it ask for your CD key during the repair reinstall?

[rspassey]

Originally Posted by glc Important question, ryan - did it ask for your CD key during the repair reinstall?

No, it did not. I had to enter it when I registered again however. But, my CD might be a little different as I am using a genuine version which from my Dad's work - the same ones which they use to set up company computers with Windows XP. But I am pretty sure that it doesn't ask it.

[glc]

Reason I ask is there's another thread going where someone lost their key and needs to do a repair install due to a motherboard swap. Once in Windows, he can rescue his key with magic jellybean or something but he's gotta have a surefire way to get there first.

[kev7555]

digitalDUNCE--

With the new release of MS Vista coming this year, XP prices are dropping fast. Windows XP home is not that different from XP Pro. It runs fine on a newly formatted machine and it sounds as though this is what you should do with that drive.

I purchased new OEM versions of XP Home yesterday from Fry's electronics (outpost.com) for $86.00.



-Kev