Hack #54. Rescue a Blown 2000 or XP Installation
Corrupt installations of Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 can be fixed in minutes with their bootable setup disks.
Failed Windows 2000, XP, or Windows Server 2003 bootupsâthe ones that
hang somewhere before or while loading Windows or produce a missing file
error or blue screenâmight be fixed in a few
minutes using the Repair feature of their setup programs. Although
FDISK /MBR
and SYS C
: can repair a blown boot record and
replace the operating system files for DOS and Windows 9x-Me, you cannot
use these commands to put the operating system boot files back onto an
NT-based boot drive or for NTFS partitioned drives.
Tip
Because many prebuilt systems come with recovery CDs and a non-configurable version of the operating system, the following recovery process may not work for you.
Instead, recovery forces you to reinstall the entire operating system, causing loss of at least the links and Registry entries for applications, if not all data if the recovery process also reformats your hard drive. Yet another reason that backups are so important.
If you want a more personalized recovery that preserves your applications, data, and settings, use a full backup program like Stomp's Backup My PC or make a complete image of your drive with Symantec Ghost, Drive Image, or Acronis True Image.
Follow these instructions to repair a broken installation:
Start the system with the bootable setup diskettes or CD.
At the beginning of the installation process ...
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