PC Hacks

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 bootups—the ones that hang somewhere before or while loading Windows or produce a missing file error or blue screen—might 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:

1. Start the system with the bootable setup diskettes or CD.

2. At the beginning of the installation process ...