OT: That stupid XP question/rerun becuase I'm an idiot

[roccit53 at gmail.com (C Boyko)]

Thanks Mike, that's the one I was looking for.

On Nov 16, 2007 7:55 PM, Mike Smith <smithma7@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Not sure who's reply you're seeking, but...
>
> <Brendan Doyle>
>
> Could be a handful of problems.  First, (easiest one first)
> Boot off a Windows XP CD, and hit "r" when asked if you want to go to
> the recovery console.  Once in, type: CHKDSK /R and hit enter.  Wait
> until it finishes, (can sometimes take 30 minutes or more) remove the
> CD and see if it's good.  If not, step 2.
>
> Boot off the XP CD again, go back into the recovery console.
> type: expand D:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ C:\Windows\system32
> This is assuming that "D" is your CD drive and "C" is the hard drive
> where XP is installed.  Don't forget the space after the ".ex_" and
> "C".
> It might bitch about overwriting a file, hit "Y".
> Remove CD, reboot and pray to deity of choice.  If no, proceed to step
> 3.  (the longest, and least likely solution)
>
> Once again boot off the CD into the recovery console.
> Type: bootcfg /rebuild and hit enter.
> Answer "yes" to first question about Adding installation to boot list
> For the next question type either Windows XP Professional or Windows
> XP Home (whichever you have)
> for the 3rd question, just leave it blank and hit enter.
>
> Remove CD, reboot, and select the first item on the boot menu.  It
> should boot.  After it has booted, you will have to modify the
> boot.ini from within Windows.  It's easy.  Right-click "my computer"
> and select properties.  Hit the "advanced" tab, then click the button
> for settings next to "startup and recovery".  Under "system startup"
> click "Edit".   Look for the Default= part, and see if the string
> after that matches one of the strings under [operating systems].  It
> should match one of them exactly.  DELETE the string that matches it.
> Under [Operating Systems] there should be another entry that is a
> little bit different- copy that different string, the entire thing, it
> should be similar to this:
> multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional"
> /fastdetect and REPLACE the part after "Default=" under [boot loader]
> Now, the part under [boot loader] after "Default=" should match the
> part that is under [Operating Systems], which is the string we created
> back in the recovery console.  :)  Do a "file" "Save" and all should
> be good.
>
> Other than that, there is not much to do except decide how important
> the files you need are.  :P
>
> Good luck!  I just fixed this problem on friday at one of my client sites.
>
> Brendan
>
> <Chris Bennett>
>
> get a live linux cd and a flash drive recover the files and reload
>
> <Cameron D. Crouse>
>
> I'm pretty Computer Stupid, but is installing a second bootable hard
> drive an option, to then gain access to the important documents and back
> them up, before considering a format with Win Doze reload?
>
> <Brendan MkII, er... Part II>
>
> First, UNINSTALL EVERYTHING that says symantec, nortons, or any
> combination of the two.  It's junk, junk, junk.  Not sure where this
> PC came from, so it will more than likely have some trial software and
> other related garbage that does not need to be there.  Go ahead and
> uninstall that too, it's fun.  :)
>
> The Anti-virus that I recommend (I do not use Anti-virus software
> personally) for everyone, as it's light and free, and un-intrusive, is
> AVG anti-virus.  http://free.grisoft.com
>
> They do have a purchase version that we like to sell in the shop that
> is very nice, but not usually needed- the free version requires a
> little more motivation from the end user but it works equally as well.
>  Did I mention that it's FREE???
>
> Also, Vista comes with Windows Defender, which has become a decent
> anti-spyware package.  As long as you do not click randomly on pop-ups
> and links, Defender should do fine- so I recommend not installing
> another anti-spyware package.
>
> As for Vista- I recently configured 16 vista laptops at work for our
> training center- they were only Celery..er Celeron 2.6's with 512 MB
> RAM- not powerhouses by any means- and I have Vista slimmed down
> enough that it runs about as well as XP would run on a similar system.
>  Most of my tweaks came from BlackViper's site:
> http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/supertweaks.htm
>
> The final section of his tweaks guide is disabling services... not
> really a great idea if you do not know what you are doing.  If you
> feel like taking the time to go through his Vista Services guide:
> http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm The "Safe" option
> works quite well and the majority of what I did is based off of this
> configuration.
>
> I have badmouthed Vista a lot, and I still think Microsoft really
> released it much earlier than they should have, but once everything is
> slimmed down it runs quite well.  Of course, at that point, it's
> basically still XP.  Oh well.  I'm running Windows Fundamentals for
> Legacy PC's- a shame they never released this to the public.
>
>
> Good luck!
>
> Brendan
>
> <Me...>
>
> Hope that's what you're looking for Cathy.
>