Windows XP Crash -- Be Patient During Repair

In older versions of Windows, fixing an operating system (OS) problem, or installing a new motherboard, usually meant formating the hard-drive and reinstalling the OS -- a situation in which you would lose all data. Windows XP is a bit mor robust. Its repair feature will not usually delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It simply repairs the OS.

Note: The system repair function will remove any updates you have previously installed that are not included on the CD. Drivers will also be reverted to their original XP versions, as will certain settings (network & performance settings may sometimes be reset to their defaults). It also may be necessary to reactivate Windows XP. When finished, you will have to download all of the updates from Microsoft Windows Update, because they are all replaced during repair.

Why would one want to reinstall Windows XP?
1) Can't start Windows XP in safe mode.
2) Problem(s) caused by a recently-installed system update (Windows Update, hotfix, Windows XP service pack, or Microsoft Internet Explorer update).
3) Problems can't be solved with system restore, or you can't access system restore.
4) Hardware changes have been made (e.g. installation of new motherboard) and need to reinstall Windows.

The Steps Toward Recovery:

Step 1: Rule out hardware issues. Windows Repair will only fix software problems. Hardware issues can also cause boot problems (i.e. bad hard drive, memory, CPU, or power supply).

Step 2: Backup. It's always a good idea to backup important data before making changes to Windows XP. If you follow these instructions your data should be safe.

Step 3: Boot from your Windows XP CD. Insert the Windows XP CD into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer. When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears on the screen, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD. Can't boot from your CD? Please see the note at the bottom of this page (Configuring Your Computer to Boot from CD).

Step 4: A blue screen will appear and begin loading Windows XP Setup from the CD.

Note: RAID/SCSI/Unsupported UDMA users:
You will be prompted to "press F6 to install any third party SCSI or RAID drivers". Most users will not have to press F6, but if you are running RAID, SCSI or unsupported UDMA controllers, then you will have to have your controller drivers on a floppy disk. If you are unsure whether you have RAID/SCSI, then just let the CD load without pressing F6.

When you're done loading files, you will be shown a "Windows Setup" screen, and your first option. Select "To set up Windows XP now, press ENTER". DO NOT select Recovery Console.

When you come to the next screen -- "Windows XP Licensing Agreement" -- press the F8 key to continue.

Next, Windows Setup will find existing Windows XP installations. You will be asked to repair an existing XP installation, or install a fresh copy of Windows XP.

If no installations are found, then you will not be given the option to repair. This may happen if the data or partition on your drive is too corrupted (irrepairable).

Note: If you install a fresh copy, all data on that partition will be lost!

Now, Windows XP will appear to be installing itself for the first time, but it will retain all of your data and settings. Just follow the prompts, and have your CD-KEY ready if needed.

Important Note: Windows installer often noted a time-to-completion in the neighborhood of 39 minutes. But this may not be an accurate estimate. It may in fact take much longer. During a RAIDed system crash, our repair time was nearly 4 hours. So please be patient and let automation do its thing. If more than 12 hours have elapsed, then you may have no other choice but to reinstall the OS from scratch.

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