Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

Thrax · May 2010

Ivan · May 2010

satya · May 2010

thank q

graverunner · Jun 2010

My comp has just died and undergone this very same problem yesterday. D= Worked completely alright when it coked out with the screen of death the next morning. Am going to try the instructions outlined here but I have a q...
After typing in '1' 'Which windows admin would you like to log into' command, I get directed to:
D:\WINDOWS instead of C:\WINDOWS

Is it possible to still use the solution above if that's the case? Don't want to do anything yet since I'm scared it will further exacerbate the prob. >___<

Hope someone can answer this!

mahaveer · Jun 2010

at which point you will press the â€œRâ€ key to enter the recovery console i`m getting Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.
Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk-related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.
Setup cannot continue. To quit setup, press F3.

Vipin Pattni · Jun 2010

This worked well with some pc based till systems that were showing same symptoms after loading the usb printer driver. Great help, thanks

therain · Jun 2010

Hi , i got the "which windows would you like to log onto" . After that i type "1" . Now instead of going to the command prompt , i get the Blue screen of death ..registry_error stop 0x00000051 ..kindly help me.

Tushon · Jun 2010

graverunner: D:\Windows is probably your CD drive. C: is nearly always the HDD. Your HDD might be toast and not detectable, but perhaps someone else could chime in if I am incorrect.

mahaveer: Sounds like your HDD is bad (mechanical failure of some sort). Ensure that all the plugs are in the right spot and try the steps again. If you get the same result or hear any clicking, then the HDD is toast.

Vipin: Glad to hear it worked for you

therain: That sounds like it is trying to mount parts of your registry that are then making the command prompt bomb out. Not sure what to do there without using a boot disc that can do offline registry fixing (and I'm not going to be able to discuss that because we only support and recommend legal actions here).

neil patel · Jun 2010

hi i have go to the stage of the password and don't know the administrator password please could you help me

Francis Ezeobi · Jun 2010

thanks
for you help
francs

wr.kelly001 · Jun 2010

You can find answers from this website: www.windowsrecoverys.com

John · Jun 2010

This procedure erases all restore points.
Still have the BSOD.

Mike · Jun 2010

I tried several other fixes with no luck and this fixed my PC.
Mike

Rajesh Pandey · Jun 2010

use of screen shot and image make things easy to understand

Anomi Mouse · Jun 2010

Save yourself some steps:

C: ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\\boot.ini

I mustbedumb · Jun 2010

I tried it twice to fix an emachine . I used their restore disks and it came up with The file Windows/system32/config/system is corrupt or doesnt exist and I went through your process and did it twice with the same result. the recovery console still says the same thing and the computer will not boot

I mustbedumb · Jun 2010

Niel just hit enter for the password

Anmol · Jun 2010

hello there!! Thanks a lot for the procedure....everytime i used to get this error i had to reinstall windows...this save ALOT of time..and ofcourse DATA.. : D

Carlos · Jun 2010

Thanks a lot, that was a life saver!

uma sankar · Jun 2010

hello
thanks a lot for the idea

Stretch · Jun 2010

Hi Guys,

At the end of this process, I was left with the option to boot two different, yet identically named versions of "Microsoft Windows XP Professional". To fix this I had to edit my boot.ini file in Windows.

Just wanted to let people know that they might need to do some additional work not mentioned in this article.

M.Elhassan · Jul 2010

It works just like a charm. Your article saves my day.
Thank you a lot.

eyelander · Jul 2010

Thank you so much for your clear explanation...just about to undertake these steps to repair a PC which has given me 4 of these errors over the last few years and has had me on on Linux for the last 2 weeks...although maybe that's a good thing! Will report back with the results!

Steve Saltman · Jul 2010

I lost the function of removing software in the control panel add or remove programs. How can I recover that functionality?

8Man · Jul 2010

are you sure it's CHKDSK /R /F ? That command returns "The parameter is not valid." message.
CHKDSK /? does not list a /F as a valid parameter, but it does list /P. CHKDSK /R /P does run.

Gyro Gearloose · Jul 2010

-=WARNING!=-

You need to proofread your text, before publishing it.

* C: CD ..
* C: ATTRIB -H C:\\boot.ini
* C:ATTRIB -S C:\\boot.ini
* C:ATRIB -R C:\\boot.ini
* C: del boot.ini
* C: BOOTCFG /Rebuild
* C: CHKDSK /R /F
* C: FIXBOOT

Watch the typos!

Also, all you need to do is
`ATTRIB -RSH file1 file2....filen'

But worse still,
YOU FORGOT TO BACK UP THE BOOT.INI with
`cp boot.ini boot.bak'

THIS IS IMPORTANT!

__NEVER__ edit system files without first saving a copy.

Shame On You!

I hope you haven't led too many people into screwing their computers into oblivion, like most of the other Geek Squad wanabees have, already.

HAND.

Gyro Gearloose · Jul 2010

Some Command Line Interpreters
might need
"aattrib -r -s -h" (without the quotes)
instead of
"attrib -rsh" (without the quotes)
to clear all the flags. This is true in Windows 2000. YMMV

Howdy, Stranger!

All Discussions

Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

Comments

Talk to Us

The 5¢ Tour

Obligatory Blather