Help! I just screwed up my WinXP64 install by clicking System Restore

[Steve A.]

My computer got weird so I attempted a system restore not realizing that the problem was hardware (damned CPU cooler got clogged with dust again) and Windows was not able to complete the operation. So it is stuck halfway between the two restore points. I guess it would be the same as your computer losing power during a restore operation.

Any suggestions? With WinXP SP1 you could do an in-place reinstall without losing all of your settings and installed programs (I would have to rearrange the icons on my desktop but that was no biggee.)

Steve Ahola

[DrGonz78]

Are you familiar with windows recovery console? This might be the only way I know that takes you back to a command line and pulling some strings to get back to the original system.

Can you get into safe mode? If you can then you can run system restore in safe mode possibly...

Also read this web page...

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Maybe try this and avoid the recovery console altogether.

[J M Fahey]

Not an expert *at all*, but a similar thing happened to me, the restore would also hang, finally I followed some Forum suggestion to restore to an *earlier* restore version (say it happened on Nov 11 and I was restoring (without success) to November 6), then I skipped 2 "dates" and restored to, say, October 6 ... all was fine.
Good as new, but it lacked stuff I had installed since Oct 6 .... which is fine, because some of it must have caused the problem to begin with.
So in a nutshell, don't remember exactly what I did, but at some point the System offers a choice of 5 or 6 earlier restore points, choose an earlier one.
Hope this makes sense.

[g1]

Try to get into the recovery console as suggested by DrGonz. I think there is a repair option there or possibly a restore option that may work. It's been awhile for XP so the memory is a little vague. To get into the recovery console I think you need your install disc and may have to set up bios to boot from CD rather than hard drive.

[Steve A.]

Also read this web page...

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

Maybe try this and avoid the recovery console altogether.

That's what I was looking for! Thanks to one and all- and to all a good night!

Steve

[Steve A.]

I cloned the damaged boot drive to see if the repair option was available and to test it out. Well, I did get the Repair option in Windows setup but the cloned drive did not boot (not unusual.)

I'm writing to point out a problem I ran into again trying to run XP setup with my MS 4000 keyboard. When it gets to the damned EULA you need to press F8 to accept the agreement. Well, you can hit F8 all you want and it won't do shit. The last time around I used a different USB keyboard but I didn't feel like digging around for one tonight so I checked with Mr. Google and he suggested that I try hitting the F Lock key to the right of F12 and hot diggity dog IT WORKED!

Steve Ahola

[soundguruman]

#1 turn off the anti virus and firewall, you may need to do this by starting the system in SAFE mode.
#2 Open the bios set up and set the DVD drive to boot FIRST.
#3 Insert the win 7 disk in drive and start the computer (it will load drivers)
#4 Select: "UPGRADE." installation and allow it to run all the way through.
This reloads the win 7 X 64 operating system, without erasing your personal files, or applications.
UPGRADE can be used to restore the operating system, if the system crashes...
#5 restart the computer, turn the antivirus and firewall back ON.
The computer should work normally again after the upgrade finishes. ALL your files and programs will still be intact.
Although, UPGRADE erases all previous microsoft updates, you can reinstall the updates if you want...

Cute little trick. You upgraded windows 7 to windows 7. This makes it all default back to normal again.
Thank me later.

[Steve A.]

The computer in question is my Gateway WinXP Professional Corporate 64 bit box. I guess I screwed the pooch making one bad decision after another so for that computer I need to resort to Plan B: I have an disk image of the computer set up with SP2 and my main programs installed. It will revert the boot drive back to the state it was in on May 29th. I store all of my own data on other drives but Windows does store its shit on the boot drive so that is kinda lost (I have an unbootable version of the drive with all of the files in case I want to copy them manually.)

My last few posts were on my brand new Nextbook 8" Android tablet ($78 at Big Lots on T-Day plus a $10 off certificate for a future purchase to be named later.) THIS post is on my HP Win 7 64-bit computer which died on May 22nd but was brought back to life by the grace of Amazon.com who had the replacement CPU I needed for $139 (everybody else wanted around $229!) [Amazon is great for retailers to dispose of old stock for decent prices- and great for the buyers, too!]

This is like deja vu all over again! This computer kicks ass. One of my gripes had been the sluggishness and bugginess of FireFox 12.0+ but with Pale Moon 15.3 I have no complaints (it is like the optimized "sports car" version of FF, which gives you a very fast ride but without all of the bells and whistles.)

Steve Ahola

P.S. The Gateway computer will now become my dual boot WinXP/Linux variation box! As they say Dog works in mysterious ways...

[DrGonz78]

Cute little trick. You upgraded windows 7 to windows 7. This makes it all default back to normal again. Thank me later.

Upgrading windows 7 to windows 7 is one trick but not when it was originally running XP64. So, you lost me there SGM, but not bad advice otherwise.

Steve good to hear that one new dead end led you back to an old dead end that turned out not to be dead. I am still running the same computer since 2003!! It has had Linux red hat, Win2000 installed and then after a bad PSU killed my hard drive it is now running XP. The same motherboard though but different HD/OS and I am running it all with a 32/64mb graphics card that was hot shiznit back in 1998!! I mean they did not even write drivers to work on XP for my graphics card since it did not even exist. Still have no use to upgrade and will continue to run this computer for as long as I can.

Make the most of what you have for as long as you possibly can! Besides you have that clone to test to see if you can still fix the problem in the future. Most people just kill the drive and write zero's to it and start fresh. That is what is fun about computers... Fixing problems that 98% of the computer world will never even attempt!

[Steve A.]

I was happy with my 2004 computer but the mounts for the Intel cpu cooler broke and in trying to repair it managed to make things worse.

[big_teee]

I go through a laptop about every 3-4 years, if I use it everyday.
I'm trying to power it down more and not leave them on so much.
The Linux mint 14 boots in about 20-30 seconds, so no reason to leave it on so long.
T

[DrGonz78]

Well Big_Teee I am downloading Linux Mint 14 as I type this post!! I trust that you like it then it must be worth while. I will mount it to a flash drive as another way of booting up my system and look forward to using this OS. Thanks for getting the word out!

[soundguruman]

I was happy with my 2004 computer but the mounts for the Intel cpu cooler broke and in trying to repair it managed to make things worse.

Yeah, you have to remove the cooler when you move the computer.
It's top heavy, and can damage the CPU and board...

[big_teee]

Well Big_Teee I am downloading Linux Mint 14 as I type this post!! I trust that you like it then it must be worth while. I will mount it to a flash drive as another way of booting up my system and look forward to using this OS. Thanks for getting the word out!

Hope you like it.
I'm using the Mate desktop option.
Cinammon is ok, I didn't care as much for the KDE desktop.
If you could run the old Redhat, you shouldn't have any problems with Mint.
Didn't like how the older Linux, wore us out putting in the root password all the time.
Mint is more Like WinDozz.
T