Easiest way to repair/reinstall Win2k without formatting???

[vi edit]

I want to repair the Win2k install on my laptop. Something got funked up and it no longer shut's down, goes into sleep mode, or reboots without locking up. My serial port is also hosed. I don't really want to do a clean format and re-install simply because I'm lazy and don't want to re-intall all my programs and such.

I'm looking into the recovery console, but I don't know if that's what I want. It looks like it's more for reparing select files and such, not the entire OS. I can't really seem to find a "repair" feature to re-install without loosing current apps and data.

Should I just boot off of the CD and go through the installation process and install it again over the current directory?

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[loup garou]

If you boot off the CD, it'll detect your installation and ask if you want to repair it. I think there are 2 modes, an automatic one and one you need to make floppies (4, I think) in the OS for. I'm not sure because I haven't done it in awhile and now I'm running XP.

 

[cmdavid]

yep.. werk is right.. if you boot from the cd, it will ask you if you want to do a clean install, or repair an exisiting installation of win2k.. just pick that and follow from there... very simple...

 

[khtm]

Have either of you guys that commented *actually* repaired a Win2k installation? It's damn near impossible unless you have an ERD (Emergency Repair Disk). There's no "automatic" repair option - only ERD and "recovery console". The "recovery console" repair option is about as intuitive as flying a commercial airliner.

-khtm-

 

[loup garou]

Like I said, haven't done it in a long time, and yes, I had the emergency disks.

 

[vi edit]

<< The manual repair option is about as intuitive as flying a commercial airliner. >>

, I don't know why, but I found that incredibly amusing .

Oh, and no ERD's here DOH!

 

[khtm]

Yeah, that's my biggest complaint with Win2k - the fact that repairing is very difficult. NT had a great "automatic" repair process that I've used several times and it fixed every problem.

You need to create the ERD (using the Windows Backup app) *before* your computer crashes. Hardly anyone does this and you need to recreate an ERD whenever you upgrade your hardware. Stupid if you ask me.

And yes, the "recovery console" is basically all you can use if you don't have the ERD. My suggestion would be to back up everything important on a seperate partition, format, and reinstall

-khtm-

 

[OrByte]

-khtm- is right, it is not as easy as others make it sound.