How to repair windows xp mce without reformatting?

[Xellos2099]

Interesting concept, I will give it some through. According to my mom's friend, the most urgent issue is to back up some of the file in the computer, which happen to be word perfect and quarttopro file. She said she had decade old file in there. So for now the priority issue is to back up the file and restore the system as second.

If I TRY to restore with the restore partition, will it automatically restore or give me option to repair/restore? What worry me is that second screen shot say the drive is empty, guess that mean the window xp is unable to recognize the data since the MBR is damaged?

Bubbaleone: Since the priority changed to back up the file and I notice after completing the part 1 of the guide and computer can boot into window. Does that mean I can start the backup of the files after part 1 or do I must completely all 4 part before the backup. Also, what could cause the MBR corruption? Does thia mean hard drive is dying and need to be replace after backup of the file or is it just freak accident?

 

[Ketchup]

If I TRY to restore with the restore partition, will it automatically restore or give me option to repair/restore? What worry me is that second screen shot say the drive is empty, guess that mean the window xp is unable to recognize the data since the MBR is damaged?

The HP restore option will reformat the C: partition and not give you the option to save your data. It will take it back to the data that originally came on the machine. You need to try to back up the data before using this option.

That should be your main goal at the moment. Repairing the partition so that you can back up the important data.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Interesting concept, I will give it some through. According to my mom's friend, the most urgent issue is to back up some of the file in the computer, which happen to be word perfect and quarttopro file. She said she had decade old file in there. So for now the priority issue is to back up the file and restore the system as second.

If I TRY to restore with the restore partition, will it automatically restore or give me option to repair/restore? What worry me is that second screen shot say the drive is empty, guess that mean the window xp is unable to recognize the data since the MBR is damaged?

Bubbaleone: Since the priority changed to back up the file and I notice after completing the part 1 of the guide and computer can boot into window. Does that mean I can start the backup of the files after part 1 or do I must completely all 4 part before the backup. Also, what could cause the MBR corruption? Does thia mean hard drive is dying and need to be replace after backup of the file or is it just freak accident?

Yes you need to complete all four steps. The reason is that the registry you've restored in step 1 is from the day that the operating system was first installed. It has no entries for anything that has been installed since then, so there won't be anything to backup.

When you get to Step 4 you will be loading the most recent restore point. It will contain the registry info for all her installed programs and personal data that would be current to the date of the restore point you selected. That's why I'd previously mentioned that you need to select the most recently dated restore point available, in order to restore as much data as possible.

If I'm understanding you correctly, and you can now boot into Windows, there's nothing wrong with the MBR. Go back to the Recovery Console and finish all 4 Steps in the Microsoft KB article, then perform the repair installation as previously outlined in this thread.

When the repair installation has completed; all her installed programs and data (as they existed at the date of the restore point you chose in Step 4) should be fully functional, and you'll only need to run Windows Update afterward.

Just keep in mind that whether you decide to just backup her data and transfer it to a new installation, or to perform the repair installation; you must first complete the 4 Steps if you expect to get any of her data back.


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[Xellos2099]

No, I didn't start yet. I will print out and follow. Will report back with result.

 

[Xellos2099]

You know, I did another read on the recovery article and it say on top DO NOT use it on an oem machine. Do you have success on using it on oem machine before?

While I was doing the research, I come across this:
http://www.css-networks.com/2010/12...stry-hive-corruption-the-clever-or-smart-way/

Let say I bring a spare hard drive over and do a window install on it and use this method. What would be the chance of the data useable?

 

[Bubbaleone]

You know, I did another read on the recovery article and it say on top DO NOT use it on an oem machine. Do you have success on using it on oem machine before?

I don't know what article you read, but the XP registry hives are the result of the code writers at Microsoft, not Hewlett Packard. Whether an XP installation is OEM, retail, or volume has absolutely no bearing on Microsoft's procedure for recovering a corrupt Windows XP registry via the Recovery Console.

 

[Xellos2099]

307545

This article describes how to recover a Windows XP system that does not start because of corruption in the registry. This procedure does not guarantee full recovery of the system to a previous state; however, you should be able to recover data when you use this procedure.

Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your computer has an OEM-installed operating system. The system hive on OEM installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist previously. If you use the procedure that is described in this article, you may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the original registry hives.

You can repair a corrupted registry in Windows XP. Corrupted registry files can cause a variety of different error messages. See the Microsoft Knowledge Base for articles about error messages that are related to registry issues.

This article assumes that typical recovery methods have failed and access to the system is not available except by using Recovery Console. If an Automatic System Recovery (ASR) backup exists, it is the preferred method for recovery. Microsoft recommends that you use the ASR backup before you try the procedure described in this article.

Note Make sure to replace all five of the registry hives. If you only replace a single hive or two, this can cause potential issues because software and hardware may have settings in multiple locations in the registry.

 

[Bubbaleone]

I just read the blog you linked in your edit. This is one man's quick and dirty method which replaces the corrupt HKLM hive with the HKLM hive from a different XP machine that is working (pay attention to "it's a different machine"!). If all you want is to make XP bootable and you don't care about losing all your installed programs and personal data then by all means follow this "Expert" bloggers advice. He totally fails to mention this fact anywhere in his blog except to say that he doesn't recommended it for OEM machines (do ya think!) If you want your XP MCE machine restored as closely as possible to the way it was, use Microsoft's XP registry recovery procedure.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Warning Do not use the procedure that is described in this article if your computer has an OEM-installed operating system. The system hive on OEM installations creates passwords and user accounts that did not exist previously. If you use the procedure that is described in this article, you may not be able to log back into the recovery console to restore the original registry hives.

In reference to your concern: The above is Microsoft's standard disclaimer. In my experiences using this recovery procedure there have been only two times, when recovering the registry on OEM XP machines, that I was unable to log back into the Recovery Console after completeing Part One and then restarting the machine with the original registry hives.

The solution in both these cases was to simply blank the Administrator password. The tool I've always used for this is Offline Windows Password & Registry Editor. A word of caution: Only select to "blank" the admin password! Do not try to change the admin password, or add another account to the Administrators Group. Now you'll be able to log onto the Recovery Console as Administrator, without entering any password, and continue the recovery procedure.


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