Is it possible to do a "repair installation" with XP Pro disk on XP home system?

[Capitalizt]

Sup folks, I downloaded one of those shareware disk cleaning programs to delete useless/duplicate files. After running a complete scan and seleting everything, I rebooted and my start button/programs are missing. I can still access everything through the "my computer" icon and everything seems to work fine, but I believe the program deleted some critical system files that I need to access the start button.
My question is...First of all, has anyone had this problem and fixed it?

If not, can I use an XP Pro disk that I have to do a "repair install" on a Dell System that came with XP Home pre installed? I do have the emergency Dell system restore disks but those will basically reformat the drive and cause me to lose everything...something I want to avoid!

Is it possible to use an XP pro disk to restore the original system files on my XP Home system, without erasing all of my programs and documents?

 

[DavidoFoo]

Originally posted by: Capitalizt
Sup folks, I downloaded one of those shareware disk cleaning programs to delete useless/duplicate files. After running a complete scan and seleting everything, I rebooted and my start button/programs are missing. I can still access everything through the "my computer" icon and everything seems to work fine, but I believe the program deleted some critical system files that I need to access the start button.
My question is...First of all, has anyone had this problem and fixed it?

If not, can I use an XP Pro disk that I have to do a "repair install" on a Dell System that came with XP Home pre installed? I do have the emergency Dell system restore disks but those will basically reformat the drive and cause me to lose everything...something I want to avoid!

Is it possible to use an XP pro disk to restore the original system files on my XP Home system, without erasing all of my programs and documents?

I was wondering if I could do a repair install with an Xp Home disc on a Xp Pro system.

 

[Slikkster]

Why not just use the "System Restore" feature? Please don't tell me you're one of those who's turned it off. And yes, you can use it from the command line, so you don't need to see your icons/start button.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;304449&sd=tech

 

[FlyingPenguin]

No, you should NOT mix versions when doing a repair. Do you know anyone that has an OEM XP Home CD (preferably with SP2)? Doesn't have to be a Dell CD as long as it's an OEM XP Home CD.

How old is this system? Dells don't come with a Recovery CD. Never have. They always come with a Windows CD except that this year, they're not shipping CDs anymore and instead include an image on the hard drive and a program that creates a disc from the image. If this is a recently purchased Dell, then look in your Start menu for a Dell application that will create a Windows XP CD.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Capitalizt
Sup folks, I downloaded one of those shareware disk cleaning programs to delete useless/duplicate files. After running a complete scan and seleting everything, I rebooted and my start button/programs are missing. I can still access everything through the "my computer" icon and everything seems to work fine, but I believe the program deleted some critical system files that I need to access the start button.
My question is...First of all, has anyone had this problem and fixed it?

If not, can I use an XP Pro disk that I have to do a "repair install" on a Dell System that came with XP Home pre installed? I do have the emergency Dell system restore disks but those will basically reformat the drive and cause me to lose everything...something I want to avoid!

Is it possible to use an XP pro disk to restore the original system files on my XP Home system, without erasing all of my programs and documents?

The system restore suggestion is excellent; there's also sfc /scannow to check your system files for validity. You can also reapply XP SP2, which will check out your registry, put lots of files back in place, and such. System Restore and XPSP2 have advantages: they don't require a CD...easy to test...