Urgent! can you reinstall 2k over an existing broken install without losing anything?

[natopotato]

pretty self explanitory. boot sector virus brought down my work box. it will crash during boot but i can still get to my stuff(ie it is still on the drive)

so in short.. can it be done(partition is NTFS if that is a factor)?




thanks in advance

-nate

 

[WhoDeeny]

do a fdisk /mbr and you can install anything over it, and wipe out your boot sector virus. just make sure you boot from a clean disk that's write protected...

 

[natopotato]

so i won't lose any of my stuff?? can i use fdisk on an NTFS partition?

 

[NogginBoink]

Boot to the Recovery Console and run a fixmbr. Don't use fdisk. Search the KB if you need help with Recovery Console.

To answer your question, yes, you can do an upgrade in place and retain your settings... IF the setup program recognizes an OS is there. The recognition depends on a number of files, including mountable registry files. I don't know the exact criteria.

 

[Smilin]

You should be able to fix that bootsector with the tips given above.

If for some reason you are unable to get it fixed then yes, you can do an install over the top of itself without losing data. Be sure NOT to format anything during install of course - use the 'leave current filesystem intact' option when you get to it. When you're all done you will have some really odd folder structures. Your C:\documents and settings\administrator will contain your old administrator settings (desktop, favorites and whatnot) additionally you will have a C:\documents and settings\administrator.000 folder that will have your (empty) new administrator settings. Your registry will get fux0rd during the reinstall so although your data is safe, your programs won't run until you reinstall them (salvage old data for these on a case-by-case basis as you do the reinstalls)