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Repair Windows

Repair Windows - How to Repair Windows XP/2000

If your system is Windows XP or Windows 2000 and you are unable to boot up, even in safe mode, you may be able to repair your operating system without a complete reinstall. This is possible using the “system repair” function that comes with your Windows XP or Windows 2000 installation discs.

If a hardware failure such as a bad hard drive, memory or CPU is the cause of your machine not booting up you have a more serious problem then this article addresses. The system repair feature of Windows XP and Windows 2000 is designed to recover the software, not hardware issues. To be safe, run a disk checking utility on your hard drive before running System Repair as well as a memory test utility.

Once you’ve ruled out hardware issues, you can run System Repair. System Repair will repair your Windows operating system yet retain all of your data and customized settings. Please note that System Repair will remove all updates to your operating system, and revert drivers as well as some network and performance settings back to their default settings. After the repair, you may need to reactivate your Windows product.

In order to begin the repair process, you will need to boot up from your original Windows installation disc. The Windows XP or 2000 CD must match what is currently installed on your system, you cannot mix and match. For example, if you have Windows XP Home version installed but also have a Windows XP Professional disc available, you must use the Home version.

As the CD loads, you will be asked to boot from CD by pressing any key. Press any key because this is what you want to do. Soon, a blue screen will load and display the XP or 2000 setup screen.

Unless you are a RAID, SCSI or unsupported UDMA you can let setup screen load by itself. If you do have a RAID, SCSI or unsupported UDMA controllers, you will need to press F6 to install their drivers and you will need the drivers available on a floppy disk. If you are unsure, let the Windows setup screen load and skip hitting F6.

The setup screen will present you with three choices:

• To set up Windows now, press enter
• To repair a Windows installation using the Recovery Console, press R
• To quit setup without installing Windows, press F3

While it sounds counter-intuitive, go ahead and choose the first option, NOT the recovery console. The Windows setup program will automatically detect a prior installation of Windows and will offer to repair it for you.

Choose the F8 key to agree to the Windows license agreement. Now, Windows setup searches for existing Windows XP/2000 installations and offers to repair it or to replace it with a fresh installation. In this case, we want to repair it, so press R as instructed to perform the repair.

Now Windows setup will look like it is installing the program for the first time but it is only replacing damaged system components, not overwriting itself. Your data, other programs and settings will remain intact.

Remember to have your CD key available too as it is part of the process. You may need to reactivate your copy of Windows after the repair process. Don’t forget to update your version of Windows because all of your previous updates have been discarded.

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