Restoring Windows from CDs


For some system crashes and problems, the System Restore utility is sufficient. If it still doesn't fix the problems, the next step is to try something a little more dramatic. System crashes in particular can paralyze a system resulting is a blue error screen. If this screen keeps reappearing even after you've used the System Restore utility several times, then you might need to use the installation CDs to fix the problem. Using the installation CDs that shipped with your computer, you can repair, restore, or even reinstall Windows on your system.

Caution 

Before you continue restoring Windows from the installation CDs, you should try to back up all the data files that you don't want to lose. Reinstalling Windows often requires that you erase all the data on the hard drive.

Using the Windows XP CDs

To access the screen used to repair the current installation of Windows, insert the Windows installation CD into the CD-ROM drive and reboot the computer. This causes a simple text message to appear asking if you want to boot from the CD; press the Enter key to continue. This loads all the necessary files from the CD to boot the computer to a text-based screen.

The options on this page include setting up Windows XP, repairing a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, and exiting without installing. If you press the R key, the setup loads a DOS-like interface where you can access your data files and execute some diagnostic features, but you'll need to know what you're doing if you go this route. The Recovery Console provides a way to get access to your data files when the computer doesn't boot.

Note 

The installation process for each of the different versions of Windows is different. For example, the installation process for Windows Vista is different from the Windows XP process outlined above.

Repairing a Windows installation

If you press the Enter key, the setup continues by showing you a License Agreement and searching for any existing installations. At this point, you can select the installation (most likely at C:\Windows) and choose to repair the installation by pressing the R key. The setup process then copies all the setup files over the existing installation and reboots the computer. If the repair works, all your applications, data files, and hardware settings remain intact and Windows boots up as normal without the blue screen errors.

After the Windows installation is repaired and working fine, visit the Microsoft site and download and install the latest Service Pack.

Tip 

If you open the Automatic Updates tab in the My Computer Properties dialog box and enable the Automatic option, Windows automatically downloads and installs the latest updates.

Reinstalling Windows

If you've tried using the System Restore utility and repairing the Windows installation and the problems still persist, then one of the last options to try is to reinstall Windows onto a blank hard drive.

There are several different ways to reinstall Windows. First, you can try renaming the current Windows directory and reinstalling Windows into a new empty Windows directory. If successful, you can retain your data files, but you need to reinstall your software applications.

The second method is to buy and install a new hard drive and set up the old hard drive as a secondary drive. You can then reinstall Windows on the new hard drive and recover the data files from the secondary hard drive.

If you've backed up all the data files and don't mind erasing the current hard drive, you can select to format (a process that erases the hard drive) the hard drive and then reinstall Windows onto the reformatted hard drive. This erases all data and programs from the hard drive, but data files can be restored from a backup copy.

Note 

One common problem that causes system crashes and software problems is when the system files on the hard drive get corrupted. If you format the hard drive, be sure to run the Disk Check utility to identify and block corrupt hard drive sectors before reinstalling Windows.




PC User's Bible
PC Users Bible
ISBN: 0470088974
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2007
Pages: 372

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