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.
If you experience a repetitive occurrence of registry corruption related issues, Microsoft recommends that you obtain and install the hotfix in the following article: 318159 Damaged Registry repair and recovery in Windows XP
This update is also included in Windows XP Service Pack 1.*
Please understand that if you download and install a file recovery program on a HDD that you're trying to recover lost files from you just might overwrite the files you're trying to recover. You either need a program that will fit on a floppy, an external HDD that you can download and install the program on, or a second computer that you can install the first HDD in as a Slave Drive so you can recover the files from there.
Creating a Windows Installation CD from your Recovery Disk - Making a CD for Windows 9x and ME, Making a CD for Windows XP, 2000, 2003, and NT, and a Smart Tip for installing Windows with NTFS. Please remember that you must have all of the Windows "CAB" files available for this to work properly.
Recovery/Restore Disk Info for Specific Computer Manufacturers: Reinstall Windows with a PC Manufacturer's Recovery/Restore Disk Step-By-Step - Advent, Compaq, Dell, Fujistu, HP, Sony, Time.
IBM Computers - How can I get a Product Recovery CD from IBM?
Dell Computers - What Solutions Are Available to Me if I Do Not Have My Microsoft® Windows® XP Operating System CD or the Dell Dimension™ or Inspiron™ Driver CDs?
Hold down the WinKey* and hit Pause|Break to open System Properties - click on the Hardware Tab - and then click on Device Manager - click the + (Plus Sign) beside the device you want to remove and then Right-Click the device and choose Uninstall. Yes and/or OK all the way out to the Desktop and Reboot the Computer allowing Windows to "Discover" the New Hardware and Reinstall the Drivers. Be sure you have any Driver Disks ready if needed.
*The WinKey is located between the Alt and Crtl keys and has the Windows "Flying Flag" Logo on it.
Or how to get a word that Word thinks is correctly spelt to show up as a spelling error - Article contributed by Suzanne Barnhill and Dave Rado - To make Word question the spelling of a word that is “correctly” spelled according to its dictionary, you need to create an “exclusion” dictionary.*
Instructions were written by Eric C. Vogel - This eKB will let you Remove Windows Components such as Windows Messenger, MSN Explorer, Pinball, Word Pad, Terminal Serve (XP Pro Only, Needed for Remote Desktop.) and programs in the Accessories menu on the All Programs menu.*
JSI FAQ 2274 » How do I get Add/Remove Programs to display 'optional' components in Windows 2000?*
Norton Uninstall Tool - The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products from your computer. Before you continue, make sure that you have the installation CDs or downloaded installation files for any Norton products that you want to reinstall. Also, if you use ACT! or WinFAX, back up those databases and uninstall those products.*
Repair Internet Explorer 6 - A number of XP users have reported situations with Internet Explorer 6 becoming corrupted and reporting a number of different errors. While there is certainly no guarantee, the two procedures listed below have restored functionality to IE6 for many users experiencing problems.*
IEFix - IEFix is a general purpose repair utility for Internet Explorer which repairs Internet Explorer by registering it's core DLL files and reinstalls using the IE.INF file. More Information is given below. Suitable for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP systems.*
Please note that either of these solutions will require that you have your Windows CD available.
Repair & Recovery
Windows Reinstall has a graphical Windows 2000 Repair Step by Step Guide. Repair, Recovery, and Restore - Reprinted with permission from the Windows 2000 Resource Kits.* (Download or open this Microsoft Word Document here.)
JSI FAQ #3200 » How do I recover Windows 2000?
MSKB 318752 - HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows 2000
JSI FAQ #2037 » What can I do with the Windows 2000 Recovery Console?
Install
MSKB 304868 - HOW TO: Install Windows 2000 Professional
JSI FAQ #2229 » How do I do a clean install of Windows 2000 if I only have an upgrade CD-ROM?
MSKB 266465 - HOW TO: Perform a Parallel Installation of Windows 2000
Fast Repair & Manual Repair
JSI FAQ #2039 » What is the difference between a Fast Repair and a Manual Repair?
MSKB 238359 - Differences Between Manual and Fast Repair in Windows
Troubleshoot NTLDR
JSI FAQ #5631 » How do I troubleshoot the 'NTLDR Is Missing' error in Windows 2000?
Troubleshoot Startup Problems
MSKB 315396 - HOW TO: Troubleshoot Startup Problems in Windows 2000
Safe Boot
JSI FAQ #2038 » What is a Windows 2000 Safe Boot?
Emergency Recovery Disk
JSI FAQ #2045 » How do I create an ERD in Windows 2000?
JSI FAQ #2532 » Create a Windows 2000 ERD using WSH.
MSKB 231777 - How to Create an Emergency Repair Disk in Windows 2000
JSI FAQ #2002 » The ERD will not restore a Windows 2000 registry.
Backup, Edit, & Restore the Registry
JSI FAQ #5363 » How do I back up, edit, and restore the registry in Windows 2000?
JSI FAQ #7609 » How do I download the Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility? Details and instructions about the Win 2k Registry Repair Tool are here: Registry Corruption in Windows 2000 can prevent your system from booting. The Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility is a tool that can help to recover a Windows 2000 system from registry corruption. This utility can be downloaded on to floppy disks and then run on the system with the corrupted registry. Six floppy disks are required for downloading this utility. The utility will attempt to repair the corrupted registry and allow your machine to boot again.*
Disk Management
MSKB 308209 - How To Use Disk Management to Manage Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows 2000
Keywords for Win 2k in the MSKB
JSI FAQ #5907 » What keywords are available when you search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for Windows 2000?
Customize your title bar text and animated logos, or just make 'em normal again. By Scot Finnie* And How to Change the Internet Explorer Window Title* MSKB Article - 176497
Winsock Woes - It’ll happen to ya eventually. At some point in the future, you’ll find that after you have removed some spyware on a client’s PC, the Internet connectivity has been cooked.
Like most folks, you’ll likely spend more than a fair amount of time trying to figure out why nothing seems to repair the connectivity, even trying to reinstall the network components themselves. Having been here myself, it can be a frustrating experience to contend with, let me tell ya!
Luckily for us we have the option of using special Winsock repair tools to fix the unfixable. Some of them are better than others, but my personal favorite when working with XP happens to be WinSock XP Fix. Never have I had an issue where this bad boy couldn’t come along and save my bacon. Try it next time nothing else works with lost Internet connectivity. It also does wonders for software firewall installs gone horribly wrong, too.*
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install - An excellent article by Michael Stevens MS-MVP - It is extremely important that you backup important data that is not available from other media sources. This backup should be located on a separate hard drive, CD, DVD, network storage, etc. that will not be affected by the repair install.
A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied.* (My emphasis)
Langa Letter: XP's Little-Known 'Rebuild' Command - There's an easy fix for "Missing HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," and several other fatal startup errors, Fred Langa says.
It usually takes a lot to stop XP in its tracks. Even in those rare cases when the operating system is badly damaged, you'll usually at least have the option of booting into the "Last Known Good" configuration, or to Safe Mode. But sometimes, especially after major hardware failures or part swaps (e.g. moving the operating system to a new hard drive), or after problems with dual- or multi-booting software, you may encounter seemingly intractable errors such as "Missing or corrupt HAL.DLL," "Invalid Boot.Ini," or "Windows could not start..."
...SNIP...
Then--doh!--I stopped thrashing and did what I should have done initially: I dug into the Microsoft Knowledge Base and learned about XP's built-in Rebuild command. It can often easily fix "Missing HAL" and similar problems in just a minute or two. If you know about this command and how to use it, you can potentially save yourself hours and hours of manually reinstalling or rebuilding a failed operating system.*
To Turn Off System Restore:
Click Start - Right-click My Computer - click Properties - On the System Restore tab, check Turn off System Restore or Turn off System Restore on all drives - Click Apply. This deletes all existing restore points. Click Yes to do this. Click OK.
To Turn On System Restore:
Follow the steps in the previous section, but in step 3, uncheck Turn off System Restore or Turn off System Restore on all drives. Then click OK. Create New System Restore Points.
This is an awesome looking site with lots of Help & How-To about Scanning.
What is netfilter/iptables? - netfilter and iptables are building blocks of a framework inside the Linux 2.4.x and 2.6.x kernel. This framework enables packet filtering, network address [and port] translation (NA[P]T) and other packet mangling.*
VideoHelp.com has some great guides on How-To Backup DVD, Capture Analog or Digital Video, Convert a Video to..., Edit, Cut, Join & More..., Watch & Play..., and much more, including a FAQ and Forum.
Try SnipURL, MakeaShorterLink, and TinyURL.
notlong.com - Also has links for more Web Sites That Shorten Long URLs and an awesome comparison of said services.
Of all the "URL Snipping Tools," I've seen so far, this, IMHO, is THE BEST! The numerous features available for personalizing this tool are awesome! Too many to mention here, but please check out the FAQ and the Features pages for details available for personalizing SnipURL. This is a MUST SEE, MUST USE Tool!
TinyUrl Creator for FireFox - TinyUrl brings the http://tinyurl.com functionality into your browser. It takes a long URL as input, and gives you a short URL to use in it's place.*
Introduction - By default Windows hides certain files from being seen with Windows Explorer or My Computer. This is done to protect these files, which are usually system files, from accidentally being modified or deleted by the user.*
Here's the instructions for different Windows Operating Systems:
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
It's been a while since I've covered slipstreaming, or combining, a service pack into Windows, but the release of Windows XP Service Pack with Advanced Security Technologies (hereafter referred to as SP2) warrants some discussion. That's because XP SP2 is a huge change from the original shipping version of XP, offering as many new features and capabilities as a major new Windows version. For this reason, many people are going to want to install XP SP2 directly the next time they install Windows, and skip the time-consuming and potentially insecure step of installing the initial XP version first, and then applying SP2 after the fact.
But what, exactly, is slipstreaming, you ask? Back when Microsoft was developing Windows 2000, the company decided to create up a more elegant way of integrating service packs and other fixes back into the core OS, so that enterprise customers could always maintain an install set of the latest version of Windows, ready to be installed at any time on new machines. In the NT days, this process was convoluted at best, and service pack installs often required users to reinstall components that had previously been installed. It just wasn't elegant, but Windows 2000 fixed all that, and in XP the slipstreaming process is largely unchanged.
For end users, slipstreaming can also be useful. For example, you can copy the installation directory from your XP CD-ROM to the hard drive, slipstream the XP SP2 files into that installation directory, and than write it back to a recordable CD, giving you a bootable copy of the XP setup disk that includes SP2 right out of the box (so to speak). That's the process we're going to examine here. And slipstreaming isn't limited to service packs, either: You can also slipstream in various product updates, including hot-fixes. Previous to the release of SP2, I created a bootable XP CD that included the original "gold" version of XP, Service Pack 1a, and the Security Rollup 1 update, all meshed together into a single install. Now, I've tossed that CD aside for one that includes XP SP2 instead. Let's take a look at how I did this.* Read the Whole Article Here.
Check out RyanVM Integrator for an easy way to slipstream Win XP SP2 and ALL subsequent updates! 09/26/2006
Both links I originally linked to are now dead. Try a Google Search for "speed up windows xp?" instead.
This tutorial is designed to provide a basic introduction to browsing and searching on the Internet. It is maintained as part of the Grenville County Community Access Program.
The Community Access Program (CAP) is an initiative of Industry Canada designed to allow access to the Internet in rural communities. The program is being administered cooperatively by the Grenville Community Development Centre (GCDC) in Prescott and Kemptville College.*
Tech-savvy users have warned of the dangers of running Windows as an administrator and have recommended various solutions, including running with a limited user account (which has problems, not the least of which is that it won't allow you to install vital anti-virus updates); yet, for over a year, Microsoft has had a workable solution, a little program aptly called "Drop My Rights".*
Download DropMyRights.msi
A good TMF friend of mine, bullshooter5, offers this solution: "Use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard - It's great for making a backup of Networking Settings along with Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, and even Desktop Settings. If your computer is like mine, you may want to take a minute and clean up the desktop and perhaps sort old mail files before using the wizard.
If you should decide to use it, it can be very quick if you just select the option to "Back Up settings only" You can always back up folders separately by copying and pasting from "My Documents".
Here is a great article on the process - Using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP
Or for a more detailed step by step procedure - Using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
One phase backs up from the "Old Computer" or exports to a folder on perhaps your Desktop that you can then burn to a CD-ROM or external HDD. Then when you want to restore a copy of these settings, like after a clean install of the operating system, you could set the wizard to Import to the New Computer. When importing and browsing in the location of the settings file...........don't stop drilling down until you locate not only your storage folder.....but the file itself usually called something like << IMG000001.dat >>. Once this file folder is highlighted, the import process may commence and one will use the wizard.
Start button > All Programs > Accessories folder > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. Give it a try by backing up your settings from the Old Computer to a folder on your Desktop as soon as you can get a chance."*
This article discusses how to enable ICF in Windows XP or in Windows XP SP1, and also how to enable Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2. This article also discusses how to disable the Internet Connection Firewall feature in Windows XP or in Windows XP SP1, and how to disable Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2. Disabling the firewall may help you to troubleshoot applications that do not function as expected behind a firewall.*
with questions or comments about this web site.
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