Help needed to repair XP (Q: 01)

[Curt]

I never was too happy with this new XP of mine, but last week something went very wrong when I was replacing some old third party program with a new version, and Windows burped at the same time. From that moment 'everything' has been wrong: Outlook and Word will not open, and Explorer will take forever to open any folder. I have tried to repair or re-install this and that, and all I need now, I imagine, is to re-install / repair XP itself. The guys in the shop already told me it is all my fault and they will charge me big time if they are to do this for me - so I'll have to do it myself; the new machine took whatever little money I had.

XP was saved to disk, C:\WINDOWS\I386, and I have made a DVD copy of the folder's content, but my understanding is that I need it to be 'bootable' (??). And to do this, I need a bootable image of i386's content. But my backup program will only make images of the entire drive (and I really don't need to make an image of all the errors, do I), so I will start by asking Question 01: what free program to use to make a bootable image of a folder's content?

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Please, do not tell me that I don't need any CD/DVD because I can command prompt this or that: I will never understand how to do so! Any suggestions must include some kind of 'automation', please, if you know what I mean.

I guess I will be asking a lot of questions before all is well, but maybe you understand the problem so well that you know I need to ask some other question? Please tell so, in time!

 

[Wordzilla]

Curt,

How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup Disk on a Preinstalled / Preloaded Windows System

Hope it helps! 

[TucknDar]

Haven't you got the original XP disc? I can't see why you couldn't just use that to boot and try to repair the XP install and if that doesn't work, reinstall the whole damn thing. If you've got an image of the disc, you'd probably be able to keep settings for your most important apps.



(Btw, you're not the only one with XP problems. I haven't got major probs like you, but there are small things every now and then which are pretty annoying to have to troubleshoot all the time. I used Win2k for 5-6 years before with only a couple of minor problems and now XP for 3 months with troubleshooting all the time. I'm considering a complete reinstall... *cue Linux-zealots*)

[Wordzilla]

Haven't you got the original XP disc? I can't see why you couldn't just use that to boot and try to repair the XP install and if that doesn't work, reinstall the whole damn thing. If you've got an image of the disc, you'd probably be able to keep settings for your most important apps.

-TucknDar (April 07, 2007, 03:17 AM)

afaik, few manufacturers today include xp original disc in their retail computer packages. You have the system in the form of "recovery discs" or "recovery partition" and pre-installed with all kinds of carp (most notably Norton Antivirus), so it's not that easy to repair xp without first wiping out the whole hdd.

[Curt]

Haven't you got the original XP disc?

-TucknDar (April 07, 2007, 03:17 AM)

No; OEM pre-installed operating system.

Curt,

How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup Disk on a Preinstalled / Preloaded Windows System

Hope it helps! 

-Wordzilla (April 07, 2007, 03:11 AM)

Wow! VERY helpful!  

But I am going to have a problem concerning the various device drivers; they are all updated or replaced, and I have only little or no recall of their names, so I wouldn't know how or where to get these 'textmode drivers' he's talking about:

Note that backing up your device drivers in this manner will not help you if your computer has SATA, IDE, SCSI or other mass storage devices (for your hard disk) that Windows setup does not recognise. In such cases, you need the manufacturers' textmode drivers which the driver backup utility will not recreate

-HowToHaven

[Edit: I have such an IDE drive:]
Should I start with this problem: backing up the various (unknown) drivers?  

[Wordzilla]

Should I start with this problem: backing up the various (unknown) drivers?

Go to the official site of your computer manufacturer and download drivers, or simply make a copy of the DRIVERS (or similiar) directory in your C:\ drive, if it exists.

[Curt]

Should I start with this problem: backing up the various (unknown) drivers?

Go to the official site of your computer manufacturer and download drivers, or simply make a copy of the DRIVERS (or similiar) directory in your C:\ drive, if it exists.

-Wordzilla (April 07, 2007, 03:42 AM)

Doh! 
There are so many things to remember or forget, when you don't really know what you are doing.... I allready have backed up all drivers, using DriverMagician from giveawayoftheday - but I simply forgot!   

[Curt]

Curt,

How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup Disk on a Preinstalled / Preloaded Windows System

Hope it helps! 

-Wordzilla (April 07, 2007, 03:11 AM)

HowToHaven is telling me to create an ASCII text file, but I don't seem to have that option, only ANSI, Unicode and UTF-8. I have saved the file with quotes around the name, so Windows has not added the usual ".txt", but is calling it 'a file' - not 'text file' - is that what he is talking about? Is it already "ASCII'ished"??

[Wordzilla]

ANSI