Repair install dilemna

E

Elisar

New Member
Hey guys. Yesterday i downloaded an anti virus program onto my laptop which upon completing the scan caused it to reboot. When trying to log into my user account, i find that i am unable to - i automatically get logged off again. So i get the message "Loading your personal settings" and then it immediately switches to, "Logging off, saving your settings". i have tried the recovery console (chkdsk /r) but no such luck. I cant get into safe mode or access the administrator account. The problem is i have work on here that i cant afford to lose so to format at this point in time is out of the question. I was thinking of performing A repair installation which i believe installs windows without losing any data (i am aware that things can still go wrong)? However, the CD that i have is a windows XP professional (service pack 2) -and i believe the laptop has windows XP (service pack 1) installed. (The CD didn't come with the laptop) My question is this can i successully repair windows and install windows XP Pro (SP2) over windows XP (SP1)? and will i lose any data? I also heard that people have problems connecting to the internet after doing so. I hope this is making sense to someone, as i have no idea what is going on and after spending all night researching the problem am really stuck and confused, and to be honest i really have no idea what i am talking about. Any help, advice tips is much appreciated.

elisar
 
First of all, what virus program did you download and install? Are you sure it wasn't a Fake antivirus program that is actually malware? You can't use a XP Professional disk to repair a XP Home installation. The newer laptops come with a recovery partition that you have to press a certain key at the beginning of the boot in order to access. Check to see if there is a nondestructive(meaning it saves all your files)restore process.
 
Thanks for your reply John. It was Avira antivirus, recommended to me by a friend. I thought there might be a problem using the XP disc, i will have to try and find a windows XP home CD from somewhere. if i find this CD is there a good chance i might be able recover the contents of my laptop using a repair install? I really dont know much when it comes to computers, could you give me few pointers as to what these non destructive methods might involve?
 
You can usually get back to a somewhat working pc if you do the repair method, at least good enough to copy data to a new drive or cd and then do a fresh install. The difference between a destructive restore and a nondestructive restore is the destructive restore will reformat your drive and will put the system back to the state it was in when you first brought it home, you won't have any of your files on it at all and will have to reinstall all your programs. A nondestructive restore will just reinstall the operating system, while keeping your programs and files intact. BUT, there is always a chance something might go wrong and you'll lost them anyway.
 
I am aware there is a risk i may lose some or all data, but i guess thats a chance i will have to take. I just found a CD burgundy coloured that has the following info on:

Reinstallation CD
Microsoft windows XP Home Edition including Service Pack 1a?

is this the Cd i am after?

Sorry i do realise this is a dumb question but i just want to make sure.
 
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