Two copies of XP on my desktop.

I would just backup your photos, documents, favorites, etc on a flash drive. Then wipe the hard drive with Windows XP and reinstall XP with Service Pack 2. Then you will have a nice clean install with no issues. You may need to edit the bootloader since you installed XP after 7 instead of vice-versa. Check out this article on how fix the corrupt bootloader for 7 and how to make a boot entry for xp http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=6
 
firefrost said:
STARS, If you read the first line of my post I said that when I put in my XP cd I do not get the option to 'repair' I know re-install will lose all data. that's why I used Windows easy transfer last week to put all data on my ext hd. Since I can't seem to repair XP or remove IE8 I think I will do an install of XP on the free partition I have and bring that one up to IE7. John's post re Ken Blake more or less agrees that it will work.
John, Thanks, I think it makes sense that it would be allowed by microsoft since it all occurs on one m/c. In my case it would be two separate hds
Click to expand...

Your XP disk does not have the REPAIR option???
Every XP disk has it unless if your disk is XP RECOVERY DISK specifically designed.For example many laptops come with XP RECOVERY DISK and those disks do not have the REPAIR option available.But more of them comes with normal XP disk which has the REPAIR option available.So I am guessing that you have the recovery disk and not the normal one.
On the following 2 pictures you can see 2 types of XP disks.First picture shows the XP RECOVERY DISK for DELL laptops and the second picture shows the normal XP disk:
mcenc5__20135_zoom.jpg

Windows_XP_FULL_CD.jpg
 
I do believe you will only get the option to repair if setup actually detects an installed OS. If somehow the install is corrupt, setup may not detect it. I remember having this issue years ago when trying to repair XP when I know darn well there was an OS installed, I was using a genuine microsoft install cd. It may be that the mbr is screwed up or erros are on the HDD.
 
johnb35 said:
I do believe you will only get the option to repair if setup actually detects an installed OS. If somehow the install is corrupt, setup may not detect it. I remember having this issue years ago when trying to repair XP when I know darn well there was an OS installed, I was using a genuine microsoft install cd. It may be that the mbr is screwed up or erros are on the HDD.
Click to expand...

Yea that's true.
But there is a way to fix that too.All you have to do is to copy corrupted XP somewhere else (external HDD for example) using external OS such as Ubuntu then install XP on HDD again and after that simply recopy and replace fresh installed XP on the HDD using Ubuntu with the corrupted one from the external HDD.On that way the files that were missing before will now be there and the setup will have enough informations to offer the REPAIR functionality.
This is how I do that when the REPAIR is not available,but in 99% cases it is available.
 
pulsar2121 said:
I would just backup your photos, documents, favorites, etc on a flash drive. Then wipe the hard drive with Windows XP and reinstall XP with Service Pack 2. Then you will have a nice clean install with no issues. You may need to edit the bootloader since you installed XP after 7 instead of vice-versa. Check out this article on how fix the corrupt bootloader for 7 and how to make a boot entry for xp http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=6
Click to expand...
I would like a clean install on my relatively new 160 GB hd. The 40GB one that XP is on is almost full and quite old. However my install to the 160hd has created some problems which may be due to the Dual Boot set up I have at present. More when I investigate.
 
Stars, Yes, I've just checked. You are right my XP disk is a product recovery cd. 8 years old. However it does have the facility to install the operating system so I have just tried that. It started the install ok and was working away with copying files etc then came to a halt. Message came up ' Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt. <windows root>\system32\hal.dll Please install a copy of the above file.
My dual boot system is now in chaos.
I managed to start up by pressing f8 to get into safe mode and started windows XP.
There is no sign of windows 7 on the other hd and cannot access it.
I now have to use safe mode each time to get into XP, fortunately XP is the one I use most.
I Googled the missing file and found about 40 people have the same problem, I don't think the file is missing anyway since I can use XP going thro' safe mode bypassing the registry. I think the install failed because of the dual boot config.
Finally, I do have the full retail version of windows 7 , it may be it could do a repair to the full system but I do not want to lose XP.
Any thoughts on this, Anyone?
 
I've read thro' the link you posted but could not see how to use it. The boot ini file shows two entries of XP,one of which must be the install that failed.How can I add the Win 7 O/S which I know is on the 160 hd. What about putting in my full retail win 7 disc to see if that makes 7 accessible from the 160hd.
 
firefrost said:
Stars, Yes, I've just checked. You are right my XP disk is a product recovery cd. 8 years old. However it does have the facility to install the operating system so I have just tried that. It started the install ok and was working away with copying files etc then came to a halt. Message came up ' Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt. <windows root>\system32\hal.dll Please install a copy of the above file.
My dual boot system is now in chaos.
I managed to start up by pressing f8 to get into safe mode and started windows XP.
There is no sign of windows 7 on the other hd and cannot access it.
I now have to use safe mode each time to get into XP, fortunately XP is the one I use most.
I Googled the missing file and found about 40 people have the same problem, I don't think the file is missing anyway since I can use XP going thro' safe mode bypassing the registry. I think the install failed because of the dual boot config.
Finally, I do have the full retail version of windows 7 , it may be it could do a repair to the full system but I do not want to lose XP.
Any thoughts on this, Anyone?
Click to expand...

Ok let's make one thing clear.
You have 2 hard disk drives in your computer.One HDD has XP OS and the other HDD has Win7 OS right?
Also which of those HDDs is the MASTER and which one is a SLAVE one?

The product recovery disks in 99% cases do not have the REPAIR functionality like in your case.And when you boot those disks,they usually offer you to restore the system to the factory stage.That means that the entire HDD will be automatically formatted and after that Windows OS (XP (in your case),Vista,Win7 and so on)... will be automatically installed on that HDD together with all the drivers for your computer hardware.This is good because the entire procedure does everything for you automatically.

However it is bad because with those product recovery disks you cannot REPAIR Windows operating system and on that way you will always be forced to format the HDD and also be forced to always reinstall all your programs and games and so on.
What is ALSO bad is that product recovery disks in 99% cases do NOT ask you on which HDD and on which partition you actually want to install Windows OS.All you can do in 99% is just install Windows OS from the product recovery disk and HOPE it will install on the correct HDD.This is usually bad if you have 2 hard disk drives because you cannot know if the product recovery disk will screw up the HDD which you actually do NOT want to touch at all especially if you have other operating system on it which you logically do NOT want to remove which is in your case Windows 7.
So what you wanted to do is to reinstall Windows XP using that product recovery disk on the HDD on which screwed XP OS actually IS.However I alerady said that product recovery disks USUALLY do not offer the option to select on which HDD you want to install Windows OS and in your case that is very bad since you might have just formatted the HDD which you DID NOT WANT TO FORMAT.

But okay.First don't freak out lol.If you have VERY important data on that formatted HDD,try to recover it using free programs for the recovery of the deleted data.If it fails completely,I can try to recover the data for you in my special UAC service for a very low cost.Plus if I do not recover anything,I do not charge anything.However it is against the forum rules to post any of my services and prices here so you can send me a message on: [email protected]

Ok let's move on.If you do not have any important data you want to recover then all you have to do is to install XP on your HDD which you used to use for XP.However since you cannot know on which HDD your XP product recovery disk WILL INSTALL XP OS,you must go to the BIOS and set your CD/DVD-ROM drive to be the FIRST device to boot from and your HDD for XP as the second device to boot from AND your Windows 7 HDD to be as the third device to boot from.
Now...most BIOSES have the ability to disable the HDD which you want to disable.So if you can,DISABLE your Windows 7 HDD completely.If you do not have that option,open your computer case and completely unplug your Windows 7 HDD.
Once you have done all this,go and boot from the XP recovery product disk and install XP from it.

NOTE: If for some reason XP install fails then you might need to format your HDD completely first.I recommend you to use KILL DISK DOS program which you can ALSO boot from the CD-ROM disk.You can download it from here: http://software.lsoft.net/boot-cd-iso.zip
So just download that,burn it to the blank CD-ROM disk using any software for burning images and then boot from that burned CD-ROM disk.Select Active Kill Disk and then format your XP HDD with it.
JUST BE SURE THAT YOU SELECT THE CORRECT HDD TO FORMAT BECAUSE ONCE KILL DISK FORMATS YOUR HDD COMPLETELY,ALL THE DATA THAT WAS STORED ON IT IS GONE FOREVER!
ALSO BE SURE TO SELECT THE HDD YOU WANT TO FORMAT AND NOT ONE OF IT'S PARTITIONS!!!

Once Kill Disk has formatted your HDD,exit Kill Disk,shut down your computer and then turn it back on and now again boot from your XP product recovery disk and install XP OS on that formatted HDD.


Once you have managed to put XP properly on that HDD following the above procedure,let us know so that I can help you with Windows 7 too.



Cheers everyone!

UAC - User Access Commands
 
STARS, Yes,One hd master with XP and one hd slave with two partitions, Win7 and empty.
The product recovery cd DID ask where to install and did that part correctly but hung up saying the hal.dll file was missing.
When I go into the bios there is no sign of the Win 7 drive now.
At the moment I can get into XP using F8 and it works normally with email etc.Fortunately XP is the one I use 90% of the time anyway.
I need to have access to XP for the next 2 weeks so don't want to format at the moment in case the reinstall goes bad.
I have taken note of your and others comments and no doubt it will probably come to unplugging Win 7 and formatting XP.
Meanwhile two short questions.
Can I use my full retail disk Win 7 to repair the system or if I borrow a friends XP disk could that be used for repair purposes?
 
firefrost said:
STARS, Yes,One hd master with XP and one hd slave with two partitions, Win7 and empty.
The product recovery cd DID ask where to install and did that part correctly but hung up saying the hal.dll file was missing.
When I go into the bios there is no sign of the Win 7 drive now.
At the moment I can get into XP using F8 and it works normally with email etc.Fortunately XP is the one I use 90% of the time anyway.
I need to have access to XP for the next 2 weeks so don't want to format at the moment in case the reinstall goes bad.
I have taken note of your and others comments and no doubt it will probably come to unplugging Win 7 and formatting XP.
Meanwhile two short questions.
Can I use my full retail disk Win 7 to repair the system or if I borrow a friends XP disk could that be used for repair purposes?
Click to expand...

Just unplug the slave HDD and leave the master HDD plugged in only and then follow the procedure I gave you above.

As for your question:

If you do not want to reinstall XP and instead you just want to repair it,you will need to either buy or borrow the standard XP disk from someone because you have the product recovery disk and that one cannot be used for the repair.
NOTE: Be sure that the XP disk you will use for the REPAIR has the SAME service pack version as your system does.The disk can also have newer service pack version than the one your system has,BUT NOT OLDER VERSION OTHERWISE AFTER THE REPAIR YOU MIGHT END UP WITH SOME PROGRAMS NOT WORKING SUCH AS SIMPLE DISK DEFRAGMENTER AND SO ON...


If you do not know how to do this,you can add me on MSN messenger or Skype and I will help you:

MSN messenger hotmail address: [email protected]
Skype user name: freeman.gordon4
 
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