Recovering Windows XP in 8 Commands

Original Post by Robert Hallock

Insert your Windows XP CD into your CD and assure that your CD-ROM drive is capable of booting the CD. Configuring your computer to boot from CD is outside of the scope of this document, but if you are having trouble, consult Google for assistance.

Once you have booted from CD, proceed until you see the following screen, at which point you will press the “R” key to enter the recovery console:

After you have selected the appropriate option from step two, you will be prompted to select a valid Windows installation (Typically number “1”). Select the installation number, (As mentioned, “1” in most cases), and hit enter. If there is an administrator password for the administrator account, enter it and hit enter. You will be greeted with this screen, which indicates a recovery console at the ready:

Proceeding With the Repair Functions

There are eight commands you must enter in sequence to repair any of the issues I noted in the opening of this guide. I will introduce them here, and then show the results graphically in the next six steps. These commands are as follows:

C: CD ..

C: ATTRIB –H C:boot.ini

C: ATTRIB –S C:boot.ini

C: ATTRIB –R C:boot.ini

C: del boot.ini

C: BOOTCFG /Rebuild

C: CHKDSK /R /F

C: FIXBOOT

BOOTCFG /REBUILD

Now for the most important step of our process, the BOOTCFG /REBUILD

command which searches for pre-existing installations of Windows XP and rebuilds sundry essential components of the Windows operating system, recompiles the BOOT.INI file and corrects a litany of common Windows errors. It is very important that you do one or both of the following two things: First, every Windows XP owner must use /FASTDETECT as an OS Load Option when the rebuild process is finalizing. Secondly, if you are the owner of a CPU featuring Intel’s XD or AMD’s NX buffer overflow protection, you must also use /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN as an OS Load Option. I will demonstrate both commands for the purpose of this guide, but do not set NOEXECUTE as a load option if you do not own one of these CPUs. For the “Enter Load Identifier” portion of this command, you should enter the name of the operating system you have installed. If, for example, you are using Windows XP Home, you could type “Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition” for the identifier. This gives the process some authenticity, if you’re keen on being a perfectionist.

This step verifies the integrity of the hard drive containing the Windows XP
installation. While this step is not an essential function in our process, it’s still good to be sure that the drive is physically capable of running windows, in that it contains no bad sectors or other corruptions that might be the culprit. No screenshot necessary here! Just type CHKDSK /R /F at the C:> prompt. Let it proceed; it could take in excess of 30 minutes on slower computers, when this is finished move on to the seventh and final step.

FIXBOOT

This last step also requires no screenshot. When you are at the C:> prompt,

simply type FIXBOOT. This writes a new boot sector to the hard drive and cleans up all the loose ends we created by rebuilding the BOOT.INI file and the system files. When the Windows Recovery Console asks you if you are “Sure you want to write a new bootsector to the partition C: ?” just hit “Y,” then enter to confirm your decision.

Cleaning up MySpace home page

As many people now a days, I'm a big MySpace user. With all the ability to customize the site, alot of people put tons of 'fluff' on their page, and MySpace themselves is constantly putting new features and people flashing at me to look at. Well after some work, I found a nice GreaseMonkey script that disables users themes (read this makes their home page look like the default page). It makes things look a little cleaner. Shortly after realizing I could clean off themes, I read up on how to remove HTML from a page. So I wrote the following script to remove the big blue bar from the top of MySpace, and several other areas that I find annoying on my logged in view.

1. Install Firefox
   
2. Install GreaseMonkey
   
3. MySpace theme remover - copy of original since I couldn't find it.
   
4. My MySpace Blue Bar + AD remover
   
5. Find other useful scripts at
   

Xara Weekend

Well I'm back from my weekend at Xara... and lets just say it was a BLAST. I had a great time every day. The weather was moderate, and the people and attractions were everything I hoped for. When you get a chance ask me more about it.

Here is a picture Sarah took of me...

More of her pix on her flickr...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bossyphotographer/138366182/

IMG_8112 Originally up

IMG_8112
Originally uploaded by Photo Obsessive Compulsive.

Me at Xara

IMG_8112 Originally up

IMG_8112
Originally uploaded by Photo Obsessive Compulsive.

Me at Xara