Repairing XP

[dg]

T41, XP Pro SP2
----------
I'm new to XP, and both my newish Thinkpad and myself are struggling with it. So many things are wrong. including a report of a "serious error caused by a device driver", but I don't know which one, as I hadn't installed anything new in the previous few days. Other problems include MS Backup and the Recycle Bin not working properly, and difficulties with my home network. I think I have to reinstall Windows before it crawls to a stop. But how can I do this?

System Restore won't help in this case, as the machine has never worked properly since the beginning. There's no evidence that restoring to a recent restore point would improve matters.

If I use Rescue and Recovery, it seems that when I restore, it restores ALL the files as they were, even if there are corrupted Windows ones. The only other option I can see is to restore to the factory settings and spend several days again reinstalling all the software. I want to avoid that if at all possible.

With Win98, one could go to
Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Information
and pick System File Checker from the Tools menu. This would then replace any corrupted system files. I can't see this option in XP. Am I missing something obvious? Surely there is some way of checking for and repairing corrupted files without wiping the hard drive.

Has anyone found a good use for RnR? It seems a very poorly thought out piece of software to me. I used it to copy a back up onto a friend's USB hard drive, and now there is no way of deleting the hidden folder without reformatting his hard drive. As I understand it, every so often one has to delete all the RnR backups before creating a new one. This leaves you very vulnerable in that time in between, or have I got it wrong.

Thanks for any help.

[jdhurst]

My T41 works flawlessly with XP and has done since day 1 at the end of 2003. My suggestion would be to re-image it (F11), use Software installer to update all the drivers, then install all the XP patches including SP2. After that add strong anti-virus and spyware products to keep these threats at bay. Should work. ... JD Hurst

[GomJabbar]

I believe most of your points are accurate. The idea is to make regular backups (preferrably to DVD or another hard drive, or even CD/R's if that's all you have). Then if you run into a problem like you are experiencing, you can use IBM Rapid Restore Ultra to bring your system up to the point of your last good backup. If you never made a backup while the laptop was in good condition, then basically you have to restore to factory contents, and start over.

It may be possible to reinstall Windows from a Windows install CD of the same version and service pack level. In fact, I believe I've read of some that have repaired their system by just reinstalling a service pack update. If you are running Windows XP, you can download Service Pack 2 to your hard disk, and install it. It may be worth a try to see if that repairs your system.

Regarding deleting that folder you mentioned, try what I posted here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... hlight=tip

[carbon_unit]

There is a way to do a repair install of windows XP, but you need a real windows XP cd in order to do it.
If you have access to a regular XP cd try this:
Boot to the XP cd and tell it to install windows.
Press "F8" to continue.
At the next window it will instruct you to press "r" for a repair using recovery console or "enter" to continue. Press "enter" to continue.
The next prompt will tell you to press "r" to do a repair installation ot "enter" to continue. Press "r" to repair.
Now windows will look like it is installing windows all over again but it is not, it is replacing the bad files with the ones from the cd.
When it asks you to make a new user just continu on without making any new users.
When it is done windows will be restored without losing any of your files.
At that point reinstall all of your device drivers.

The other alternative is to do the "F11" at boot and just restore the machine to new condition. You will lose all your personal files/data that way.

[dg]

Thanks for your responses. Perhaps I should have mentioned that I have installed AV and spyware products from word go (Norton AV, AdAware, Spybot and MS AntiSpyware), and carry out regular back ups. (My data backups have always been good; my system backups are now improving.)

My XP came pre-installed, and included SP2. Windows updates have always been set to install automatically. So, I think I have been ticking all the right boxes.

IBM don't supply an XP CD. If I get hold of one, does it matter that the product key won't correspond to my machine? Will it ask me to activate it? From carbon_unit's response I see that it has to be a CD which includes SP2. That was very helpful, and I intend to try it.


Incidentally, RnR has superseded Rapid Restore Ultra. I found this confusing because the Access IBM Help still refers to the latter, but see

www-306.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-4Q2QAK.html

Further advice from anyone is still welcome. This forum has proved more helpful than the IBM Helpdesk.

[SeanM]

Sounds kinda' quirky, did you add any memory to the machine? If so, try taking the extra dimm out.

Rescue & Recovery contains Rapid Restore Ultra, in the same way that MS Office contains Excel.

Can you repair install from the \i386 directory? Maybe run winnt32 from there?

[carbon_unit]

Can you repair install from the \i386 directory? Maybe run winnt32 from there?

That might be possible but are you sure the files on the hd are not corrupt? The virus's absolutely can not corrupt the cd.
When doing a repair install it won't ask for the product key but you may have to re activate or maybe not, I have seen it go both ways. Go figure.

[dg]

SeanM,

This sounds interesting. Pardon my ignorance, but what will happen if I just double click on winnt.exe? Where is it documented? Should I add a "switch", and if so, how?

And no, I haven't added any extra memory. It's still got the original 256MB. I am waiting to see if the problems can be sorted before spending any more money on it.