Though Windows XP was first released quite a while ago, on 25 October 2001, it is still the most widely used operating system in the world. According to marketshare.hitslink.com, at the end of November 2008, Windows XP was the most widely used operating system in the world with a 66.31% market share.

So I guess many of you are still using it and some of you might find the following advice useful at some point, though I sincerely hope you don’t get to find yourselves in the position to need it.

For various reasons your Windows XP might crash, that’s something we all know. Repairing the Windows XP (Home or Professional) system is much easier if we are still able to use the Safe Mode. But what about when even launching your Win XP system in Safe Mode is not possible? (related article: Dual Boot Windows 7 And XP Easily: Windows 7 Installation Directly From XP Without A LiveDVD)

Let’s say that your system:

- starts but fails to start loading Windows XP – it just hangs at this point;

- starts but stops responding during the Windows startup or during the Safe Mode startup (no matter the Safe Mode type, whether it is the simple Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Command Prompt or Safe Mode with Networking);

- is automatically restarting when trying to load Windows or when it should be starting to load Windows

- the so-called BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) is displayed before or during the Windows loading process.

There could be many causes for this behavior: a critical Registry error, a virus, etc. Anyway, if you have a Windows XP install bootable CD, you might try the following method. I think it’s pretty simple, pretty risk-free (if applied exactly as shown below) and pretty reliable (it worked each of the 3 times I had to use it on the computers of my friends).

1.Make sure your system will boot from CD, insert the Windows XP install bootable CD and start your computer.

To boot from CD you might need to set this option in your computer’s BIOS. This may be done usually by pressing the setup key almost exactly after you’ve turned on your PC. Most of the time the setup key is the Delete key (Amibios, Award BIOS, etc) or the F2 key (some Dell systems). Once you entered your computer’s BIOS look for the menu containing the boot device priority (boot device order, boot device sequence). Note: the boot options may be found in the “Advanced BIOS Features” menu on some AwardBIOS systems. Then, set up your system to boot from CD (choose the CDROM as the first boot device, or just make sure your computer will boot from CD before booting from hard-disk).

2.Let the computer start, load and boot from the CD. From the menu that shows up next, press the R key to enter the Recovery Console.

After you start the Recovery Console, you should receive the following message:

“Microsoft Windows XP(TM) Recovery Console.

The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality
Type EXIT to quit the Recovery Console and restart this computer.

1: C:\WINDOWS

Which Windows installation would you like to log onto
(To cancel, press ENTER)?”

Enter the number for the appropriate Windows XP installation, and then enter the administrator account password.

When asked “Which Windows Installation would you like to log onto?” press 1 if there is only one single Windows installation on your computer or choose another number for another Windows instance. Then enter the administrator account password – this can be blank, in which case just press Enter.

Note: If you enter an incorrect administrator account password three times, the Recovery Console quits. Also, if the SAM database is missing or is damaged, you won’t be able to use the Recovery Console because you cannot be properly authenticated.

After you enter your password and the Recovery Console starts, entering exit will restart your computer.

3.Just in case things won’t work as they should, it’s time to manually create a backup of the existing situation by copying some important folders to a temporary directory.

Supposing the variable %systemroot%=C:\Windows, (your Windows XP is installed to the C:\Windows folder) and the c:\Windows\Temp folder is not deleted or corrupted, type the following:

copy C:\windows\system32\config\system C:\windows\temp\system.bak

Now press Enter.

If everything is OK (no typing errors or other messages, such as “Access denied” displayed, which could mean that the Windows crash might not be solved using this method) , the “1 file(s) copied” message should be displayed.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\software C:\windows\temp\software.bak

Now press Enter and check if the “1 file(s) copied” message is displayed.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\sam C:\windows\temp\sam.bak

Now press Enter and check if the “1 file(s) copied” message is displayed.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\security C:\windows\temp\security.bak

Now press Enter and check if the “1 file(s) copied” message is displayed.

copy C:\windows\system32\config\default C:\windows\temp\default.bak

Now press Enter and check if the “1 file(s) copied” message is displayed.

You may also type “md tmp” and press Enter before the first command line stated above and create a new directory, in this case called “tmp”, which you may use instead of the C:\windows\temp folder that was used as an example above.

4. Type as follows (press Enter after each line):

delete C:\windows\system32\config\system
delete C:\windows\system32\config\software
delete C:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete C:\windows\system32\config\security
delete C:\windows\system32\config\default

copy C:\windows\repair\system C:\windows\system32\config\system

copy C:\windows\repair\software C:\windows\system32\config\software

copy C:\windows\repair\sam C:\windows\system32\config\sam

copy C:\windows\repair\security C:\windows\system32\config\security

copy C:\windows\repair\default C:\windows\system32\config\default

5.Type “exit” and press Enter to restart the computer.

Do not boot from CD this time, let the computer boot from hard-disk, as usual.

If everything worked out fine until now, Windows should load. But there’s still some things to do if you want to bring your Windows system to the same condition it was before the crash.

5.Open “My Computer” or any other folder. Then go to the upper menu of the opened folder, select “Tools”, then “Folder Options”. In the middle tab, the one called “View” of the newly opened window make sure the “Show hidden files and folders” option is enabled. If it is not, then check it and press OK.

Also click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box. Click Yes when a dialog box asking for confirmation that you want to display these files appears.

6.Now you have to look for the folder called “System Volume Information” on C (C:/System Volume Information) and open it.

If the drive partition was NTFS partitioned, it may happen that you need administrative rights to open it (receiving an “Access denied” message should indicate this situation). To enable the current user to access this folder, right click the “System Volume Information” folder and go to the “Sharing and Security” menu entry. Or right-click the folder, choose “Properties”, then click the “Sharing” or the “Security” tab. If there is no “Security” tab (as in the Windows XP Home Edition), use Network Sharing and Security and tick the “Share this folder on the network” and the “Allow net users to change my files” checkboxes, while providing a “Share name” for this folder in the appropriate field as well.

Once you enter the System Volume Information folder you will find one or more folders that should look like this: “_restore{59567B15-8D68-465A-858D-23949B875200}”.

You have to look for when they are created and locate the one that was created at the date closest to the Windows crash (and before the Windows crash, of course). Anyway, open a folder that was not created at the current time. You may click Details on the View menu to see when these folders were created.

Enter the chosen folder and you shall find one or more snapshots (folders) that look as you may see in the picture below.

Check their creation dates and choose one created before the Windows crash. Open it and then open the “Snapshot” folder that you will find inside it.

8. You should find the following files:

_registry_user_.default
_registry_machine_security
_registry_machine_software
_registry_machine_system
_registry_machine_sam

Copy these files to the C:\Windows\Temp folder.

(Or the C:\Windows\tmp folder if you created a new folder called “Tmp” using the “md” command, and copied the C:\windows\system32\config\system, C:\windows\system32\config\software, C:\windows\system32\config\sam, C:\windows\system32\config\security, C:\windows\system32\config\default folders there when backing up the current settings – using the Recovery Console commands).

7.Once these files copied to the specified folder, restart your PC and boot once again from the CD.

Enter the Recovery Console once again as shown in the beginning of this article (the 2nd step).

8.Type as follows (press Enter after each line):

del c:\windows\system32\config\sam
del c:\windows\system32\config\security
del c:\windows\system32\config\software
del c:\windows\system32\config\default
del c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\temp\_registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy c:\windows\temp\_registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system

copy c:\windows\temp\_registry_machine_sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam

copy c:\windows\temp\_registry_machine_security c:\windows\system32\config\security

copy c:\windows\temp\_registry_user_.default c:\windows\system32\config\default

9.Type “exit” and press Enter to restart the computer. Let the computer boot from the hard-disk. Windows should load without any problem and everything should be as it was before the Windows crash. Yeah, I know, hooray and stuff…

But I think it would be a good idea to take this chance, maybe the last one and backup your important stuff, if you haven’t done so already.

Looking out for what caused the problem, was it a critical registry error, a virus, a malware or anything else, is a good idea too in my opinion. So make sure you have a functional antivirus software installed and with its virus database up-to-date. Letting it then perform a complete system scan is also recommended.

Cleaning and fixing your Windows Registry might also help. There are plenty of programs that do a pretty good work when it comes to this. Wise Registry Cleaner, CCleaner, EasyCleaner, are just a few examples.

Good luck,

Rainer - downloadtube.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 2:07 am and is filed under Operating Systems, Windows Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.