repair file to boot from original XP installation CD

[Woodwood]

Time for another update (topic is not forgotten):

I successfully completed the procedures outlined in www.howtohaven.com, and now have an XP installation disc for Windows XP/SP2 and one for Windows XP/SP3

Before using them I thought  I had better make a back-up of the original boot disk, the one on which the operating sys. file pci.sys needed repairing...

During making this back-up I discovered that the back-up program said that the original disk had over 14,000 (fourteen thousand) read errors.  This surprised me, because just under a year ago it was error free, I had only experienced an error on the day I tried to start up in Feb 2017 and I got the report that "pci.sys was missing....".  Where had such a large number of error come from ?  Admittedly that computer was not in use every day.

Then I discovered that it wouldn't boot from the slave drive while both primary and slave were connected to the system.  This issue has not been resolved and is the subject of another topic in this forum (Booting from the Slave Drive in IDE Desktops ).  I was going to use one of many simple disk analysis programs.  I was forced to find and use my Seatools for DOS CD.

Then I kept getting the message something like 'fan not working, shutting down in 5s'  when I tried to boot from CD.  So, as replacing the CPU fan is non-trivial in this system, it seems to me, I had to bodge a solution to this problem, while keeping the CPU cool enough to run. (This is the subject of yet another topic on the forum [Controlling the CPU Fan - ( ‎03-21-2017 04:49 AM ) ], which I need to to update, as well as the previously mentioned topic on booting from slave with primary connected)

So, I got Seatools to scan the disk.

It failed the first short DST, but after running a long scan, it passed.  After about the first 4GB (the space allocated to the recovery partition, and where the read errors in the back-up process started happening) Seatools started detecting blocks with errors.  After less than 101 (100 or 99) errors it stopped and asked me if I wanted to 'skip' or 'repair' - so selected 'repair', a process which took <1s per block.  A can be imagined it took a while to repair all the blocks on the disc in which errors were detected, 100 at a time.  Often the errors were in continous blocks, 100 or more blocks in size.  Sometimes an error would be detected in a block which had previously passed.  I am now at the end of this repair process, with a vast number of empty blocks (aka sectors) which had contained information.  I am not certain how much free space there was on the disc, but it could not not have been more than 15GB, and was probably much less (considering that I think only the 76GB of the C: logical drive was likely to have been affected).  I can't remember when the disc was last defragmented, but it would have been within the last 12 months or never, and with the Windows XP defragmenter.

So just one last scan with Seatools, I hope, having powered down thwe system and left it overnight, and I'm ready to start the repair, if that works.

Woodwood

6.April.2017

[TheOldMan]

This has been an ordeal.  I hope this all works out.

[Woodwood]

I have delayed writing this for unknown reasons ? (laziness, "firefighting", etc)

I did all the things I described in my last post in this thread.

When I did the one last scan with Seatools it reported that were no bad sectors.

When I tried to boot from the original HD, expecting to see the 'insert original installation CD' message, I got a blank (black) screen after the initial POST

Worse than this, when I booted from a bootable CD into Windows XP/PE (I think that's what it is called). and scouited around using Windows Explorer I discovered a vast number of my data files, although readable and useable (e.g., pictures would open and display properly) gave me a message that led me to believe the record of files had been corrupted (would this be the file allocation table ?).  I can't remember the exact message

"repairing" the disk using Seatools writes 'zeros' in any sector it can't read or otherwise blanks it out, destroying any data that might be there (that might be accessible to the O/S).  I should have realised this was going to happen from my experience of cloning the damaged original before I started.

Fortunately I have everything (I think) backed up, although in carrying out my plan (see the end of this post), I'm going to have to re-install a lot of software (what I am going to do about software I can't find the CDs for IDK)

So, the next thing to do (unless anyone has another idea), with Seatools telling me that the disk has no bad sectors after the 'repair', is to try a factory install from the recovery partition (on the same physical disk, but a different logical disk/partition), and see if that works.  If that disk is corrupted as well, I'll have to use the recovery CDs which I made some time ago.  

Woodwood

21.July.2017

[TheOldMan]

Assuming some things here, but if you have the install media that you have made, as described earlier, then you can do what is called a "repair install".  In WinXP, it will install the WinXP over the damaged install and all the software applications will be  installed, too.  Nice!!  Saves you from having to look for the CD, etc.  I would do that rather than using the Recovery Partition, IMHO, first.  If that ends well then forget about the Recovery install.

Here are instructions on "How to do the repair install"

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-a-Windows-XP-%22Repair-Install%22

[Woodwood]

I have heard a repair install.

Thank you for the link to repair install wiki

I understood that it not supposed to overwrite or damage your data files, and that it installs the O/S, but it overwrites your program files.  I think that the work in any re-install is in reinstalling the program files, not the data files

I could never find the the 'Recovery Console'

Finally, do you suggest that I use my 'freshly made' XP/SP3 install CD to do the repair install, or that I use one of my HP recovery media CDs ?

Woodwood

22.July.2017

[TheOldMan]

The Recovery console can be installed from the "homemade CD" only if the extra files are included but I do not think you use that when you do the repair install.  Just follow the instrcutions on the link Iposted.  And I would use the WinXP SP3 CD to do that - not the recovery media.