XP start up issues
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XP start up issues
01-07-2009 7:17 PM
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I thought the way to solve it would be to uninstall sp2 and reinstall it. Unfortunately after uninstalling it I was unable to use internet explorer. So I had to use the installation CD that came with the dell to reinstall sp2. I wrongly reinstalled the entirety of windows xp and now when I go to login to windows it says it needs to activate this copy of windows with microsoft before I can log on. So I click on 'OK' and it goes to my familiar desktop background, the mouse works but no icons load up.
There is a lot invaluable information on the hard drive so I would like to restore windows xp to working order with the rest of hard drive intact i.e. not entirely formatted. Please help
Ian
Re: XP start up issues
01-07-2009 8:55 PM
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As to your documents, it depends if the reinstall process also included reformatting the drive. If so, you have probably lost everything. If not, then some things may be lost - it depends where you kept them before. If everything was in My Documents, just try this. In Windows Explorer, don't go to My Documents, but go to C:/Documents and Settings/ If you are lucky, you might just find it has kept a copy of your documents under the old username. Have a poke around there and see what you can find.
If this doesn't work, and there is anything on there that is really important you might want to send the drive to a data recovery specialist. It won't be cheap, but it is amazing what can be recovered with the right tools. If you get to this point then don't use the computer at all until you send it. Any disk access could potentially overwrite any traces of what was there previously
You probably don't want to hear this now, but this is why everyone should keep backups. Once you get it back, one useful thing you could do is repartition the drive so you split the C: drive into a smaller C: and a D:. You keep your data on the 😧 drive, which won't be affected if you have to reformat or reinstall on the C: drive. It is still good to back up your data onto CDs, DVDs, or an external hard drive.
Re: XP start up issues
01-07-2009 9:32 PM
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Re: XP start up issues
01-07-2009 10:05 PM
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If it helped click the thumb
If it fixed it click 'This fixed my problem'
Re: XP start up issues
01-07-2009 10:28 PM
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Re: XP start up issues
01-07-2009 10:38 PM
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Re: XP start up issues
02-07-2009 10:36 AM
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It sounds like something went wrong in the reinstall process. Try running the installation CD again, but choose the Repair option.
Re: XP start up issues
02-07-2009 7:53 PM
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My other PC doesn't have an ethernet port. Hopefully I can retrieve the files I want that way and format the PC to reinstall XP x64. Does that sound feasible?
Re: XP start up issues
02-07-2009 8:30 PM
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Probably an easier option would be to run a Linux live CD like <a href="http://www.knoppix.net/Knoppix">Knoppix</a>. This runs an independent operating system that will not mess up Windows, and should be able to access your hard drive and CD-ROM drive or whatever you want to backup to. See <a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-knopx.htm">here</a> for more information.
Re: XP start up issues
02-07-2009 10:53 PM
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Re: XP start up issues
03-07-2009 1:01 AM
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If it helped click the thumb
If it fixed it click 'This fixed my problem'
Re: XP start up issues
03-07-2009 1:01 PM
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Quote from: Euge ... your links didn't work ...
That's odd, I just copied and pasted the addresses of the pages I was looking at, which worked yesterday, so I can't explain why they don't work now. Glad you found it, anyway.
Re: XP start up issues
04-07-2009 2:05 PM
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But Knoppix bootable linux is working perfectly and I am halfway through moving files with a flash drive to my other PC. It seems that this will work at this stage. Next step is to reinstall XP and format the drive.
Thanks for the help.
Re: XP start up issues
04-07-2009 2:55 PM
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Re: XP start up issues
05-07-2009 9:42 AM
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Still having problems with iTunes though, but thats a known issue with apple not supporting xp x64. They support xp 32 bit and vista 32/64 bit though.
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