How does "repair windows" work on the windows XP CD?

Gotcha Force

I ran a file that i wasnt supposed to and it modified some windows stuff but deleted some other shit from the windows folder (i presume), and now my main computer loads the bios and just loops endlessly. Its basically fucked due to the windows folder.

Does the "repair windows" simply repair your windows folder and make it so your computer functions again, or does it completely reformat your drive and lose all your data?

I have a program that can look a harddrive that has "corrupted" and gain all my data back, but it would be much easier just to "repair windows" if it does what i think it does.

devoir

It repairs Windows by replacing all the main files that it would normally install, without blowing away your registry and (most of) your user settings.

Gotcha Force

devoir wrote: »

It repairs Windows by replacing all the main files that it would normally install, without blowing away your registry and (most of) your user settings.

But the question is does it leave all my files intact? (my documents, music, game saves, etc)

ElectricTurtle

Gotcha Force wrote: »

devoir wrote: »

It repairs Windows by replacing all the main files that it would normally install, without blowing away your registry and (most of) your user settings.

But the question is does it leave all my files intact? (my documents, music, game saves, etc)

Under normal conditions, yes.

blincoln

It's been awhile since I used it, but IIRC it does more or less what you want. However, resetting so much of Windows made me think its main use was just to get the PC bootable so that you could copy off your data, then do a proper format and reinstall.

3lwap0

Gotcha Force wrote: »

I ran a file that i wasnt supposed to and it modified some windows stuff but deleted some other shit from the windows folder (i presume), and now my main computer loads the bios and just loops endlessly. Its basically fucked due to the windows folder.

Does the "repair windows" simply repair your windows folder and make it so your computer functions again, or does it completely reformat your drive and lose all your data?

I have a program that can look a harddrive that has "corrupted" and gain all my data back, but it would be much easier just to "repair windows" if it does what i think it does.

Try running Windows repair, it should replace your critical files - it doesn't format anything.

Also, if you can get to a command prompt - run this: chkdsk /f /r

It will try and shift data over from a physical defect, and also prevent data from being written to bad sectors. Look into replacing that hard drive too.

stigweard

If your windows xp cd and windows install don't have the same service pack, there can be some minor issues, mostly relating to netwokring.

Gotcha Force

stigweard wrote: »

If your windows xp cd and windows install don't have the same service pack, there can be some minor issues, mostly relating to netwokring.

funny you mention that since i was thinking "shit do i have service pack 2 or 1 on this machine" and honestly cant remember.

I think its service pack 2 (luckily i have both an sp1 and sp2 win XP cd)

Alright what im going to do is just repair it, if it deletes all my shit, ill get it back with the program (i cant remember the name of it and i dont know which external its on, so im just going to keep referring to it as "the program" becuase im a dumbass)

Gotcha Force

What the fuck there is no Repair partition anymore when i look at the list of my disks that currently have partitions and shit

god damnit

alright its an old Athlon XP board so i would have to install the sata drivers from a floppy which imtoo lazy to do

what im doing right now is just slaving the harddrive to my newer computer (which i never use because i didnt want to backup my shit hurrr) and transferring EVERYTHING over

FyreWulff

It's on the actual CD itself.. it should have prompted you to hit R when it booted from it to get to Repair mode.

Gotcha Force

FyreWulff wrote: »

It's on the actual CD itself.. it should have prompted you to hit R when it booted from it to get to Repair mode.

on the partition screen i thought my harddrive was showing up but it was actually my flash drive, so it wasnt even recognizing my harddrive thats why it had no repair windows option (it had the recovery console at the screen prior to that though)

FyreWulff

Ow. Okay, nevermind. It does seem your HDD is going south.

Megalodon

Well, given your current circumstances I'm not sure it'd help, but if you're ever in a situation like that and you're not sure if you want to risk losing your files, you can always run a disc bootable OS like Knoppix, grab all the files and copy them to another medium, and then just format the hell out of your drive once your data is safe. I've done it before, works great.