Repairing an older win xp laptop boot-up.
by masterclassic from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5DAX9)
Hello.
I'm trying to "repair" a win-xp installation on a Pentium 4 laptop, to rescue a friend with financial problem (in addition to several health issues). The laptop (from 2005) had rather low specs even when new (512MiB RAM only). It stopped booting-up. A technician said that the hard drive was dead and that he had to look for some other computer (he proposed to sell him a used/refurbished one).
I found myself that the hard drive was still running. Partition table and MBR seem good, the filesystem (ntfs) was accessible from an older Ubuntu 7 live cd (from 2007) and this manner I was able to copy/save user's files (text, office docs and spreadsheets) to a usb stick.
However I wasn't able to restore boot ability through the "recovery console" from the install cd (commands bootcfg, fixboot, fixmbr). I get the screen of selecting Normal boot/Safe boot/Safe boot with network support etc, but in every option the process stops, the computer freezes and what I can do is to cut power by pressing ON/OFF button for several seconds before retrying (with no better result).
According to some internet search, if the commands I used don't fix the problem, one has to go for a full install. I try to avoid this, in order to keep the software already installed and save any other user's files (it seems that such files can be located into many obscure locations of the hard drive's directory tree, e.g. email).
So, what I ask:
1. Is it possible to run any other recovery/repair activity from the xp install cd before full reinstall? I remember a "Repair" option, perhaps in older OS version (win95 ? ) , I don't know if this is valid for xp.
2. Is it still possible to reactivate xp after reinstall (on the exact same original hardware?
And yes, I know it is a bad solution, mostly because of low internet security standards and the fact that web servers need newer protocols. The only thing that makes me still trying is for keeping working an older OKI printer that is "windows only" (as I suspect from what I found in his manual). Otherwise, I plan to propose my friend some light Linux installation.
Any idea is welcome!
I'm trying to "repair" a win-xp installation on a Pentium 4 laptop, to rescue a friend with financial problem (in addition to several health issues). The laptop (from 2005) had rather low specs even when new (512MiB RAM only). It stopped booting-up. A technician said that the hard drive was dead and that he had to look for some other computer (he proposed to sell him a used/refurbished one).
I found myself that the hard drive was still running. Partition table and MBR seem good, the filesystem (ntfs) was accessible from an older Ubuntu 7 live cd (from 2007) and this manner I was able to copy/save user's files (text, office docs and spreadsheets) to a usb stick.
However I wasn't able to restore boot ability through the "recovery console" from the install cd (commands bootcfg, fixboot, fixmbr). I get the screen of selecting Normal boot/Safe boot/Safe boot with network support etc, but in every option the process stops, the computer freezes and what I can do is to cut power by pressing ON/OFF button for several seconds before retrying (with no better result).
According to some internet search, if the commands I used don't fix the problem, one has to go for a full install. I try to avoid this, in order to keep the software already installed and save any other user's files (it seems that such files can be located into many obscure locations of the hard drive's directory tree, e.g. email).
So, what I ask:
1. Is it possible to run any other recovery/repair activity from the xp install cd before full reinstall? I remember a "Repair" option, perhaps in older OS version (win95 ? ) , I don't know if this is valid for xp.
2. Is it still possible to reactivate xp after reinstall (on the exact same original hardware?
And yes, I know it is a bad solution, mostly because of low internet security standards and the fact that web servers need newer protocols. The only thing that makes me still trying is for keeping working an older OKI printer that is "windows only" (as I suspect from what I found in his manual). Otherwise, I plan to propose my friend some light Linux installation.
Any idea is welcome!