Bookmark This! June 23, 2006 posted by Red

The Non-Destructive Windows XP fix.

windowsxp The Non Destructive Windows XP fix.

The No-Reformat, Non-Destructive Total-Rebuild Windows XP Fix. Fred the Langa reckons you can ‘non destructively’ repair a dodgy Windows XP installation while leaving your existing applications untouched and fully working. I’m sure I’ve tried this and failed miserably, but maybe I did something wrong. You have a go.

But it’s worth exploring because this option lets you completely and nondestructively rebuild, repair, or refresh an existing XP installation while leaving already-installed software alone (no reinstallation needed!). It also leaves user accounts, names, and passwords untouched and takes only a fraction of the time a full, from-scratch reinstall does. And unlike a traditional full reinstall, this option doesn’t leave you with two copies of XP on your hard drive. Instead, you end up with just the original installation, but repaired, refreshed, and ready to go.

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Red – who has written 10167 posts on The Red Ferret Journal.

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http://blackashro.be Krisjohn

That technique typically only works if the version of Windows you have on CD has all the service packs you’ve installed on your system. If you have an original or SP1 install CD but you’ve installed SP2 on your system, a rebuild like this will usually result in a non-booting PC.
Adidas02

Don’t forget that you will need to re-run all of the updates you added since the original machine install. All your updates get lost so your install is techinaclly only as up to date as the version on the CD you booted from..
Andy

Man, you Windows users put up with too much!
Get a mac or use linux
I know Red will appreciate my comment ;)
Red

Andy, get a life, get a head, get a Mac? :-)