Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics (
More info?)
I can only suggest you talk to Sony and see if they will make it available
to you or to purchase it at retail.
When it comes to purchasing a PC or Laptop, the lack of such disk is a deal
breaker as far as I'm concerned for precisely the reason you mention. You
can't always know in advance though you can contact the company's sales
department and try to get confirmation or at least determine if they will
make a retail version or non-customized OEM version available to you for an
additional price.
Failing that, I recommend to all users make the purchase at retail as it
provides more recovery options without having to face losing all your data
though the best choice in that regard is the third line in my signature and
even having a retail disk is no substitute for it. Nonetheless, people tend
to balk at this saying "XP was essentially purchased with their computer or
a part of their computer package and included in their purchase price."
That is wrong. The fee for XP as supplied by manufacturers whether as a
recovery partition on the hard drive or as recovery disks that do as you
describe is a very small portion of the overall purchase price.
I can't guarantee the retail version will prevent you from ever losing data
but it does provide you with more options. For example, assuming a repair
install fails (You don't likely even have a repair install option with your
recovery CDs) you can do a clean install to a separate partition and
assuming the original installation, though unbootable is still intact, you
could then copy your data from the old setup to the new setup.
Recovery routines on most recovery disks don't provide such an option as
their routine will automatically install to the drive to which they were
originally programmed. While the above scenario would require additional
third party software to create a new partition if an extra partition isn't
currently available on the hard drive, the user would still have options
unavailable with recovery disks and recovery partitions.
--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/
"louisa14" <louisa14@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:7516E289-CA78-4054-8258-A59FB8D9F748@microsoft.com...
>I swear to God i followed all the directions in that knowledge based
>article
> for repairing the registry but now my computer won't even get to that blue
> screen. It says "Windows not able to boot up becase the
> "c:\windows\system32\config\system" is missing or corrupt. I went back in
> and checked the directory of the c:\windows\system32\config folder and the
> system one was there. Now my computer is even more screwed up. What
> should
> I do?
>
> P.S. everyone keeps asking me if I have my XP CD. Why would I have this
> and
> where would it be? I have a Sony Vaio Desktop and i have no XP CD. The
> only
> CD's I have are the system recovery ones that clear out the hard drives
> and
> start you from scratch. Is there anyway to get one of those XP CD's?
>
> "Michael Solomon (MS-MVP)" wrote:
>
>> Well, since we don't know when it began, the problem could either be SP2
>> or
>> perhaps the spyware removal was a bit to aggressive and removed something
>> the system needed. Since "Last Known..." didn't work and neither did
>> Safe
>> Mode, try the following Knowledge Base Article for recovering from a
>> corrupted registry:
>>
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545
>>
>> If that fails to resolve it, you'll need to do a repair install as
>> follows.
>> This will put the system back to pre-SP1 and SP2 condition and any other
>> post setup updates that have been installed will be removed as well
>> though
>> reinstalling SP2 will bring the system up to data with regard to all
>> necessary updates up to the time of SP2's release:
>>
>> NOTE, while a repair install should leave your data files intact, if
>> something goes wrong during the repair install, you may be forced to
>> start
>> over and do a clean install of XP. If you don't have your data backed
>> up,
>> you would lose your data should that eventuality occur.
>>
>> Assuming your system is set to boot from the CD-ROM drive and you have an
>> actual XP CD as opposed to a recovery CD, boot with the XP
>> CD in the drive and perform a repair install as outlined below. If the
>> system isn't set to boot from the CD or you are not sure, you need to
>> enter
>> the system's BIOS. When you boot the system, the first screen usually
>> has
>> instructions that if you wish to enter set press a specific key, when you
>> see that, do so. Then you will have to navigate to the boot sequence, if
>> the CD-ROM drive is not first line, set it first in the boot sequence.
>> Save
>> your settings and exit with the XP CD in the drive. The system will
>> reboot.
>>
>> When the system boots, a few screens into the process you may see a
>> message
>> instructing you
>> to hit any key in order to boot from the CD along with a countdown. When
>> you see this be sure to
>> hit a key on the keyboard, if you miss this instruction and the system
>> fails
>> to boot from the CD, it's too
>> late, you'll need to reboot and try again.
>>
>> Once you have pressed a key, setup should begin. You will see a
>> reference
>> asking if you need to load special drivers and another notice that if you
>> wish to begin the ASR (Automatic Recovery Console) depress F2. Just let
>> setup run past all of that. It will continue to load files and drivers.
>>
>> Then it will bring you to a screen. Eventually, you will come to a
>> screen
>> with the option to (1) setup Windows or (2) Repair Windows Installation
>> using the Recovery console. ***The selection you want at this screen is
>> "Setup Windows,"
>> NOT "Repair Windows Installation.
>>
>> The first option, to setup Windows is the one you want and requires you
>> to
>> press enter. When asked, press F8 to accept the end user agreement.
>> Setup
>> will then search for previous versions of Windows. Upon finding your
>> version, it will ask if you wish to Repair your current installation or
>> install fresh. Press R, that will run a repair installation. From there
>> on, follow the screens.
>>
>> Note, in some cases, you won't receive the repair option, only an option
>> to
>> reinstall. We have discovered that sometimes this is caused by damaged
>> boot.ini file that can be repaired as follows and also note, in the
>> instructions, "K" refers to the CD drive in which you have placed the XP
>> CD,
>> replace that drive letter with the appropriate letter on your system, "K"
>> is
>> simply an example.
>>
>> Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option (this is the section I
>> told
>> you to skip above. In this case, you will need to get to the Recovery
>> Console to perform the function below), and if the CD letter is say K:
>> give
>> these commands
>>
>> COPY K:\i386\ntldr C:
>> COPY K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:
>> (two other files needed - just in case)
>> ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
>> DEL C:\boot.ini
>> BootCfg /Rebuild
>>
>> Once you've completed this function, reboot and see if you can access XP
>> as
>> sometimes, the problem is the damaged boot.ini. If you still cannot
>> access
>> XP, then reboot and re-run the repair install instructions at the
>> beginning
>> of this message.
>>
>> If you only have a recovery CD, your options are quite limited. You can
>> either purchase a retail version of XP which will allow you to perform
>> the
>> above
>> among other tools and options it has or you can run your system recovery
>> routine with the Recovery CD which will likely wipe your drive, deleting
>> all
>> files but will restore your setup to factory fresh condition.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Michael Solomon MS-MVP
>> Windows Shell/User
>> Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
>> DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/
>>
>> "louisa14" <louisa14@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:138277F9-B2E3-4CFD-A466-3EBA05408CE9@microsoft.com...
>> > After installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 and removing some spyware on
>> > my
>> > computer, I restarted my computer. The boot went as normal all the way
>> > to
>> > the blue screen where the Windows logo reveals your username where you
>> > can
>> > type the password or log onto Windows. The problem was that only the
>> > Windows
>> > logo popped up. I could not click on my username to log into Windows.
>> > It
>> > will not start in Safe Mode or Last Good Mode. I also have tried to use
>> > the
>> > Windows Recovery file on the Microsoft website. That would not start
>> > up
>> > the
>> > restore file using that. What else can I do? I cannot loose my hard
>> > drive
>> > information so I can't reformat or just recover my original system.
>>
>>
>>
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