Windows XP Home Repair Install

I know someone who needs to do a Repair Install of Windows XP Home. His Windows Restore CD has been damaged beyond use. Is it possible to do a Repair Install using someone else's Windows XP CD? Do the license keys have to match up to do the Repair Install? I have a Windows XP Pro OEM CD. Would that work?

Thank you.

 

Have you tried last known good... from safe mode to avoid the hassle of repairing?

I think yes, if it's XP Home

I don't think so - this would only matter for activation

Best avoided, I think.

philby

 

He cannot get to Safe Mode. He gets a BSOD. He said that he did a web search (on another PC) for the BSOD message and that it said to do a Windows Repair Install to fix the problem.

 

OK.

Maybe this would work:

• On another box with XP or Vista on board, download Macrium Reflect Free from here
• Create a Linux Rescue Disk
• Boot the problem machine using the disk (having enabled CD boot in the bios)
• You should be now see the Macrium menu in the rescue environment
• See if Macrium recognises the C drive using the explore option
• Connect an external drive and pull off any important data
• Run fix common startup problems from the Macrium menu
• If this doesn't work, you could also tinker with the cmd line function and try to repair/rebuild the boot files (I don't know the correct commands and switches, but I'm sure they exist)
• Finally, reboot and you might be able to get into the machine to get at last known good.... failing that, I think there's a way of doing an XP repair or at least a re-install using the i386 folder.

Please note - I'm not too savvy on this, so the above might be way off. Others will probably be able to give you a very different and more effective steer on this.

Hope this helps

philby

 

Unfortunately, you can't use an XP Professional install disk to perform a repair install of an XP Home version (but philby's suggestion is certainly worth trying)!