XP Recovery 32/64 bit ?

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xterra

Active Member
Sorry Im in a little bit of a rush, but i was just curious if there is a recovery disk for Windows XP 32/64 bit versions ? And if not, can one be made, the vista recovery disk I've tried and it works like a charm, very impressed.
 
Hello xterra, welcome to NST

Create an XP install disk from the i386 folder on your system. Use that to either recover the system with recovery console, repair install, or re-install.
 
Service pack 3 of xp

Just curious, what if you have XP Pro Service pack 3. What are the ascii files that you need to create? How many? What are their names?

Like for service pack 2, but what about service pack 3?
"WIN51IC", "WIN51IC.SP1" and "WIN51IC.SP2".

Thanks for the tutorial, thats probably the best tutorial I've seen so far.
 
Ahh crap, I mistyped my first message, thats what I get for being in a rush. I'm looking for a XP Pro bootable repair cd. Not a reinstallation cd. I'd like to avoid a full reinstall on a relatives computer if I can help it. Something I can leave behind at their house so I dont have to drive 2 hours to fix their pc. Any ideas?
 
Yeah, I understand that, what im doing is building 3 or 4 recovery cds that I can give to some of my relatives who live far far away from me. I know I can repair/recover/install from the original windows xp cd, im asking, what are the steps to create the repair cd before I slipstream it. I've tried NLite with service pack 3, no luck gave me a bunch of error messages. It didnt work as advertised lets just put it that way. Im attemping to slipstream with the tutorial Justin posted above, it shows you everything but Service Pack 3. Theres differences in the file names that I dont know. Like "WIN51", "WIN51C" etc.. Thats what im trying to find out. Sorry if i wasnt clear before. I just want it for the purpose of "Repairing".
 
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You can use the commands

Code: 
fixmbr
fixboot
from the Recovery Console on the disk to repair XP's boot if that's the problem. :wink: Not sure if I understand you even after you explained more in detail...for instance, you said you can leave the disk at your relative's house, but then you said your relative lives about two hours away from you, and you didn't want to drive that far??? :brows: If you were going to drop off the disk at their house, then why not just go the extra mile, and use it to fix their computer? Or did you mean you were going to send it in the mail?
BTW, you can't make illegal copies of the reinstallation disk either, after you create it, so if your relative doesn't have one, I guess you will either need to lend him yours to repair the boot, or else he's out of luck.

Jake
 
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Hrmmm, glahhhwhashesheslk, Yeah know how theres a Vista 32 bit/64 bit recovery cd that neosmart provides? Is there something that doesnt do the installation, but just the repairing for Xp Pro? I have a dad that lives in British Columbia Canada, I live in Maine, USA Its a heck of a drive. Most of my other relatives live in Maine. Yeah I want to mail it.
 
You can install the recovery console on thier hard drive so an XP disc isn't needed and direct them to use the commands Cool posted if things get real bad (i'd also set thier timeout in boot.ini to a second or so, so they don't have to wait too long for Windows to start normally and tell them if a repair is needed to continually press down arrow as they boot the computer til the recovery console is highlighted and press enter), but other than that just put crossloop on thier computer and remote in over the net to fix in windows problems.

FYI, niether you nor your friends need to create an account. Just get their access code over the phone, type it in within a minute or so from when they hit the share button, and upon approval you should be staring at thier desktop.
 
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Hmm...what Justin posted above may work, but your dad would need to have an alternate install on the same computer, so he would probably have to do an repair install first, and then install the Recovery Console there, and then use it to recover the other OS. :wink:
 
kairozamorro said:
What other OS cool?

With the friends/family he's helping I doubt they're dual-booting.
Click to expand...

My point exactly. :smile: In order to perform the instructions from the article you posted, he would need to first be able to access a Windows OS on the same computer that he needs to perform the repairs to. That is why I suggested a repair install, in case his dad doesn't have an alternate install on the same computer. :wink:

How could you install the Recovery Console in an OS you can't boot into in the first place, otherwise? :brows:

Jake
 
Kairozamorro, you are correct, just has a single operating system. XP Pro

Coolname, I could just put the files on his computer for the recovery console ahead of time I guess if theres nothing out there that can be made bootable to do it. *Wink Wink*

But in the case of my other relatives, they wouldnt let me touch their computer if it wasnt broken ahead of time.
 
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xterra said:
Kairozamorro, you are correct, just has a single operating system. XP Pro

Coolname, I could just put the files on his computer for the recovery console ahead of time I guess if theres nothing out there that can be made bootable to do it. *Wink Wink*
Click to expand...

How? If there's only a single OS installed on that computer, and he can't boot into it? Or are you talking about simply preparing for if something happens? I really think you should clarify what it is exactly you want to use the Recovery Console for, if not to recover a broken OS...

Jake
 
From our PMs:

xterra said:
kairozamorro said:
xterra said:
Hi thanks for the reply on the XP recovery topic. The tutorial link you posted, doesnt have any information about XP Pro service pack 3. Do you know the names of the files that need to be created by chance?
Click to expand...

Concentrate first on getting a working XP cd. I've never tried that tutorial, so good luck with it. If you do manage to produce a working XP cd/dvd, you can take that disk and use nlite to slipstream in sp3.

If all else fails, find a friend with an XP cd you can borrow. Should you need to re-install, you should be able to with thier cd as long as you enter your product key.
Click to expand...


Hi Justin,
I actually do have a working Windows XP Pro Cd, but its service pack 2. Im trying to make a recovery cd for the purpose of giving to a few of my relatives who constantly call me to come fix their computer when windows doesnt startup. My goal is to make one of each service pack to have on hand. I have tried nlite before probably a few weeks ago, but i couldnt get it to work, was getting errors that I cant remember now unfortunately.
Click to expand...

From my understanding he's looking for a pre-disaster solution. Even if the OS couldn't boot at the moment, a repair install with his own disc following the recovery console install to the hard drive when he gets the OS booting again should work.
 
Ok...my bad. :shame: I had always assumed a "repair install" was simply a temporary reinstall of the whole OS, so you can *repair* your main installation that's not booting, but I have never actually tried to do one myself, because I've never had a need. Doing a search just now for repair install disks and the like, I found out a "repair install" actually just replaces all the system files of an installation with the files on the CD.

Anyhoo, I found something you both may find interesting...:grinning:

Creating A Windows XP Recovery Console CD Image -- System Recovery -- InformationWeek
 
lol

Ok in my first posting, i was asking about a repair bootable cd for XP Pro (Not an installation/reinstallation cd, not a slipstream) unless you guys classify reinstallation and repair as the same thing then well thats where the confusion is. Then someone suggested a tutorial for slipstreaming, it didnt dawn on me until a little later that it was for slipstreaming...then well from your suggestions the repair cd thing was a copyright issue so, Then, someone explained the recovery console as a pre-emptive way of repairing. If he has to have 2 installs of Windows on his computer to put that recovery console utility on his computer for his first installation then so be it. I guess we can just partition and stick another one on it. And then And then And then. So yes I am looking for a Bootable XP Pro repair cd. Something for my computer-numb relatives who wouldnt stand a prayer at using UBCD. UBCD is way too complicated, its almost as bad as windows itself (Bloated).

Addendum:

whoa, yeah I've seen something very similar to that, except its hardware specific, license key has to be your own. DAM U MICROSOFT !!
 
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The confusion lied primarly with thinking you had a broken computer yourself at first and that you didnt have a XP disk to do a recovery/re-install, until found out elsewise.

I understand you want a recovery console only disc, but its just about impossible. The article that Cool linked to may be of assitance, but no gurantee there.

A lot of rescue CDs on the net provide such a slimmed down version, though it still goes through the proccess of loading windows setup etc. and the one time i've tried such an image it crashed before setup even completed due to missing files.

Now, I still believe the install to hard drive + crossloop would be best here. The hard drive version when installed automatically adds a second entry to boot.ini to boot it, which is also why you'll need to go in and put the timeout at 2 or so seconds, so they can boot XP somewhat normally yet have access to the recovery console if case need be and not haft to boot from x disk and do a whole bunch of additional steps...
 
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