Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

[Train]

Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp


Amongst the files it fixes are:


Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
Corrupt registry hives (\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32\\CONFIG\\xxxxxx)
Invalid BOOT.INI files
A corrupt NTOSKRNL.EXE
A missing NT Loader (NTLDR)


I found that article quite enlightning.

[Philip M]

Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp


Amongst the files it fixes are:


Windows Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL)
Corrupt registry hives (\\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM32\\CONFIG\\xxxxxx)
Invalid BOOT.INI files
A corrupt NTOSKRNL.EXE
A missing NT Loader (NTLDR)


I found that article quite enlightning.

I have to say that I found it utterly terrifying.

[Broni]

Interesting. I'll have to try it on some "victim".

[Train]

Interesting. I'll have to try it on some "victim".

Dos / Dos like commands are not that hard to deal with.

[Broni]

Sure thing. I just wanna see, how effective this procedure is, because those listed errors are usually a huge headache.

[Train]

Headache is right!

But if it works, it would sure beat a clean install all to pieces.

[SpywareDr]

http://icrontic.com/articles/repair_windows_xp/page2

1. cd ..
2. attrib -h c:\boot.ini
3. attrib -s c:\boot.ini
4. attrib -r c:\boot.ini
5. del boot.ini
6. bootcfg /rebuild
7. chkdsk /r /f
8. fixboot

You should be able to do the exact same thing with 5 commands:

1. cd /d c:\
2. del /a:rsh boot.ini
3. bootcfg /rebuild
4. chkdsk /f
5. fixboot

Comments:

1. cd /d c:\ = Moves you from ANY drive:\directory to the root of drive C:
2. del /a:rsh boot.ini = Forces deletion of the boot.ini file, (in spite of its Read-only, System and Hidden attributes).
3. bootcfg /rebuild = (same command)
4. chkdsk /r = The "/r" parameter also implies "/f"
5. fixboot = (same command)

[Train]

SpywareDr, THANKS!

[SpywareDr]

No problem.

[niiiro]

very useful article for future problems

bookmarked.

thanks!

[WhitPhil]

When I first saw this thread, I was intrigued as to how recreating the boot.ini file and the boot record, was going to correct a missing or corrupt registry hive or corrupt NTOSKRNL or missing NTLDR, but thought that I'd wait for the error to happen, so this procedure could be suggested.

Then, I had a power "blip", the PC shut down and on rebooting it got the error about a missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM.

So, dragged out my Recovery Console CD, booted to it, ran through the commands and as I suspected, the procedure doesn't have a hope of correcting a missing registry hive. In my case, the entire \Config folder was corrupt, and chkdsk turned it into a "FOUND.000" file!

(And, btw, the cd /d c:\ and chkdsk /f commands are not valid from the recovery console.)

But, the good news is that I found a recovery procedure that is easier than the MS one noted above.

I used BartPE to boot with, recreated the \Config folder, found my System Recovery Folders and copied the backed up hives into \Config, renamed them appropriately and successfully rebooted.