Windows XP Pro. When turning on my PC the operating system cannot be found.

Does Windows XP Pro disc have a repair function and will I be able to sort this out if I use this function. I have a lot of files I would like to keep rather than format and start again.

Can I use a boot disc and save these files to CD from the hard drive directory. If so how do I find these files in their seperate folders and how do I ouot them onto disc.

Questions, questions questions. Hopefully somebody out there can give the wisdom of their knowledge and help me out.

Thanks in advance

Hibeebri

I am sure that if you run the xp disk from boot it does have a repair function, or you can install afresh system and leave current file intact but you may end up with 2 os's on the drive if the other is still kicking about but at least you will be able to recover your files.


If I remember right though to use the repair console you need to use the admin password that you used when you first installed the system and if you left this blank unfortunatly it dont accept a blank response.


You could use a file manager from dos and if you have another hard drive handy drag the files over to it if all else fails. Hope this gives you a few ideas.

Lets know how you get on with the repair as thats the first option anyways and from there if that failed I would go for a new system install but leave current files intact

Like Dutcho said, you can use the repair command console to fix your pc. It sounds like your master boot record is stuffed.
Do this by booting up with your Win XP CD, then choose the R option (repair) then log onto your windows installation by pressing 1. if you never set an administrator password when you installed windows, you dont need to enter one. At the command prompt type "chkdsk /r" (without the speech marks) it will get up to 76% then take about 20 mins depending on the size of your hard disk. Overall it takes about 25 mins to complete.
You should be fine then

:-)

If the repair function doesn't work out, and u still can't access your OS and the files on harddisk look for a tool called ERD Commander, think its from Winternals as far as i can remember. That one is available as ISO which creates a bootable CD and when booting from that CD it will give u a windows like desktop and some tools like filemanager. This will allow u to copy data or burn stuff to CD

Or what you can do is reinstall xp over xp without formatting.

Get all yer files and do a clean install.

messy way to do it but it can get you out the mither......

Just remember NOT to format