winxp help

[Michael Hipp]

Ken Moffat wrote:
> Not a linux question, but surely there is WindowsXP crash experience here.
> 
> My wife's WinXP box fails to boot in to winxp using grub. Some 
> partitioning snafu. Can someone tell me what I need to backup before 
> reinstalling in order to restore bookmarks and such? I see a "Documents 
> and settings" folder that might do the trick. Anything else of great 
> importance?

Given that 85% of my daily work is still Windows stuff (bows head in shame) I 
have considerable experience resurrecting XP boxes that have become 
spontaneously unbootable. They need no help from grub to achieve that.

Sometimes you gotta get into the recovery console and restore the original 
(plain Jane) registry files and then restore to a newer restore point. There's 
a messy KB article that details the procedure. (On the upside, it will make 
you appreciate the Linux CLI like never before. Bash, I love you.)

Anymore I generally skip that and just reinstall WinXP over the top of the 
existing installation. It seems to do a good job of keeping everything intact 
but fixing whatever was broken. Afterwards, make sure the firewall is enabled 
and then get on the Inet and install all security patches. If it runs anything 
Norton, that will have to be reinstalled. Or better yet, just ditch it.

Then retire to the den and continue practice with your Bill Gates dartboard :-)

Michael