winxp help

[Ken Moffat]

Michael Hipp wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
>

I ended up backing up Doc and Settings and reinstalling due to the lack 
of a real XP cd, just a restore cd. Seems OK, but I'll leave it windows 
only for the foreseeable future. Wife was a bit upset. Second time I had 
to restore.
Thanks, all.