BleepingComputer.com: Does XP have a repair routine?

Is there a button somewhere I can press that'll make my XP Home repair itself?
I suspect its corrupted, and a full re-install is beyond my limited ability.
The shop say they'll do a reinstall for a cool £40 (61 US dollars) but i'll only use them if i have to.

If you have the Windows XP installation disc that came with your PC then you can try the following. Have your install disc ready and insert it when prompted. Click on Start>Run> in the run box that appears print the following text exactly as written and remembering the blank space between sfc and the forward slash, sfc /scannow, click OK and follow the instructions. After the process is finished and you have removed the disc and rebooted your PC then do the following. Go to Start>Run> and enter the following text again remembering the space between the final k and the forward slash, chkdsk /r, once done click on OK and you will get a box saying something along the lines of, "Due to a program being used at present it cannot complete the task, do you want to book the task for the next time your PC starts." click on Y for yes and then hit the Enter button on the keyboard. Once this is done reboot your PC and the checkdisk program will start to scan your PC for missing files etc and will repair them from the fresh backups that the Scannow process installed. It is very easy and not as hard to do as it may seem.

If the above process doesn't cure your problem then come back here and I will attempt to help you through a reformatting of your Windows operating system which again is not as hard as it may seem as long as you have the appropriate discs that came with your system. Good luck.

edit: by the way it can take a good while so please be patient.

This post has been edited by bluesjunior: 24 February 2010 - 06:54 AM

System manufacturer and model?

FWIW: The suggestion by Bluesjunior is a very good one, IMO.

The sfc /scannow command...replaces your current system files which may be missing or damaged.

The chkdsk /r command is the basic XP tool for dealing with file/file system/hard drive situations which affect system performance.

Louis

Sorry, i fell at the first hurdle; I typed sfc /scannow then it asked me to insert my XP Pro disk SP3, but I'm XP Home, not Pro!
I bunged the Home disk in anyway but it wouldn't accept it and kept asking me for a Pro disk.
So I'm off to sulk and watch Judge Judy (sniffle)

How to perform a repair installation of Windows XP:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/s.../nostart.mspx#6

Panic over, it appears my modem was malfunctioning so I got a new router, and also had the shop wipe my hard disk and reinstall XP Home for good measure and now the sun is shining and the birds are singing again..

It seems that you had XP Pro installed instead of XP Home

Glad you resolved it...apprecate the feedback. Happy computing .

Louis