You may be able to use a
Windows XP bootable Floppy Disk to boot from a diskette instead of your hard drive. If your hard drive's boot sector or Windows' basic boot files have been corrupted, this disk will circumvent the problem and boot you into Windows. If you don't have an emergency boot floppy, you may be able to use one created on another PC running Windows XP but there's no guarantee that it will boot your machine.
"
Resolving Boot Issues with a Boot Floppy Disk".
"
How to obtain Windows XP Setup boot disks" and select the download that's appropriate for your Operating System.
The Setup boot disks are available so that you can run the Setup program on computers that cannot use a bootable CD-ROM.Another option is to create a
Bootable CD:
•
Bootable CD FAQs•
How To Boot your Computer from a Bootable CD or DVD•
How to Create a Bootable Windows XP Setup Disk on a Preinstalled/Preloaded Windows System•
Creating A Windows XP Recovery Console CD ImageYou can try doing a "
Repair Install with Recovery Console". The Recovery Console is a Windows utility that provides a DOS-like command line from which you can run some repair programs. If you have a Microsoft Windows CD-ROM, you can get to the Recovery Console by booting from that CD and pressing any key when you told to 'Press any key to boot from CD'. At the 'Welcome to Setup' screen, press
r for Repair.
"
Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option"
"
How to perform a Repair/Reinstall"
(with screenshots).
"
How to install and use the Windows XP Recovery Console"
If you don't have your XP CD you can download an ISO of the Recovery Console files:
•
Recovery Console ISO file•
NTFS4FreeDos ISO•
XP Recovery Console zip fileBurn it as an image to a disk to get a bootable CD which will startup the Recovery Console for troubleshooting and fixing purposes. This is especially useful for those with OEM systems with factory restore partitions or disks but no original installation CD. If you are not sure how to burn an image, please read
How to write a CD/DVD image or ISO.
You can start a new topic in the
Windows XP forum if you need assistance with this.
Important Note: If this is a virus/Trojan related issue, you should know that some types of malware can result in a system so badly damaged that a
Repair Install will NOT help!. Reinstalling Windows without first wiping the entire hard drive with a repartition and/or format will not remove the infection. The reinstall will only overwrite the Windows files. Any malware on the system will still be there afterwards. Starting over by wiping your drive, reformatting, and performing a clean install of the OS removes everything and is the
safest action. Please read:
• "
When should I re-format? How should I reinstall?"
• "
Help: I Got Hacked. Now What Do I Do?"
• "
Where to draw the line? When to recommend a format and reinstall?"
Should you decide to follow that advice and reformat, these links include step-by-step instructions with screenshots:
"
XP Clean Install Interactive Setup"
"
[url="http://spyware-free.us/tutorials/reformat/""]How to reformat your computer in case of a severe malware infection[/url]"
"
Reformat & Clean Install Windows XP"
Note: If your using an IBM, HP, Compaq or Dell machine, you may not have an original XP CD Disk. By policy Microsoft no longer allows OEM manufactures to include the original Windows XP CD-ROM on computers sold with Windows preinstalled. Instead, most computers manufactured and sold by OEM vendors come with a vendor-specific Recovery Disk or Recovery Partition for performing a clean "factory restore".
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