Discussion Forums > Technology
Win XP Pro: need trusted ISO image / restore-repair boot partition
datora:
.
Thank you very much for the tips, folks. I always hate relying on comments on a particular offer, but agreed it's the usual Way to go. Totally uncomfortable using that method for an OS install, especially when I'd like to attempt some form of repair.
Thanks, Bob, very much for the repair tips. That gives me some really useful info on where to focus searches for a plan of attack.
krumm, thanks also for the links & info. It's not entirely intuitive to me how to apply it as a repair attempt in my situation, but there's plenty of reading there I think I can grok it out eventually.
Any other tips anyone wants to add, please keep 'em coming guys. I'm gonna figure my way through this one way or another, but anything that helps shorten the time involved is a Good Thing. I took a real boot to the balls on this one and I'm in a pretty serious Bad Way. Resources, including time, are extremely limited right now. :-\
[ EDIT: Well, the -yyy- channel from my original PID install is 029 ... an ID that doesn't exist in the Lunarsoft Wiki tables. Couldn't begin to imagine what the original Volume Label was ... probably wasn't one at all, given how the original (academic release ISO) was DL'd & burned to an install CD. Can't remember the original serv pack on the install, either. Maybe SP2 of some sort because I vaguely recall having to patch w/ SP3 after the original install. My experiences in the past (Win2K) are that once a serv pack has been applied to an install, then the original install media is no longer recognized as valid for repair attempts; I always had to give up and wipe/reinstall because I could never get updated install media to work with an old install once a serv pack had been applied. Be nice if WinXP can somehow get around that ...
If I could just get the system to boot, I performed a registry backup recently w/ ERUNT, which creates a self-extracting *.exe to reload the registry hives. I feel one of my best bets is that, if I could somehow get that to reload, it would probably work. ]
Freedom Kira:
If you need a disc image, I have one (XP Pro) downloaded from MSDN (actually, from my University, but they got the image from MSDN) that should work for fixing the MBR. I believe you can't use a retail key on an MSDN disc or vice versa, though.
Let me know if you want it, and I'll give you SFTP access to my NAS where it's located. I have about 175KBps up speed reserved for torrenting on a 2.5Mbps upload connection, so you'll have roughly 100KBps. It'd take a good couple hours at that speed (it's a 600-ish MB CD ISO).
krumm:
--- Quote from: datora on June 18, 2011, 05:47:07 AM ---
...
krumm, thanks also for the links & info. It's not entirely intuitive to me how to apply it as a repair attempt in my situation, but there's plenty of reading there I think I can grok it out eventually.
Any other tips anyone wants to add, please keep 'em coming guys. I'm gonna figure my way through this one way or another, but anything that helps shorten the time involved is a Good Thing. I took a real boot to the balls on this one and I'm in a pretty serious Bad Way. Resources, including time, are extremely limited right now. :-\
[ EDIT: Well, the -yyy- channel from my original PID install is 029 ... an ID that doesn't exist in the Lunarsoft Wiki tables. Couldn't begin to imagine what the original Volume Label was ... probably wasn't one at all, given how the original (academic release ISO) was DL'd & burned to an install CD.
...
--- End quote ---
The link I gave is for getting a iso as clean as what you get direct from Microsoft. First you need a MSDN/technet iso. If it's a clean iso you can check what the hash is and compare to the hash from Microsoft here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/downloads/default.aspx
You can't download there unless you got a account but you can get the hashs
The problem with the MSDN/technet isos is you can use a cd key from retail/oem unless you modify the iso before burning.
Changing the iso from MSDN to oem/retail is easy. I'm showing the XP Home disk. Images in spoilers.
1st open the iso and find i386\SETUPP.INI
(click to show/hide)
That's where you find the pid that determines what cd keys your disk supports
The lunersoft page has the pids that are in the setupp.ini not what the installer sets yours to.
So in my case I change the pid in setupp.ini from 76477000 to 55277OEM and my volume label(the disk name) from GRTMHFPP_EN to VRMHOEM_EN
(click to show/hide)
Now the useless msdn disk is a guaranteed perfectly clean windows xp home sp3 oem disk.
You cant change a home disk to a pro disk but, you can easily change the keys the disk accepts. I've heard reports that making a Volume license disk is harder and may not work tho.
datora:
.
Thank you for the responses, guys.
krumm, that helps a lot! Thank you!
Freedom Kira - that is a very kind offer. I may take you up on it; I'll send a PM one way or another.
I'm really busy with some "projects" right now. Looking for time to sit & read & grok all this info; might take a day or two as I am traveling & not at same location with my sick system. Will be web surfing & reading to make some decisions as soon as possible & move forward with best strategy.
Bob2004:
--- Quote from: datora on June 18, 2011, 05:47:07 AM ---Can't remember the original serv pack on the install, either. Maybe SP2 of some sort because I vaguely recall having to patch w/ SP3 after the original install. My experiences in the past (Win2K) are that once a serv pack has been applied to an install, then the original install media is no longer recognized as valid for repair attempts; I always had to give up and wipe/reinstall because I could never get updated install media to work with an old install once a serv pack had been applied. Be nice if WinXP can somehow get around that ...
--- End quote ---
Windows XP doesn't have this problem - you can use the recovery tools on any Windows XP disc, no matter what version/SP the install actually is. At least, System Restore and the recovery console should both work, which are really all you need.
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