I have broken Windows!

Here's what happenned: Found computer with an error message on the screen. Something about a file being corrupted and that I should run CHDSK. Unfortunatly I did not write down the filename. DOH! After running chkdsk I rebooted and now it appears to boot normally untill the point where the desktop should appear but all I'm left with is a black screen and a mouse pointer. Same thing happens in safe mode. How do I fix this without wiping the drive? All of my wife's sewing stuff is on there and she has no backup. Of course she's blaming me. Arghh. Please somebody help!
Thanks in advance.
OOPPS forgot to indicate it's win xp pro.

hmm.... without knowin the error, that makes it harder. Do you have the original XP Install disc? Go get it, boot off of it like you are going to reinstall. Once you get to the menu to install, instead, choose repair. It will reinstall everything that you need to get windows running again without overwriting anything on the drive (including your wife's sewing stuff)

Can you get into Safe Mode, Last know good config, or any of the other startup modes? If not, put the drive in another PC and copy the inportant data off and reinstall. You could try a repair install, but I would still recommend backing the data up first.

Hello

Dont forget to set your drive to slave before copying all your files. If your xp disk is before sp2 and you have sp2 installed you won't let you repaire because of the older version.

Fordman

Tried all the repair stuff. My install disk is pre sp2 . I have a brand new winxp pro w/ xp2 disk. can I repair it off of that?

Hello

You should be able to do that but I have heard of problems where it does nothing.

I guess you have a 50/50 chance. Goodluck

Fordman

fordman said:

Hello

You should be able to do that but I have heard of problems where it does nothing.

I guess you have a 50/50 chance. Goodluck

Fordman

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Even if it does nothing, all he's lost is time. I'd try the repair anyways. If succsessful, back up EVERYTHING, then start running a HDD diag.

Well, I tried the new xp pro disk with sp2 and it started to do a repair thing. I walked away for a couple of minutes and when I returned it was INSTALLING ! So, I ended up reinstalling win xp pro over the current installation and it is working fine now. I think M$ just got $150 from me unfairly. I did save a lot of time though.

ocean said:

Well, I tried the new xp pro disk with sp2 and it started to do a repair thing. I walked away for a couple of minutes and when I returned it was INSTALLING ! So, I ended up reinstalling win xp pro over the current installation and it is working fine now. I think M$ just got $150 from me unfairly. I did save a lot of time though.

Click to expand...

When you repair a Windows, it looks very similar to the installation process. If it's asking you to activate, you should call Microsoft and explain the situation. If you have 2 legit copies of WinXP, you should be able to use it on 2 computers.