How to fix one of two installs c:\windows and c:\windows2 ?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

LoneTreeTechy - 31 Jul 2008 19:26 GMT

My original Windows XP Home edition became corrupt and the blue screen kept
coming up due to bad video drivers. If I disable the blue screen, the machine
would just reboot itself over and over. I tried removing the bad drivers,
safe mode, command prompt, various Windows repair utilities...

Finally I just used the included OEM Windows repair CD and it let me install
a second instance of Windows on the same file system - I installed it to
c:\windows2.

All my files and programs are physically on the disk, but I can't run
Office, for example, nor can I seem to access my old user profiles, settings,
etc. I don't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling hundreds of
programs, so...

Is there a way to manually repair the first windows installation while
booted into the second installation, or merge the programs and settings?

Reply to this Message

Pegasus (MVP) - 31 Jul 2008 19:31 GMT

> My original Windows XP Home edition became corrupt and the blue screen
> kept
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Is there a way to manually repair the first windows installation while
> booted into the second installation, or merge the programs and settings?

Sorry, the answer is "no" to both questions.

Reply to this Message

LoneTreeTechy - 31 Jul 2008 20:54 GMT

> > My original Windows XP Home edition became corrupt ...

> > ... just used the included OEM Windows repair CD

> > ... All my files and programs are physically on the disk, but I can't run
> > Office, for example, ...

> > Is there a way to manually repair the first windows installation while
> > booted into the second installation, or merge the programs and settings?
>
> Sorry, the answer is "no" to both questions.

Well, then, how do I delete (as opposed to 'uninstall') the bad drivers? I
don't know where they are located or how they are initialized. I'm sure if I
did that, I could then successfully just boot into the original installation.

Thanks - for helping me on this - better than paying $59 for tech support to
tell me "No." ... lol ... ;-)

Reply to this Message

Pegasus (MVP) - 31 Jul 2008 21:12 GMT

>> > My original Windows XP Home edition became corrupt ...
>
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> to
> tell me "No." ... lol ... ;-)

- How long since this version became unuseable?
- Does it fix things to boot into Safe Mode of the
old version of Windows?

Reply to this Message

LoneTreeTechy - 31 Jul 2008 22:52 GMT

> >> > My original Windows XP Home edition became corrupt ...
> >
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
> - Does it fix things to boot into Safe Mode of the
> old version of Windows?

The problems were on-and-off for a while a few months ago, but fairly
recently the cycle of endless reboots became unstoppable. I haven't done
anything since installing the new WINDOWS2. Safe mode doesn't help - the
video drivers (based on what I can gather) are crashing the system. I even
tried reverting to the OEM video card, but the ATI Rage drivers still
interfere. Plug-n-play doesn't seem to work in reverse.

If I knew how to remove all the drivers from the original configuration, I
could just boot-er-up and reinstall whatever was required from that point.
What do you think?

Reply to this Message