Repair Reinstall

[mkeathley]

I see folks talking about doing this pretty often. I assume this means booting off the XP disk and telling it to repair windows.

Doesn't this break alot of programs though like MS Office and IE?

Or does it just fix windows and leave all the programs, and setting for them the same. Doe sit keep their backgrounds/cursor setups and such?

 

[Styxbound]

Repair

The repair reinstall only replaces the os.

 

[geeksinroute]

replaces the os leaving all progs as it is, I think it will change desktop background.

 

[Alan22]

I did a repair install of XP over the weekend. Bad sectors were causing corrupt/missing system files on the original drive causing error messages on boot. I cloned onto a new hard drive and performed the repair install by booting off an XP CD. System worked great afterward - all programs & data intact - just needed to install all necessary Windows updates.

NOTE: I don't know which service pack was on the original drive and the disc I used to reinstall was XP Pro w/ SP2. After booting, IE6 was installed and I don't know if IE7 or 8 was installed previously. In any case, I installed SP3, IE8 and all Windows and Office updates as well as for Adobe, Java, etc. I returned the system yesterday. I just called to follow up and everything is working as expected.

Edit: Desktop background remained the same - didn't default to the Bliss background. Was a pic the owner took.

 

[iptech]

I did a repair install of XP over the weekend. Bad sectors were causing corrupt/missing system files on the original drive causing error messages on boot. I cloned onto a new hard drive and performed the repair install by booting off an XP CD. System worked great afterward - all programs & data intact - just needed to install all necessary Windows updates.

^^^ THIS ^^^

I've got many-a-customer out of the doo-doo using this method. Takes less time that a proper nuke 'n' pave and leaves a customer happy.

 

[Crollins]

+1 This is a great method if something w/ windows is messed up. It goes through and replaces all windows files and such and basically reinstalls windows w/o losing any profiles, programs, or anything of the sort. This has been such a useful feature.

 

[SThompson86]

I have used it also to replace system files.

 

[hyfidel]

The repair install is great. Make sure you don't go into recovery console, they're different.

Also, the biggest thing is to make sure that it's the correct version of Windows (OEM/Retail/Media Center/etc). If you repair with the wrong version it won't let you logon and you won't be able to activate, so you'll have to repair again with the correct disc.

 

[pg07143]

Doesn't a repair/reinstall replace the registry files? If so, how do all of the installed programs still work?

 

[Crollins]

Lil googling

"A Repair Install will replace the system files with the files on the XP CD used for the Repair Install. It will leave your applications and settings intact, but Windows updates will need to be reapplied. "

" 1. Rolls back any hotfixes, service packs, and Microsoft Internet Explorer upgrades to their base versions.
2. Refreshes the registry and restores default registry values."

I believe it only restores "default registry values" and therefore does not touch for instance a registry key pointing to a piece of software you installed. Just as a note the technical name for this procedure is an in-place upgrade. In case u want to google it ur self or something

 

[1101doc]

Rolls back any hotfixes, service packs, and Microsoft Internet Explorer upgrades to their base versions

That is, the version(s) on the CD used to perform the "repair" install. Therefore we use slipstreamed CDs with the latest service pack. This limits the number of security updates required after the "repair."

 

[Aeon]

Works 70% of the time

 

[Styxbound]

I should have noted in my first post it's not absolutely safe; once or twice I have had it wipe out part or all of user files. The old rule applies: backup, backup.