Oh wise and wonderful Forum members.....

[darth_nevus]

Lend me your knowledge....


I have committed the most atrocious sin, and am now paying for it. And, i need help fixing it. so i come to you my brethern with open ears, and await your responses.....

Here's the background story.

RIG Specs:

E6850 Stock cooler(clean as a whistle, and running @ 40C constant)
2gb Corsair XMS2 ram
EVGA 8800gts OC 640mb(running at stock oc settings)
Antec p180 case(not relevant to the issue at hand)
Corsair 620HX PSU
250GB WD HD
160GB WD HD
something or another DVD burner.
Not overclocked or altered bios. its all running at stock.

I have a copy of XP installed on my new rig. not to get into to many specifics, but it has a copy of windows XP on it. upgrading is not an option to SP2 as its not supported. Worry not why, just that it can't be done. it is a legal copy however.

The problem started about 2 weeks ago. i obtained a game, Hellgate: London. i installed said game, and only after the fact noticied it said XP SP2 or Vista was required(i hope you see where this is going. so shoot me.) Since i can't install SP2, i decided the next best thing was to try and make XP THINK it was SP2. this is actually done by a very simple registry hack.

Some people don't want to upgrade to SP1 or SP2 for lots of reasons, but some software requires that you have either one installed.

Fear not!
These four simple steps will trick your computer/software into thinking SP1 / SP2 is installed.

1. Open Regedit [Start/Run/regedit]

2. Go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetCont rolW indows"

3. Create a new DWORD value "CSDVersion"

4. Set the data of CSDVersion to "0x100" to fake SP1, or "0x200" to fake SP2.
[Enter all values without "Quote Marks"]

Anyways, not thinking after i altered the registry, i didn't reboot the pc to make it work, and got frustrated that the game still didn't work. That left 1 option. the biggest Sin of all.

Since i had a spare empty 160gb hard drive, and a copy of vista home premium OEM from when i bought the rig(it was so i wouldn't have to get it later, i nthe event i needed it. DOH!) and i knew how to dualboot with vista with XP as primary, i figured what the heck right? so i installed vista on the 2nd hd, set it so xp was still primary, etc. i even checked it by making sure at least the xp loading screen showed up, but went no further.

The kids got done playing the game, so i decided to go back to xp. thats where everything is, and where everything works. low and behold, the pc gets into a reboot loop. BONK! What have i done! safe mode, safe mode with command propmt, networking support and starting windows normally all results in the same effect. a quick flash of a bluescreen, and the pc restarts. stupid computer is too fast to be able to read it as it just goes so fast. i ran a few memory checking rograms, all came out right, so i settled on the fact that the 1 small registry edit i had done(listed above) borked it all up.

To make the sin atrocious of all, i reinstalled Vista, so i have at least a Quasi working PC. You may all redicule me, or shoot me. but i need help! Vista runs just fine, but i have stuff in xp i still need, and stuff i still play. TF2 plays MUCH better in XP than in Vista. it does some REALLY stupid stuff for me in vista, and i want my XP feel back. i want XP back. period. so living with it isn't an option.

This is where all of you come in. does ANYONE know how to edit the registry from the windows repair console? or how to do a system restore from the repair consle, or ANYTHING to get it back up and running without a reinstall, etc.

Feed me your answers... mock me later.

[L_Mo]

No worries, it's all part of the leaning process.

Anyway, I think the easiest option will just be to reinstall. Might take a little longer than trying to repair your registry (if that is even the issue), but it has a better chance of working the first time.

So first, get your data off your old XP drive... So just start Vista on your 2nd hard drive, and copy all the files you need over.
Second, install XP and install all your applications and games.
Finally, copy all your old files from the Vista drive.

Tip: You'll probably download some things for your fresh install (firefox, acrobat reader, mIRC, Steam, game patches, ... etc.). To make your next install faster, copy all of these files into a folder for later use. It'll save you quite a bit of time.

In general I'm a big advocate of just re-installing XP whenever it breaks. This isn't because it's impossible to fix, but because I've noticed the OS slows down over time. So XP breaking is just my excuse to re-install, and I always notice a nice performance gain. I don't re-install constantly, but probably once every year or so.

[ViTO]

In general I'm a big advocate of just re-installing XP whenever it breaks. This isn't because it's impossible to fix, but because I've noticed the OS slows down over time. So XP breaking is just my excuse to re-install, and I always notice a nice performance gain. I don't re-install constantly, but probably once every year or so.

+1 With the kids using my machine from time to time I try and keep XP as lean as possible, re-installing every year seems to bring the whole thing back to life !!
Feels like you get a new computer. ( The poor mans upgrade )

[Sirex]

if you dont want to reinstall everything else but do a "repair install"

boot up xp cd, install as normal but at somepoint the grey bar at the bottom will say "scanning for previous versions of windows" it will find your borked XP install, and ask you if you want to install over it or install it again or something to that effect...

obviously pick the one that looks like 'yeah repair that thing!"

tada!

that should work, works great for stupid stuff like that and no booting

[juneau]

if you dont want to reinstall everything else but do a "repair install"

boot up xp cd, install as normal but at somepoint the grey bar at the bottom will say "scanning for previous versions of windows" it will find your borked XP install, and ask you if you want to install over it or install it again or something to that effect...

obviously pick the one that looks like 'yeah repair that thing!"

tada!

that should work, works great for stupid stuff like that and no booting

+1

I always try repairs forst then reinstalls second. Always worked well for me in the past.

[Sirex]

I always try repairs forst then reinstalls second. Always worked well for me in the past.

Great for same CPU brand upgrades too you know, and with some messing inter-brand too, this windows install is over 3-4 years old, only thing is it gets a 1/2 reinstall to sp2 when i upgrade, but all the settings and user folders and that are over 3-4 years old (HDD Cloning FTW).

Anyway, yeah def try that repair install it works a treat for 90% of issues.

[Sirex]

Some light reading:
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm


if you can view the xp drive these MIGHT WORK

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

BACKUP the files in
XPDRIVE:\WINDOWS\system32\config\

copy the files from
XPDRIVE:\WINDOWS\repair (there are very BARE registry hive from when you installed)
to
XPDRIVE:\WINDOWS\system32\config\

goto XP

do regedit below in XP on the back ups

back to vista, copy the backups back to config

goto XP


----------------

Also if you are brave.... and i dont know how well or if this will work!!!!!


BACKUP the files in (if not done already)
XPDRIVE:\WINDOWS\system32\config\

open regedit in vista

click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
file > load hive
open the file
XPDRIVE:\WINDOWS\system32\config\system

key name, "XPSystem"
ok that

and you should be able to edit the old System hive, mind and unload it when your done.

[Devilguns]

You can try using the Ultimate Boot CD:

http://www.ubcd4win.com/

It boots a copy of windows XP and runs it from your CD rom giving you full access to your machine. You can then open Regedit and edit your line.

It's totally free you just have to build the disk, its a great tool to have.

[darth_nevus]

here's the problem. unless there is a dos based regedit feature, starting up XP at this point is mute. regedit as far as i am aware is a xp GUI function. i can't get to the gui at all. XP never finishes loading.

i don't want to do a reinstallation, as i have passwords i can't afford to lose. not to mention, there is some stuff buried in the registry i NEED. i was smart enough to make an export of the entire registry prior to the alteration.

Sirex, i'll have to look into that option further, unless you know a way of importing and overwriting a registry file via the command prompt.

[WalkinTarget]

I'm with DG on this one .. a Live boot CD would work in your case, and even Microsoft *gasp* have their own bootable LIVE CD that can be used in a pinch to gain access to the files/folders and regedit, then do your dirty work from there.

In fact, that boot CD (in my case, I use Bart PE) has eliminated a host of trojans that no software would even touch in XP (safe mode as well). I used it last weekend to de-Virtumundo a PC that was absolutely drowning in nastyware. It took me around 6 hours, an numerous manual deletions of everything from registry entries to prefetch entries .. hell, you name it, this PC had it hidden away in a pocket folder somewhere.

Darth, you HAVE to try the boot CD method. It will become tool #1 in your fix-it repertoire. The advantage of booting to a full OS that runs ENTIRELY from the CD, never modifying or touching your installed OS on the hard drive, is immeasurable in value.

[mapes]

Another option for a bootable windowing enviroment checkout BartPE

http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/

It's very handy

BartPE (Bart's Preinstalled Environment) is a Live CD/ Live USB version of the Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

BartPE allows a user to boot Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 from a CD-ROM, DVD or a flash disk, regardless of the condition of the installed operating systems on the internal hard drive. This means that the user can, for instance, recover data from a failed operating system installation, or reset a lost administrator password.

A user can create his or her own installation of BartPE using the installation disk of the operating system in question and the program PE Builder, programmed by Bart Lagerweij. PE Builder is available on the BartPE homepage (see link below).

[Sirex]

unless you know a way of importing and overwriting a registry file via the command prompt.

thought you had vista on the same machine... why i put those up, the repair install will have to be the answer
or use the recovery console from the XP cd to 'exchange' the hives, edit (XP will boot cos of the 'fresh' hives as they should be your last working/install hives), put back

[darth_nevus]

Let me get this straight.

i can use a bootable LIVEcd and it will boot its own operating system on it? from thre i can open regedit on the drive with the borked windows install, with out it trying to load the borked os, and fix the registry on edit on the borked drive?

will the linux distros let me do that for the live cd?

[Sirex]

Let me get this straight.

i can use a bootable LIVEcd and it will boot its own operating system on it? from thre i can open regedit on the drive with the borked windows install, with out it trying to load the borked os, and fix the registry on edit on the borked drive?

Yes, its similar to what i put up, except you use via/swap the backups in to edit the old.

will the linux distros let me do that for the live cd?

no... at least to my knowlege need a windows compatable regeditor

[WalkinTarget]

I'm not sure I know the full extent of the situation, but I can regedit to my heart's content from my BartPE live CD and I am actively editing the content of my Windows registry.

That is how I am able to remove any references to trojans/malware that cannot be removed from within Windows. Simply boot to it and then click on ''Go' ->'Run' then type in regedit and ... its .. REGEDIT !

Your issues may be more convoluted than what I managed to digest from the post, but my only problem with a Live CD has been getting an external drive recognized so that I could plug in an external HD or USB drive and copy data to that.