XP Repair with Novatech XP Home OEM CD

[Farleyjim]

I've had trouble after installing a piece of Roxio software such that XP will not start. I have tried booting from the XP CD but after loading all the files, there seems no option to conduct a Repair. Am I doing something wrong or does the OEM CD not allow repairs?

[system7]

Repair is offered at about the 4th. install screen, after recovery console has been offered. You get a message saying Windows has detected a previous install and offers to repair or install afresh.

I don't know if that will fix it. It's more for repairing system files and updating drivers for a new motherboard. Safe mode F8 after the splash screen is more likely to get you in to do some Windows repairs.

Do yourself a favour next time you do a fresh install: create a largish, say 20GB, spare partition with the HD makers utilities. You can then save an image of your install, and create and redirect your "My Documents" folder to the other partition from the start menu. These will then survive any future mishaps, short of a hard drive mechanical failure.