Xp repair won't start setup wizard

Question

I ran a repair on my xp system and it will not get to the xp setup wizard. I have important data that is intact on the system so I do not want to format it if I can help it. Here is what iplan to do, but would like some feedback before I adventure down this road:

I'm thinking of backing up the registry via erd commander and copying the entire C: drive to a removable device. From there I will take a fresh copy of windows xp, restore the registry from the dead comp, and then overwrite the entire C: drive with the contents of the dead comps C: drive. In theory would this allow me to run all the programs and use the data by transferring it this way?

Thanks, Msindle

Answer 1

It looks to me like you're trying to copy all your programs, files, and settings to a new computer (different from your old one) by backing up the registry, installing Windows XP on the new computer, restoring the registry to the computer, and then restoring a clone of the old hard drive to the new computer. This won't work for several reasons.

• Backing and restoring the registry and reinstalling XP is redundant because if you're going to restore a clone of the hard drive, the registry and XP are already included in the image to be restored.

• Restoring a clone of your old hard drive to a computer with new hardware isn't recommended because it probably won't work.

If that's what you're trying to do, it probably won't work. However, if you're just replacing a dead hard drive, cloning the old drive and restoring to the new will probably work.