Help! Ran into problem trying to repair Windows XP.

[justsomeguy_54]

Here is a little back story:
I was getting a lot of blue screens. The only thing I could find that was obviously causing a problem was thousands of error messages in the device manager from my Logitech quickcam so I attempted to uninstall it but in the middle of it Windows froze. After rebooting windows, all crashing problems had stopped completely but a hole slew of other problems had cropped up. One of the major problems I now had was no sound. All drivers having to do with sound were either missing or corrupted. Some of the other problems that I noticed where I couldn’t get Norton to run and Skype didn’t start automatically anymore. Multiple programs couldn’t access the internet either like a lot of my Steam games, but strangely I was still able to go online using Firefox and Internet explorer. So when I got tired of trying to just repair or reinstall drivers individually and getting error messages like, You can only run one instance of this installer at a time to quit the other before I could proceed (even though there was only the one going) I decided to try a Windows repair.

The current problem I’m faced with:
Now that I did this I get a bluescreen every time the windows loading screen comes up and tells me there is a problem with "nv4.mini.sys" which I think is a Nvidia driver. I have tried starting in safe mode but get Windows telling me as soon as it starts up "Windows XP Setup cannot run under Safe mode. Setup will restart now." I have also tried to Start with "Last known good configuration" with no luck. It occurred to me too late that what might of caused this problem is I was trying to repair Windows XP and the CD I have is service pack 2 and I had updated to service pack 3. The biggest concern I have is there is still some stuff on my C drive (Windows hard drive) that I hadn’t copied over to my D drive yet. My problem or question is, is there any way to finish the repair, or just go back to a Restore point before I tried to repair, so I can just transfer those files over and then just for ease sake do a reformat of that drive with a new clean windows install or any other ideas would really be appreciated.
Thank you in advance for any help.

 

[mosox]

Go to the restore point. Save all your stuff.

 

[justsomeguy_54]

Thank you for your responce mosox. I actually cant figure out how to get anywhere where I can pick a restore point because Windows blue screens at the Windows load screen and safe mode stops right away givin me the warning "Windows XP Setup cannot run under Safe mode. Setup will restart now."
If there is another way that you know of please let me know.
Thanks again

 

[Saga Lout]

Take the XP CD out and reboot - you're stuck in a loop where XP thinks it's being reinstalled. If you can use the CD to get to a Command Prompt, try typing rstrui.exe at the Command Prompt and if that fails, navigate to it in C:\Windows\System32 and run it from there.

 

[justsomeguy_54]

Thank you "saga lout" for your response.
I had changed the boot order back to boot from the HD but I tried as you said any way to boot without the Windows cd in the cd drive at all. I first tried the normal start up but like before still got the bluescreen on the Windows load out screen telling me about the "nv4.mini.sys" driver. So I then tried booting in "safe mode with command prompt" but still got the "Windows XP Setup cannot run under Safe mode. Setup will restart now.".
I figured to mention just incase for clarification I was just attempting to perform a repair on windows, not a reinstall when this all happened.

All ideas are really appreciated.

 

[tigsounds]

I can offer some help, but it all depends on how desperate you are to fix your XP install.

I have an ISO file at 4Shared.com (159MB) that will perform a Restore Point Rollback, among other things quite useful, like regedit and more. If you don't mind downloading such a large file and burning the ISO to CD you might just get things fixed. The CD is only useable when system is booted from that disk. It installs nothing to your hard drive. Named "2005"

You decide, it can be downloaded by clicking HERE.

 

[justsomeguy_54]

I appreciate the offer Tigsounds and the size of download I don’t mind its just, and no offense, I just don’t really dare trust downloading a random file or program from someone I don’t know, but if there is another place on the internet that is reputable that I could get the files from you could give me that would be great.

 

[tigsounds]

I appreciate the offer Tigsounds and the size of download I don’t mind its just, and no offense, I just don’t really dare trust downloading a random file or program from someone I don’t know, but if there is another place on the internet that is reputable that I could get the files from you could give me that would be great.

Well, I offered. If you go there, you can click the little (tiny) icon and see my avatar. Of course you don't know me, but if the file was bad in any way someone would have come back here this past year and said so. I don't know of any other place to get that file.

I use 4Shared.com because they virus-scan all files and only make a person wait a few seconds before downloading as a nag to get them to subscribe to a paid account. Other places put people through the ringer before a download will start.

Good Luck.

 

[Saga Lout]

I'd have every confidence in Tigsounds' suggestion and vouch for the security of his download. First, though, when the CD is in and running, how far does the Repair get before throwing the driver error?

 

[GbbRITS]

Why not boot into a small linux distro (I'm a fan of Puppy - http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=puppy, and Damn Small Linux is supposed to be good too)? With puppy, your hard drive should appear as an icon in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. If you click on it, a file manager will come up and you should be able to copy your files over to another disk from there (the second disk should also have an icon in the lower left hand corner). Then you're free to reinstall windows...

 

[justsomeguy_54]

I'd have every confidence in Tigsounds' suggestion and vouch for the security of his download. First, though, when the CD is in and running, how far does the Repair get before throwing the driver error?

Actually I started the repair and its at the stage where it rebooted I guess to finish, but after a few seconds of the Windows load screen appearing, the one with the little load bar at the bottom, it gives me the BSOD. The driver I am guessing is for my Nvidia GFX card I have. I am assuming that because I was last running Windows service pack 3 and had updated all drivers and then attempted to Repair with a service pack 2 cd and tell me if I'm wrong but I’m guessing that the Repair installed some older drivers as far as the new updated Nvidia drivers are concerned and they aren't agreeing with each other. The part that seems to be the problem is that because the Repair hadn't finished doing its thing (it having to reboot to continue to get to the final stages) safe mode is telling me that I cant finish the repair in safe mode, but normal mode has the conflicting drivers. I'm sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I could just stuff the Repair and or get to a restore point right before the Repair began that would be ideal. Sorry might be a longer answer then you expected.

 

[mosox]

Boot with a CD or USB operating system like GbbRITS said. I use mini XP.

 

[Saga Lout]

Give Tigsounds suggestion a shot and mosox's idea also has merit. I'm not sure I'm allowed to name the CD on which MiniXP appears but it would allow you to prune the Drivers folder in System32 to knock that newer nVidia driver out. Any Linux OS would do the same, working as a LiveCD.

 

[justsomeguy_54]

Thank you for the replies. I have decided to try as GbbRITS said and do a USB boot of Ubuntu because I have always been curious about trying Linux and it seems that Ubuntu is the most known and most powerful, so I figured I would hit two birds with one stone. I managed to boot it off the USB stick, I didn’t get the supposed window asking me the language of choice and if I wanted to try or install it, but I did get a desktop with an icon for installing. I figure it must of guessed at what I wanted. My problem though, is how do I view my existing hard drives? I did see an option in a dropdown asking it I want to mount them but "mount" was a scary word which could easily be mistaken for formatting and with my lack of knowledge with Linux I don’t dare try it until I find out for sure. I was also wondering doing the planned file transfers from my C: drive to my D: drive using Linux, am I going to have any problems with Windows recognizing them later? Linux or Ubuntu isn’t going to change there format or anything will it? Any help or guidance you guys can give me would be great.

 

[Saga Lout]

The system needs to mount a disk before it can read it so it won't harm the data - Linux OS can frequently mount disks where Windows fails to and that's what makes it a good repair tool. Ubuntu will sort out partitioning and size of tje Partitions it needs, leaving enough for Windows.

Files you transfer over from Windows won't change but they wlil need different programmes to read them. I use The Gimp for photogaphs and OpenOffice for everything MS Office utiltiies created - Word, Excell, Powerpoint and Access. Thunderbird is a good e-Mail handler.

Enjoy - I'm sure you will.