Windows damaged, reinstall over but keep data?

CHAoS_NiNJA

[H]ard|Gawd
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May 26, 2005
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Hey everyone, I have a computer here in a constant reboot cycle. I'm working on it for someone and they said they want to keep all their data, as its used for a small business. I was wondering, can I install XP onto the disk and replace just the OS (XP home for XP home), therefore replacing any borked files, but still keep the data (files, programs, etc) on the disk by not completely formatting?

And yes, I've tried the Recovery console and Windows Repair. Didn't help much, sadly.
 
reformat, and use a program called getdataback for ntfs, it wont recover 100% of your data, but a lit of it
 
If possible, try taking out the drive and putting it another computer that can boot, this way you should be able to pull off all needed files from that drive.
 
Why is it BSODing?

If it's constantly rebooting, it's bug checking in the kernel and your best bet is to find out why it's doing that. Reinstalling an OS because of BSOD is akin to opening a beer with an H-Bomb

As you've tried using the recovery consolea nd windows repair, you better make sure it's not BSODing constantly because of some failing piece of hardware. Maybe start with where it's BSODing, is it at boot failing to even load Windows or somewhere else?

You can do an inplace install of Windows w/o too much worry about borking the data on the disk (some programs will lose short cuts and could have other problems if they rely on updated components that aren't on the OS disc), but as Sparkyy said, find a way to back up as much of the data as necessary.
 
Why is it BSODing?

If it's constantly rebooting, it's bug checking in the kernel and your best bet is to find out why it's doing that. Reinstalling an OS because of BSOD is akin to opening a beer with an H-Bomb

As you've tried using the recovery consolea nd windows repair, you better make sure it's not BSODing constantly because of some failing piece of hardware. Maybe start with where it's BSODing, is it at boot failing to even load Windows or somewhere else?

You can do an inplace install of Windows w/o too much worry about borking the data on the disk (some programs will lose short cuts and could have other problems if they rely on updated components that aren't on the OS disc), but as Sparkyy said, find a way to back up as much of the data as necessary.


I can't exactly find out why its rebooting, hense the want/need to replace the OS. During safe boot it hangs at mup.sys, but I've trying all the fixes for mup.sys and I don't believe that to be the actual problem.

Dead hardware isn't an issue as I've replaced almost everything in this PC besides the case and HDD.

For the record, it reboots durring the system load phase, and like I said, in safe mode it shows a hang around mup.sys.
 
I can't say I'd recommend reformatting and then using a recovery program! That sounds like a recipe to lose the majority of your data.

An in-place install of XP is probably the best option, in my opinion.
 
I'd use something like BartPE to grab the important data off the drive, and then wipe it clean and start over. You could do a parallel install to get the system booting, but in the time it would take to do so, you might as well back it up and do a fresh install.
 
I agree with DeaconFrost, use BartPE and move all information to a backup folder, then manually delete everything else from hard disk (windows, program files, documents and settings), then replace bartpe with XP install disk and start a fresh install without formatting the disk.
 
reformat, and use a program called getdataback for ntfs, it wont recover 100% of your data, but a lit of it

that's probably the worst advice ever...

If anything pull the drive out and hook it up as a secondary drive on a working machine and copy off the data... Or boot up with Knoppix or something and copy the data to an external drive, then reload the system.
 
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