Repairing XP without "Repairing."

[ardi]

I'm helping a friend who is having trouble with his system freezing up (not blue screen, just freeze). It reboots fine after a freeze, but we are out of ideas, short of reinstalling all the software. The "repair" option with the XP install disk did not help. Neither did SP-1, although the frequency seemed to decline after installing SP-1.

Somewhere I saw instructions on how to overwrite the XP system files without reformatting the hard drive. I remember you selected not to "repair" in the installation dialog, but then I've forgotten what other steps to take.

Can anyone help us out here. Any other suggestions on what are the likely causes of random freezes would also be helpful.

[gamehead200]

I think you can only replace the system files if you are upgrading from a previous version of Windows...

[Aaron]

replacing files with original ones can be done with System File Checker from the Command Prompt:

SFC /?

As for your random freezes, they are usually hardware related - check that your CPU or Graphics card is not overheating.

[MSNwar]

To reinstall Windows over Windows without formatting the hard drive, boot into WinXP normally, insert the CD and allow it to autostart or navigate to the setup.exe and run. But first follow this please:

Is the hard drive full? Right click your hard drive in Windows Explorer and see how much unused space you have on the hard drive.

Is the swap file to small or has it been modified by your friend?

The Help Center provides endless information and troubleshooters. Start > Help. In the search area use keyword swap file, tools, and defragmentation. A corrupted swap file and a badly defraged disk drive will also cause the PC to reboot. It is a built-in saftey feature of XP.

Hardware wise check the source of the power. Are you experiencing power surges. Is the power supply old or is the cable from the mains loose/old/damaged. Is the CPU underpowered or over heating? Does your BIOS have temperture readings?

Give us the system specs and we can narrow it down.

[LongHorn]

XP has two repair features.

The one were used to, is the cmd prompt repair, when you boot Windows up with cd.

Use the second method. Boot from cd, enter setup, and it will take you to partition manager. It will say before you reach the partition managager a repair option. Use it. It deletes everything but your stuff. (Windows Folder) and replaces it.