[Help] - XP Install problem...

[Nakatomi2010]

I've got a machine here that I'll be doing a format and reload on if I don't find a solution by 2 or 3 this afternoon...

I believe all I need to do is a repair install to fix XP, but whenever I try to do a repair GUI setup always says there are missing files, when they're not. I've tried 3 CDs and they all do the same thing. Different CD-ROM drives, different IDE cables, and even ghosted his orignal drive to a completely different one, same result.

I did a format and reload on the new duplicate I'd made and the install went perfectly fine. I've run hard drive and RAM diagnostics, the computer passed them all, virus and spyware scans. The system is clean (Scans run from a WinPE CD)

Thoughts?

Title Edited - Please follow new posting rules from now on.

--Zxian

[cluberti]

Did the Windows installation on the machine in question come from a vendor's OEM CD? If so, are you using that CD to do the reinstallation, or are you using another retail or OEM CD?

[trickytwista]

good question, a liitle more info would help... cheers

[Nakatomi2010]

It's a corpoarte machine, and trying to use a VLM disc. I've got an ogriginal that I've tried, without success... The full reinstallation was using the same VLM disc, so I know the disc is good, I just don't know what could be interferring with it on the hard drive....

[Nakatomi2010]

Let me run this theoretical fix on you guys and tell me what you think.....

On the internet I found a method to basically do a manual registry restore, basically go into %systemdrive%\windows\system32\config and grab SOFTWARE, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, and DEFAULT and back them up outside of the Windows directory, then you go into the system volume information directory and grab the snapshots of those files and replace the ones you backed up. This essentially restores the system to an earlier time.

Now, I'm running under the assumption that the issue I'm looking at is something that's on the system. So, what I want to try is to go in and backup those 5 files, do a parallel install of XP (Install a fresh install ontop of the old one) and then when t's complete go in and replace the new registry entries with the old ones and then attempt the repair install.

This should, in theory, "reboot" all of the Windows files, and leave the rest of the hard drive intact. Then when you restore the registry and the programs you never deleted should still work, because you didn't delete the files they created. Or at least, it would require minimal effort to repair all the programs.

Would this theoretically work as I'm describing it, or am I looking at a whole host of problems?