xp home reboot loop/fixes?

I have recently had a problem with my desktop rebooting. I can't get into F8
options for safe mode, so I popped in bootable copy of my original XP CD
(sp1) with SP2 slipstreamed in. Machine already had SP2 updates installed.
Machine had Avast antivirus, and regularly ran ad-aware. I had recently
installed spybot prior to problems.

Now, machine goes to bsod quickly at boot and then restarts.

I saw the MS article 307545 on going into recovery console and temporarily
replacing the five system32/config files from the repair directory in order
to boot. However, I tried this after I had tried the auto repair option from
the install menu of the XP CD. The repair didn't work, still reboots
continually. And when I tried to repair again, setup said it had already
"upgraded to Windows XP", but it would try again. What I didn't realize is
that this process would delete the restore points in the system volume
information folder. (Clearly a novice.) So, when I started XP with the
replacement config files from the repair directory, the only restore point
folder was the one created when I created the new config files. So, I
couldn't roll Windows back. Bummer.

But, at least I was able to see all my files, in particular, a lot of emails
in Outlook that I need to save.

In any event, I was curious to see if there was some other to fix the boot
problem from the Recovery console. I've restored the original five boot
files from the temp directory I had copied them to, and my machine is back to
the old reboot loop.

Is there a way to diagnose and possibly boot into Windows with current
config files? Or should I replace config files with repair files, backup
hdd, and then nuke the whole thing and clean install? I do not have a backup
of files. Bad hygiene, I know. If I use a program like bootitng for
creating an image file of hdd, will that be sufficient to restore files
later? I had heard that to save outlook emails, I need to be able to open
outlook and export to a file that can be imported to another machine later.
I do want to migrate my emails out of this unstable machine and into my
laptop.

So, any feedback on the above would be appreciated.

Regards,
Martin
Bellevue, WA

To save OL files, with OL closed, locate and copy any *pst files.
Do not use export, or import

"Martin1" <Martin1@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:3EB61E33-AA88-42A2-BE13-803F9BA23B04@microsoft.com...
> I have recently had a problem with my desktop rebooting. I can't get into
F8
> options for safe mode, so I popped in bootable copy of my original XP CD
> (sp1) with SP2 slipstreamed in. Machine already had SP2 updates
installed.
> Machine had Avast antivirus, and regularly ran ad-aware. I had recently
> installed spybot prior to problems.
>
> Now, machine goes to bsod quickly at boot and then restarts.
>
> I saw the MS article 307545 on going into recovery console and temporarily
> replacing the five system32/config files from the repair directory in
order
> to boot. However, I tried this after I had tried the auto repair option
from
> the install menu of the XP CD. The repair didn't work, still reboots
> continually. And when I tried to repair again, setup said it had already
> "upgraded to Windows XP", but it would try again. What I didn't realize
is
> that this process would delete the restore points in the system volume
> information folder. (Clearly a novice.) So, when I started XP with the
> replacement config files from the repair directory, the only restore point
> folder was the one created when I created the new config files. So, I
> couldn't roll Windows back. Bummer.
>
> But, at least I was able to see all my files, in particular, a lot of
emails
> in Outlook that I need to save.
>
> In any event, I was curious to see if there was some other to fix the boot
> problem from the Recovery console. I've restored the original five boot
> files from the temp directory I had copied them to, and my machine is back
to
> the old reboot loop.
>
> Is there a way to diagnose and possibly boot into Windows with current
> config files? Or should I replace config files with repair files, backup
> hdd, and then nuke the whole thing and clean install? I do not have a
backup
> of files. Bad hygiene, I know. If I use a program like bootitng for
> creating an image file of hdd, will that be sufficient to restore files
> later? I had heard that to save outlook emails, I need to be able to open
> outlook and export to a file that can be imported to another machine
later.
> I do want to migrate my emails out of this unstable machine and into my
> laptop.
>
> So, any feedback on the above would be appreciated.
>
> Regards,
> Martin
> Bellevue, WA

Thanks, that's simple enough for the OL files. When I want to migrate them
to my laptop, do I just copy them into where the OL files are on that machine?


"DL" wrote:

> To save OL files, with OL closed, locate and copy any *pst files.
> Do not use export, or import