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Can I do a Win Xp Home Sp3 Repair with a bootable USB?

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dprsnow Posts 3 Registration date Saturday October 4, 2014 Status Member Last seen October 4, 2014 - Oct 4, 2014 at 12:45 AM
 RWild - Nov 16, 2014 at 04:20 PM
Hello,

My Sony VGN-A790 10 year old laptop with 3 year old hard drive, crashed due to a virus or power outage. I am stuck in a reboot loop, that I can't stop even with going into F8. I have tried, safe mode safe mode with command line, last best known, and disable auto restart on system failure.

When I choose to disable the auto restart, and then choose safemode, I get a black screen with many lines of white text, img included.

If I let the screen sit for about 15 minutes, I see the flash of what I believe is a bsod screen, but can't read it, because it goes directly into the reboot after the flash of the above screen.

I have the cd/dvd drive set to boot first, from the bios. I tried a disc I made years ago, but have never used, and although it plays it gets hung up on the screen where it says can't access EULA end user license agreement. I tried purchasing a disc from ebay, that I believed was a retail copy of windows xp sp3, but later found out it was called a DSP generic OEM, and was previously told to only use a retail copy. It would not play farther than the press any key to boot from cd screen. I did copy the disc files onto a windows 7 laptop that I have temporarily borrowed from a friend.

My laptops windows xp os is registered and I have my key.
My goal is to do a repair, and keep my software settings, extensions, & plug-ins, and files in tact. But without a working dis xp home sp3 disc, I am unsure how to do this, since nothing seems to get me into safemode, or allows me to read what I think is the bsod. I do have a bootable usb drive, but have seen no info on how to do a repair with one. Again I have the files from the DSP OEM hologram windows xp sp3 disc, but it's not retail so since it wouldn't play I'm not sure if those files can be put on a usb to help my situation.

Thank you kindly for any help!

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3 responses

Answer 1 / 3
johnebadbak74 Posts 95 Registration date Monday May 19, 2014 Status Member Last seen January 14, 2015 14
Oct 4, 2014 at 05:53 AM
https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38134/c/65,66/p/48903,49902,51319,51320/

may be of asistance
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dprsnow Posts 3 Registration date Saturday October 4, 2014 Status Member Last seen October 4, 2014
Oct 4, 2014 at 08:57 PM
I don't understand how to get to this point in the instructions, "restart the computer in Safe Mode using the Command Prompt. At the Command Prompt type C:\Windows\System32\Restore\Rstrui.exe and then on the keyboard, press the ENTER key to start the System Restore."
Isn't this the choice called safe mode with command line? If so, as I said above none of the choices work. If it is not, since the instructions mention command prompt, and not command line, I have no idea how to get there or to the start menu mentioned.

Also will this system restore, send it back to factory, or just to where I was before the crash?
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Answer 2 / 3
dprsnow Posts 3 Registration date Saturday October 4, 2014 Status Member Last seen October 4, 2014
Oct 4, 2014 at 06:49 AM
I don't understand how to get to this point in the instructions, restart the computer in Safe Mode using the Command Prompt. At the Command Prompt type C:\Windows\System32\Restore\Rstrui.exe and then on the keyboard, press the ENTER key to start the System Restore.
Isn't this the choice called safe mode with command line? If so, as I said above none of the choices work. If it is not since the instructions mention command prompt, and not command line, I have no idea how to get there or to the start menu mentioned.

Also will this system restore, send it back to factory, or just to where I was before the crash?
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Answer 3 / 3
RWild
Nov 16, 2014 at 04:20 PM
I also have a VGN-A790 but mine has its original hard drive. The drive failed a couple of weeks ago with no prior indication of a problem.

The monitor shot you posted is the output from Windows as it tries to boot in safe mode. It's listing drivers as they are loaded. If I try to boot in safe or normal mode the last thing I see is a BSOD with a BOOT_VOLUME_UNMOUNTABLE. It flashiest by very quickly - had to video tape it to be able to read it. This could be a hardware problem or parts of the Windows system files could be damaged.

The instructions you ask about appear to be for using the Recovery files stored on a hidden partition on the hard drive. If the drive is trashed, you won't be able to recover this way.

At some point before the problem did you make copies of the Recovery files on DVD? If so, boot from the DVD and the prompts should be basically the same. If you didn't, you are probably SOL. The machine is too old to boot from USB. (I'm still trying to figure out what "removable media" is that shows up in BIOS. I made the DVDs but my reader doesn't work. If your DVD works, you could try booting a "live" version of Linux and see what you can recover.

I'm not surprised the copy of XP you got from eBay won't install. Sometimes the version that was sold with a machine will install only on that machine.

Good luck.
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