Re: AUTOEXEC gone walkabout !

Tech-Archive recommends: Fix windows errors by optimizing your registry

From: Len Dolby (lsdolby_at_ignore.ntlwor.com)
Date: 03/05/04 

Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 14:22:36 -0000

RC, first, thank you for a very comprehensive and informative response.
One small but critical problem - my PC came with XP pre-installed.

Have Targa (PC mfr) Product Recovery CD-Rom "for distribution with a
New PC only" with MS WindowsXP logo and hologram, with all the XP
installation menus - (appears to be a full XP system disk) - BUT have either
mislaid (or never had) - the XP 25 digit serial no which I will need
to re-install XP, as per MS Knowledgebase article. CD-Rom came in a
plain white sealed envelope, no serial no, no jewel case.

Ran Belarc Adviser. my XP software licence looks like
55288-OEM-0016466-33741 (format correct, numbers not - security!)
Assuming "dashes" count as characters, this is 23 characters long, not 25.

Is it possible to find my 25 digit XP product key from the HDD?
(PC is now > 2 years old, out of warranty - no mfr help any more).

Sincerely, LEN

"R. C. White" <RCWhite@msn.com> wrote in message
news:ObcRihhAEHA.1028@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi, Len.
>
> I'm not even going to try to read your BootMagic woes, since I'm not
> familiar with that product.
>
> > I'd love to "uninstall" Bootmagic, but as there would then be no
> > autoexec.bat (or config.sys) to boot up with, I dare not. How do I
correct
> > this - I want to get back to normal XP boot-up?
>
> Neither Autoexec.bat nor Config.sys are used at all in WinXP. They are
> parts of the past. As out-of-date as MS-DOS. And WinXP doesn't create or
> use a "rescue disk". The WinXP CD-ROM is bootable, and it includes the
> Recovery Console, which is used to rescue an unbootable WinXP
installation.
>
> How much irreplaceable "stuff" is on your Drive C:. Assuming all your
data
> has been backed up somewhere, then all you need to do is boot from the
WinXP
> CD-ROM and follow the prompts - including the very early one that offers
to
> repartition (optional) and reformat (also optional) your HD. You don't
need
> any additional tools; all you need is on the CD.
>
> If you need to preserve installed applications on Drive C:, check out this
> Knowledge Base article:
> How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q315341
>
> Note that this is NOT intended as a timesaver in installing WinXP itself;
it
> will take an hour or two, just like a clean install. And, as soon as you
> get your firewall and antivirus back in place, you must get online and
visit
> Windows Update to reinstall the latest Service Pack and later Hotfixes
that
> protect you from Blaster and other malware; even with broadband, that took
> me a couple of hours. But, it should preserve your installed applications
> and data - and most of your tweaks. Plan on half a day for the whole
> project.
>
> What did you plan to use Partition Magic for? Have you found and studied
> Disk Management, which is a part of Windows XP? When you get WinXP up and
> running again, type at the Run prompt: diskmgmt.msc When you get into
DM,
> study it carefully, then study its Help file; there is a LOT of
information
> there.
>
> Assuming a blank-HD start, use WinXP Setup to create and format Drive C:,
> limiting it so that Setup doesn't include the whole HD in the single
> partition. If you want to install WinXP on some other drive, then also
> create and format that during Setup. Then install WinXP. Boot into WinXP
> and use DM to create, format and otherwise manage any additional
partitions
> and logical drives that you want.
>
> Partition Magic is a great program. Sometimes nothing else will do the
job.
> But Disk Management will do many jobs that we used to need PM for. It
will
> do all that we used to do with FDISK and Format.exe when we were running
> MS-DOS - and more.
>
> If you plan to dual-boot WinXP with Win9x/ME or some other OS, then
install
> that OS first. Always install the newest OS LAST; it knows how to handle
> the earlier versions, but they have never heard of WinXP. WinXP will
> automatically create the dual-boot setup; you probably won't need
BootMagic
> or any other third-party boot manager.
>
> RC
> --
> R. C. White, CPA
> San Marcos, TX
> rc@corridor.net
> Microsoft Windows MVP
>
> "Len Dolby" <lsdolby@ignore.ntlwor.com> wrote in message
> news:MvJ1c.3213$zu.3128@newsfe1-win...
> > Oh dear, I've boo-booed, big-time !
> > Following excellent advice in this ng, have acheived quite a lot. Both
> C:\
> > and D:\ are formatted to NTFS, with C:\ volume ID restored to its
original
> > ID (via back up before, run VolumeID, then restored the 2 WBA files.
> >
> > Next step intended - Partition Magic 8, to maximise use of partitions.
> >
> > Boo-boo? I inadvertently loaded BootMagic (and created a "rescue"
floppy,
> > when asked to).
> > Bootmagic has caused HAVOC! Initially, PC demands boot from A: drive.
> > Inserting "rescue" disk, boot goes so far, then stops - missing file.
> Tried
> > booting from Windows floppy - no joy, cannot get any expected result.
> (boot
> > sequence was A:\ C:\, but since Bootmagic, C: boot no longer an option)
> >
> > Changed the boot sequence in BIOS to C:\ A:\ - this works, BUT - it
goes
> > thru BootMagic screen, waits 30 seconds (countdown) then XP starts - I
> would
> > say normally, except it now takes at least 4 minutes - the program
> loadings
> > sequence is so low it's like running thru treacle!.
> >
> > Searched for Autoexec files, intending to change back to the original -
> but,
> > there isn't a Autoexec..BAK file, only Autoexec.NT, which I cannot open.
> >
> > No Config.sys file, except two in the Bootmagic folder (one for DOS, one
> for
> > System 32) and I can't even read these (type .....\config.sys (dots are
> the
> > full path) won't type, and "edit" isn't an available option
> >
> > I'd love to "uninstall" Bootmagic, but as there would then be no
> > autoexec.bat (or config.sys) to boot up with, I dare not. How do I
correct
> > this - I want to get back to normal XP boot-up? Would "roll-back" help ?
> > (I'm reluctant to do that, last time I did, I ended up with XP in 16
> > colours, virtually crippled - took forever to get back to a clean
> > functioning system).
>

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