Ine had some laptop problems and I’ve spent the last evening of my holiday trying to fix them. Things I’ve learned, in chronological order:

  • Ubuntu live CD rulez: I was able to find corrupted files using diff * –ignore-file-name-case –to-file=dllcache/

  • Copying ntoskrnl.exe from dllcache to system32 fixed the BSOD by causing the laptop to lock up instead

  • Recovery Console sucks: it kept prompting for an administrator password that I didn’t know

  • Recovery Console really sucks: its chkdsk reports errors, but does not fix them

  • During the graphical part of Windows XP Setup, you can open a console window by pressing Shift-F10

  • Reset the administrator password using net user administrator *

  • System Restore rulez: using plain old copy I was able to restore the registry from the recovery console. Simply cd into C:\System Volume Information</em> and copy _REGISTRY_MACHINE_X to \windows\system32\config\X

  • System Restore UI (\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe) sucks: it restored all personal settings to the original defaults!

  • Windows XP Repair sucks: repair would fail because “the signature for windows xp home edition upgrade is invalid”

  • sfc /scannow is nice and all, but kept prompting for the Windows XP Professional CD when run on Home Edition (Same problem as previous one?)

  • Using the Windows XP Repair function will break Windows Defender’s auto-update