Case: dual-boot machine (XP/Mandriva), where XP broke for the third time in just over a year (the second breakdown was the reason for installing Mandriva next to XP). This time, XP won't boot any more. The Windows logo appears, the green progress bar is moving along, but after twenty seconds, the screen just goes black and the machine reboots. Mandriva boots just fine; a scan of the XP partition with ClamAV suggests that there may be a virus problem:
I also tried booting Windows in safe mode (after pressing F8) and reverting to the last known working configuration, but to no avail. Windows simply won't boot (I never understood the use these "failsafe" and "repair" modes of Windows; in my experience, they don't accomplish anything at all.)
I told these people that if they want to have XP reinstalled, they're on their own -- I did it the last two times (and for free), and each time, it took the better part of a day to get everything up and running (base install, locating & downloading drivers, applying updates, downloading & installing the minimum required software etcetera). Extra snag: the XP partition contains well over 350GB of photographs, music, video and other stuff the owner doesn't want to lose, so all this data will need to be backed up and restored -- which will take one more day easily. (Thanks, Microsoft, for this utterly incompetent, moronic design, with everything on one partition. You really kow how to create jobs in IT.)
Right now, they're using the Linux installation, and everything is working fine -- but one of the kids misses her games and other Windows stuff, so I told 'em I'd look for an easy way to fix things, i.e. without reinstalling.
So, to all those Windows enthusiasts here: what is the best thing to do? All suggestions are welcome.
Richard Rasker