How do i take out my windows xp from my backup disk?

Question

My computer is corrupted, i need a windows xp disk to start over from reinstallation. The only recovery disk i have is in my back-up disk which contains some documents and windows xp. When i run it up in my computer, it says backup, but i don't want to back it up. I want to use the windows xp to help start the reinstallation, see when i backed it up it made my hard drive disk full. How do i extract it and use it?

Answer 1

Windows XP is a protected operating system which means it usually can't be copied. If it could be copied, people all over the world would be giving copies to their friends and Microsoft wouldn't be making any money :-) Having said that, there's a couple of things you can try.

Have you tried doing a custom startup to see if you can "uncorrupt" your system? At startup, press the F8 key repeatedly and it will take you to an Advanced Options Menu. One of the choices will be Last Known Good Configuration. Use the up/down arrows to highlight it and press enter. It will try to boot XP using the last hardware configuration that actually worked. If this fails you can again access the Advanced Options Menu. This time highlight Safe Mode and see if you can use a System Restore Point that will return your machine to a time in the past before the corruption occurred. (Click start > help and support > system restore > restore my computer to an earlier time > next > follow prompts.) I'd scroll throught the calendar and pick the earliest restore point you see (maybe in a previous month.) And if this doesn't help, you can try looking through your system files and recovery disk for XP setup.exe.

If you can access safe mode, try to run a full system search for something called an i386 file. This file (if it's on your computer hard drive) will be at least 200MB, probably closer to 500MB and is an exact copy of the Windows XP operating system. If you have it, you can use it to reinstall XP. If it's on your hard drive you'd have to copy it to a separate disk because any formatting of the hard drive erases everything, including the i386. So I'd try an advanced search.
Click start > search > all files and folders.
Type in i386 in the all or part of file name box.
Look In: My Computer (using drop down arrow.)
Click on More Advanced Options.
Check mark Search System Folders, Hidden Files and Folders and Subfolders. Uncheck the last 2 items.
Run the search. You might find some i386 files that are 50MB or so but the one you need will be at least a couple hundred MB. This article gives a bit more info about the i386 file:

http://ask-leo.com/so_just_what_is_the_i386_directory_anyway.html

Finally, if you can't find the i386 on the hard drive, I'd put your recovery CD in the reader and look for the i386 on it. If you find it, the i386 should contain a setup.exe file that should get you going again, or you might find an XP setup.exe file all by itself. But no guarantees. Hope this helps and good luck.

plrr

Answer 2

i visit assume that once you're saying 456, you certainly propose 486. (by and great because of the fact I certainly have on no account heard of a 456 processor) yet besides, if my assumption is right, then no, your WindowsXP backup disk won't run in spite of in case you should installation it, because of the fact the processor specs are actually not adequate, and that i'm prepared to guess that neither is your ram. yet even in the past you get to that element, you may locate that the backup disk won't installation besides, for the reason it extremely is keyed to a bios placing it extremely is particular to this form of computers that the disc substitute into created for. after all on a 486, you would be extra suitable off working Windows95/98se or a easy-weight linux distro. stable success!

Answer 3

Never done it myself, wouldn't want to but here's a site that may help.

Regards EDD