StevenWhiting.com

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/ht/sfc-scannow.htm

Admin cmd line

sfc /scannow

On backroom PC.
Check boot order of drives in bios.  As way the drives are hooked up, when the bios resets to default it puts the drive that isn’t bootable first.

If you have a spare machine you can do a lot of this by plugging the HDD via USB in a caddy or converter.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

To complete part one, follow these steps:

1. Insert the Windows XP startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the computer.
   Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
2. When the “Welcome to Setup” screen appears, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you want to access from the Recovery Console.
4. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password. If the administrator password is blank, just press ENTER.
5. At the Recovery Console command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after you type each line:
   md tmp
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\tmp\system.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\tmp\software.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\tmp\sam.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\tmp\security.bak
   copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\tmp\default.bak
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
   delete c:\windows\system32\config\defaultcopy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\system
   copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\software
   copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
   copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
   copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

6. Type exit to quit Recovery Console. Your computer will restart.

Seems to work.

UPDATE: Another call and it failed this time because there appeared to be no “system” in the repair folder.  Got around this by taking the drive out the laptop and hooking it up to another machine as a 2nd drive.  Then went into the Windows repair and found an old system.bak file.  A few years old but better than nothing to get the system up.

Put drive back in, rebooted to Window and was like a new PC, nothing in add/remove, not on domain anymore etc.

So then followed step 2 in the MS guide:

Part two

To complete the procedure described in this section, you must be logged on as an administrator, or an administrative user (a user who has an account in the Administrators group). If you are using Windows XP Home Edition, you can log on as an administrative user. If you log on as an administrator, you must first start Windows XP Home Edition in Safe mode. To start the Windows XP Home Edition computer in Safe mode, follow these steps.

NotePrint these instructions before you continue. You cannot view these instructions after you restart the computer in Safe Mode. If you use the NTFS file system, also print the instructions from Knowledge Base article KB309531. Step 7 contains a reference to the article.

1. Click Start, click Shut Down (or click Turn Off Computer), click Restart, and then click OK (or click Restart).
2. Press the F8 key.On a computer that is configured to start to multiple operating systems, you can press F8 when you see the Startup menu.
3. Use the arrow keys to select the appropriate Safe mode option, and then press ENTER.
4. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, use the arrow keys to select the installation that you want to access, and then press ENTER.

In part two, you copy the registry files from their backed up location by using System Restore. This folder is not available in Recovery Console and is generally not visible during typical usage. Before you start this procedure, you must change several settings to make the folder visible:

1. Start Windows Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder options.
3. Click the View tab.
4. Under Hidden files and folders, click to select Show hidden files and folders, and then click to clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box.
5. Click Yes when the dialog box that confirms that you want to display these files appears.
6. Double-click the drive where you installed Windows XP to display a list of the folders. If is important to click the correct drive.
7. Open the System Volume Information folder. This folder is unavailable and appears dimmed because it is set as a super-hidden folder.Note This folder contains one or more _restore {GUID} folders such as “_restore{87BD3667-3246-476B-923F-F86E30B3E7F8}”.

   NoteYou may receive the following error message:

   C:\System Volume Information is not accessible. Access is denied.

   If you receive this message, see the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to gain access to this folder and continue with the procedure:

   309531 How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
8. Open a folder that was not created at the current time. You may have to click Details on the View menu to see when these folders were created. There may be one or more folders starting with “RPx under this folder. These are restore points.
9. Open one of these folders to locate a Snapshot subfolder. The following path is an example of a folder path to the Snapshot folder:
   C:\System Volume Information\_restore{D86480E3-73EF-47BC-A0EB-A81BE6EE3ED8}\RP1\Snapshot
10. From the Snapshot folder, copy the following files to the C:\Windows\Tmp folder:
    • _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
    • _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
11. Rename the files in the C:\Windows\Tmp folder as follows:
    • Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
    • Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

These files are the backed up registry files from System Restore. Because you used the registry file that the Setup program created, this registry does not know that these restore points exist and are available. A new folder is created with a new GUID under System Volume Information and a restore point is created that includes a copy of the registry files that were copied during part one. Therefore, it is important not to use the most current folder, especially if the time stamp on the folder is the same as the current time.

The current system configuration is not aware of the previous restore points. You must have a previous copy of the registry from a previous restore point to make the previous restore points available again.

The registry files that were copied to the Tmp folder in the C:\Windows folder are moved to make sure that the files are available under Recovery Console. You must use these files to replace the registry files currently in the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder. By default, Recovery Console has limited folder access and cannot copy files from the System Volume folder.

NoteThe procedure described in this section assumes that you are running your computer with the FAT32 file system. For more information about how to access the System Volume Information Folder with the NTFS file system, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

309531 How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder

Themes services was causing it to constantly crash and reboot. Disabled, now OK.

To copy profiles from one machine to another machine on a domain and have it so XP carries on using those profiles on the new machine instead of it creating a new profile like jdoe.DOMAINNAME. Extract the key below from the registry of the old machine
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\ProfileList
Copy the profiles over to the new machine.
Once copied you may need to set the permission up again on their profile folder. You may need to add the user back in and give them full control.

By default, the Administrator account is not displayed on the Welcome Screen. To log in to the Administrator account, press Ctrl+Alt+Del, release the Del key, and press it again, while still holding down the Ctrl+Alt keys. This will change the Welcome Screen login to the Windows 2000 style log in, where you can now type Administrator and the password for the Admin account.

You could also add the Administrator to the Welcome Screen:

1. Start the Registry Editor
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList \
3. Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value
4. Name the new value Administrator
5. Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it’s Value data
6. Close the registry editor

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/tune-09.html

Requires an OEM copy of XP to work. All OEM keys are disabled and only phone activation works. This was cause people were nicking them.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/11/04/unable-to-activate-windows-xp-and-vista-with-coa-oem-key-online-without-phone-activation/