will fixboot delete stuff?

[RoBe]

sorry for such a poor title

My brother's computer has crashed and not wont load up explorer.exe because of some missing dll. I've opened up recover console off of an installation disk and thought that the fixboot command might help to get it all back to normal. But i don't really understand how the fixboot command will work, or if it will even help me. I'm a little cautious incase i end up formatting everything

Thanks

[Sputnik]

have your tried fixing the MBR ?

[RoBe]

no i haven't as on the windows description of commands it says:

Use this command if a virus has damaged the MBR and Windows cannot start.

and to my knowledge, there is no virus

[Funkstar]

the MBR will have no effect on explorer.exe. if windows it getting that gar there obviously isn't anything wrong with the MBR.

What you could try is a repair install rather than a fixboot. However that may well make windows loose some of its configuration and some programs may need to be re-installed.

[Sputnik]

Your right Funkstar, I really must read more carefully.

[RoBe]

cheers guys.

I'm using an oem disk atm which didn't come up with any repair option (maybe i just missed it?) but would i be okay to just go through as i would do for a normal install and then just choose not to format the drive before installing?

[Funkstar]

Personally if it was me, i'd pull the drive out, take a complete copy onto another drive, the format and reinstall.

I did this for my brother just the other week. fortunitely i have quite a lot of local and network storage at my place, so imaging a 80GB disk wasn't a problem. In fact, imaging just about any disk wouldn't be too much of a problem

[RoBe]

yeah, that's what i'd have done too, only i've got next to no free space anywhere. I think i'll probably just put it off for a few days while i can try and sort out another drive from somewhere. Then do the complete format and reinstall.

thanks again

[noveltylamp]

First things first, have you tried a chkdsk /r from the recovery console?

After that, run sfc /scannow - there seems to be some debate as to if you can run the system file checker from the recovery console, so it may depend on what disc you are using.