Repairing a damaged Windows XP installation

As you can remember from my older posts i installed Windows Vista on my PC due to a damaged windows installation. I finally managed to recover my original Windows XP installation as well . So i wrote a FAQ for anyone interested:

THE DEFINITE AZRAEL GUIDE
FOR RECOVERING A WINDOWS XP INSTALLATION
(e.g. AFTER A MOBO REPLACEMENT)

So , you replaced your Motherboard with a different one , but you decided to continue using your original Windows XP already installed on your Hard Disk and not re-install. But now, alas, you are experiencing one or more of the following problems??

• Your PC restarts unexpectectedly during the Windows logo screen?


• You get the following messenge when trying to logon
  "A problem has prevented Windows from accurately checking the status of the license for this computer. To proceed your copy of windows must be activated with Microsoft. Do you want to continue?" but when you select yes , the system logs you , putting you to an infinite loop?
  
• You tried to do a windows repair but the Windows repair hangs at "34 minutes remaining" or at "33 minutes remaining"?


• A window pops-up during repair asking about "viaagp1.sys"?


• You successfully did a repair (wow!) but now the default windows installation is now on drive F:\ instead of C:\?
  
  Finally , there ARE solutions to all of the above problems and here is how! Follow ALL THE STEPS CAREFULLY
  

1. 
   
   First of all , if you have a VIA motherboard , you MUST write the viaagp1.sys file to a floppy disk. You can find it on the VIA HYPERION DRIVERS installation package in the VIA website. Just download the hyperion executable , unzip it somewhere , find the .sys file and write it to a floppy.
   
2. 
   
   Now you must do a windows repair, using your original windows xp cd . By this I DO NOT MEAN "Recovery Consoly Repair". I Mean the WINDOWS REPAIR . Here is how: Read this for more.
   
3. 
   When the installation will hang and freeze at 34 minutes (and believe me, the installation WILL hang!!!) press the reset button on your PC and then immidiately press F8 in order to bring up the Safe Mode menu options
   Then choose DEBUGGING MODE . It is very very important to continue the repair in DUBUGING MODE . Do not skip this part!
4. 
   So, the repair mode will now resume , but in Debugging mode . When the repair reaches again the 34 minutes a window will pop-up asking you for the viaagp1.sys file. Load it from the floppy you made in step (1)
   
5. 
   The repair continues . Because of the "debugging nature" of the repair , a few windows will pop-up as well informing you for other possible missing files (drivers mostly). Them you can ignore. You will deal with them later. But You must NOT ignore the viaagp1.sys file I mentioned before , in step (4)
   
6. 
   The installation will complete successfully and you will prompted to log on and activate your installation. Now you CAN activate (without problems ) , via telephone your installation. Do it!
   
7. 
   
   After the telephone activation , when you log in , you may find that your windows installation is now on drive F:\ or G:\ or sth instead of C:\ . If this happens fear not! You must do this
   
8. 
   
   If you had to do step (7 ) , after the restart you will find that you , once again , cannot logon to your system because "A problem has prevented Windows from accurately checking the status of the license for this computer.. blah...blah". Unfortunately you MUST do for one final time the steps 2-5. ( You will probably not need to do a telephone activation again)
   
9. 
   
   Your system is now OK again!! You can check if the installer-repairer missed anything (usually USB HUB DRIVERS) from your new MOBO using the Device Manager , and install it manually (using the Windows XP CD first and the MOBO installation CD second)
   
10. 
    
    Install SP2 and all the latest patches.Your repair is now complete! Enjoy your trusty old installation on your new motherboard!