Hi, to continue an old post that the user seemed to have found the solution but never shared it... http://www.computing.net/answers/wi... I too changed motherboard and wanted to do a repair on my windows install. However, the repair option was not available. i could only install over the current partition or on a new one. I tried fixmbr, fixboot, etc as suggested by other posts but these are more suitable if your install is screwed up and you cannot boot your install. My windows installation was fine, I could log in and use it just fine. I could get into the recovery console - where it actually did find and report my windows install - fine, but when I tried to run bootcfg /rebuild it would fail with some disk/file checking errors that weren't real (chkdsk and low-level surface tests were all ok). Anyhow, reading that bootcfg /rebuild actually creats a boot.ini file and also reading that this can be done manually from within windows I checked it out and it turned out that in my machine there was no boot.ini. So, after manually creating one and trying to do a Windows XP repair, I finally managed to get the repair option available. It seems that windows setup, when reaching the final part of install/repair, is only looking for this file, it doesn't actually scan for actuall windows installs. I am sure there are many reasons why the repair option would not be available but noone mentioned this one... Hope this helps someone else.

it turned out that in my machine there was no boot.ini. You have to set Folder Options to show System Files, then you will see boot.ini at C:\boot.ini http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... The Purpose of the Boot.ini File in Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/defaul... HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP

Thanks for the tips! My sysfiles were visible, etc, etc. In my case there really was no boot.ini. When going to edit it via windows it actually told me so!

The problem in that other thread is that the OP didn't explain his situation correctly right from the start...it took numerous responses to get to all the details. Basically, he had a dual boot system with two HDD's (both with XP installed) & the primary HDD contained all the boot info, which is normal for a dual boot config. What he did was remove the 2nd HDD & tried to use it as the primary, thinking that he could just do a repair to be able to use it with a new board, but that wasn't possible because the repair wasn't being performed on a bootable drive.