Windows XP - Home OEM install SP3 (legit CD, legit COA). Installed fine, but getting hard reboot issues. So, I am trying to simply 'repair' the install from the Win XP Home CD SetUp auto-run. It offers this "repair" option to me, but it will then ask me for the aministrator password on the original install it is about to repair. however, it won't repair it until I give it a password. ONLY problem is... THERE IS NOT FREAKING ADMIN PASSWORD. I know this because I just installed the thing and purposefully did NOT set an admin password. Sorry about the yelling, but it's quite infuriating. So, I can't go into the OS to create a password for Admin because it is re-booting before I can get that far, an it is just a console prompt asking for the aministrator password that doesn't exist. I know I can just re-install fresh, but 1. I shouldn't have to. This is rediulous. And 2. I have reasons I want to try an repair the install before wiping it out. Thanks. 1 person needs an answerI do too

Have you tried just pressing Enter when it asks for the password? The wording on the Welcome To Setup screen is confusing. The setup option that you're specifying runs Recovery Console: a command-prompt-only environment with limited capabilities. Is that what you want to do? An XP repair installation is something different.