Windows XP repair troubles

Post date: Mar 13, 2010 8:15:20 PM

June 2008

Its not everyday that people complaint about Windows XP. But I have a complaint about the repair process of XP.

I found a a old Creative Sound card and decided to install it. PCI installed Windows XP booted creative drivers installed and restart! I checked if the card worked or not it did but only one output . so i decided that i'll reinstall just in case something went wrong with the install. from Add/remove Programs i clicked remove next to the Soundblaster Live! entry. Uninstall went well but then reinstalling it didn't. Something, I don't know what but something did go wrong.

As usual I went into safe mode and logged into the administrator account. System Restore came up and i selected a point on the previous day, this checkpoint was created before installing the card. The desktop restarted as usual, Windows XP boot logo came up and then the screen blanked. Monitor was on but no welcome screen! I removed the power and booted it up again and the same.

Back to safe mode and a different checkpoint was selected. Again the same result except that when in safe mode it said restoration complete. At least it restored it but messed up.

So I consulted a few friends who have had experience in these matters. They suggested using a XP CD to repair the installation.

I didn't have the original CD so i asked my friend If i could borrow his. Well he gave me one slipstreamed with SP2. This was a CD which he regularly used so I knew this would work. Cd in the tray, PC booted up. I get a screen asking to boot from CD or not so i do and the blue screen with several options of ASR (Automatic System Recovery) and RAID driver installed appear. I was told to ignore and let it be... So all the files loaded and Windows started, a new menu popped up.

1. Install Windows

3. Exit Setup

As per instructions, option 1 was selected and then another menu

1. Repair current Windows Installation

2. Clean Install

Again option 1 chosen. display changed to "deleting files: " and then "copying: ". All was going well... The windows install GUI displayed and started the feature explanations which i didn't bother reading and left the computer with the screen turned off. 1hr later I come back and find an error. "Please insert "Windows XP professions with Service Pack 2" CD in the tray. Cannot copy " some file name with a weird extension which i had seen for the first time. ".ex_" So i click browse and navigate to I386 folder of the CD where i see this file (although there is no extension). I opened the file and clicked Retry but again it the same file error. However, the display had changed slightly now the extension was ".exe". I tried again to browse and retry. I gave up and clicked cancel and another file. In total i got errors for 30 files, some with similar names but numbered. I let the installation go ahead. After the PC restarted, the welcome setup screen came and asked me to register, to which i selected no and clicked finish.

The PC booted fine with the welcome screen and all user data still available as expected. I knew that this repair would uninstall any updates so I hit the Microsoft update website and yep there were 87 critical updates, 5 Software updates (all office updates) and 3 Hardware updates. I selected the critical updates only and clicked install. After a few minutes all were downloaded and it started installation but the progress bar did not proceed. I waited a few more minutes and then suddenly all updates were shown as Failed. I thought I didn't have Windows Installer 3.1, so I manually downloaded it and installed it. Another Reboot and another update attempt which sadly failed. I thought it was something to do with the files not being copied. Since i had nothing to lose other than time, I decided to try another repair attempt.

Repair attempt 2:

All went well and then those errors came back. Thankfully this time there were only about 10 files. Some signs of progress. again after logging in and update attempt all 87 updates failed.

This really started to bug me. So i returned the CD and asked my friend to perform the repair on one of his computers (he needed to repair it anyways). He had done exactly the same as me, every step. This proved that the files on the CD were NOT corrupt. so back to my house and (dead) PC. I tried the repair XP option again. And those errors kept coming back.

What next? Ignore everything and continue using the PC. Ok now there is pretty much no way to install those 87 updates than to manually download them and install. I was not going to do that. Well, I have decided to put a hold on this issue until my exams are over. I have some plans for the summer holidays such as a clean install AFTER a double government wipe of the HDD. Until then Enjoy spring cleaning your PCs and Laptops.

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