Repair Installation of Windows XP

[Guest]

I recently attempted a repair installation of my Windows XP operating system
using the reinstallation CD that came with my computer. My installation
copied files then restarted & a setup error message was displayed saying that
set up needed the "asms" file to continue, please type the path for it &
click OK.....what is that & why don't I already have it? In addition on top
of that message came up a lsass.exe system error stating that an invalid
parameter was passed to a service or function. When I click "ok" my system
restarts & gives me the same error messages. Help! When I try to get into the
recovery console it prompts me for a password & I dont have one, it's
supposed to be blank. Please help I don't want to lose 4 years of files!

 

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=BAAlias=BA?=]

I recently attempted a repair installation of my Windows XP operating system
using the reinstallation CD that came with my computer. My installation
copied files then restarted & a setup error message was displayed saying that
set up needed the "asms" file to continue, please type the path for it &
click OK.....what is that & why don't I already have it? In addition on top
of that message came up a lsass.exe system error stating that an invalid
parameter was passed to a service or function. When I click "ok" my system
restarts & gives me the same error messages. Help! When I try to get into the
recovery console it prompts me for a password & I dont have one, it's
supposed to be blank. Please help I don't want to lose 4 years of files!

You started this procedure without making a back up? Can you boot into
Windows at all, either Normal or Safe Mode?

Alias

 

[Malke]

I recently attempted a repair installation of my Windows XP operating
system using the reinstallation CD that came with my computer. My
installation copied files then restarted & a setup error message was
displayed saying that set up needed the "asms" file to continue,
please type the path for it & click OK.....what is that & why don't I
already have it? In addition on top of that message came up a
lsass.exe system error stating that an invalid parameter was passed to
a service or function. When I click "ok" my system restarts & gives me
the same error messages. Help! When I try to get into the recovery
console it prompts me for a password & I dont have one, it's supposed
to be blank. Please help I don't want to lose 4 years of files!

Stop what you are doing immediately. The error messages you are getting
are usually caused by hardware such as 1) bad cd; 2) bad optical drive;
3) bad RAM; 4) bad hard drive. There is also no reason for you to be in
the Recovery Console. You are in the wrong place to fix what is wrong.

First try booting with either Knoppix (a Linux distro that runs from cd)
or a Bart's PE and retrieve the data. You know very well you should
have backed up and not attempted to mess with your operating system
without a backup, but hindsight is always 20/20. So get the data off.

http://www.knoppix.net
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/ (Bart's PE)

If you can't get Bart's or Knoppix to work (probably because of failing
hardware), pull the drive and slave it in a working machine and copy
the data off that way.

Then test your hardware. If the hardware is good, based on the error
messages you report, you may need to do a clean install:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#reinstall_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Doing the above requires a fair amount of computer skills and extra
machines. Only you know your skill level; if this isn't your cup of tea
take the machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local
version of BigStoreUSA).

Malke

 

[Jerry]

How to do a repair install 9with pictures):
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxppro/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm

 

[Guest]

Ok, here's the story. My computer was running fine, shutdown normally & the
next day wouldn't start but gave me a reigistry error stating that a
particular file was missing, corrupt or whatever, it was the system file (out
of software, sam, default, etc) I contacted microsoft who told me to boot up
from the original disk from when i bought the computer, & go into the
recovery console to correct the problem, you know, copy files, delete files,
repair files, then restart, create a restore point, use system restore & so
on. Well this didn't work, as when it retarted I got the lsass.exe error I
mentioned in my post. microsoft then told me to do a repair installation, &
the rest is history as I explained. that's why i have no backup, as my
computer was already down & no back up could be made. Does you advise still
follow what you already told me? Should I just do a clean install or won't
that work either, now. I feel as though i got bad advice, & now everything is
messed up that shouldn't be.

 

[Malke]

Ok, here's the story. My computer was running fine, shutdown normally &
the next day wouldn't start but gave me a reigistry error stating that a
particular file was missing, corrupt or whatever, it was the system file
(out of software, sam, default, etc) I contacted microsoft who told me to
boot up from the original disk from when i bought the computer, & go into
the recovery console to correct the problem, you know, copy files, delete
files, repair files, then restart, create a restore point, use system
restore & so on. Well this didn't work, as when it retarted I got the
lsass.exe error I mentioned in my post. microsoft then told me to do a
repair installation, & the rest is history as I explained. that's why i
have no backup, as my computer was already down & no back up could be
made. Does you advise still follow what you already told me? Should I just
do a clean install or won't that work either, now. I feel as though i got
bad advice, & now everything is messed up that shouldn't be.

It is very bad advice to tell someone to do anything with their operating
system without first asking if the person has backed up his data. However,
that's bottom-tier tech support for you. I can't comment on the rest of the
support you got because I've never seen your machine and I didn't hear the
telephone conversation between you and the support person. You should
always be backing up your data regularly in any case.

There's nothing in this most recent post of yours that makes me want to
change my previous advice. Get the data off, do hardware testing, if the
hardware is bad replace the failing bits, do a clean install if a Repair
Install won't work.

Malke