repair of XPPro SP1 installation--Q323183

[bernie]

I had a disk failure on a secondary drive at my home [I'm
at work now]. Enough info was there however that the
system needed to be repaired via my XPProSP1 CDROM. This
repair fails, asking for the CD with the Q323183 fix -- XP
Service Pack 1, the very CD I am repairing from!
history: {
this failed drive had been the C:\ drive in my prior
configuration; I had moved it when I upgraded the IDE-0
port 0 drive to a larger device. That prior primary
partition was a Win2000 sp3. I had installed a clean XP
version onto the new drive, giving the primary partition
plenty of growth room. This has been stable for nearly a
year until the secondary drive failed last night.
}

The Q323183 is simply the XP SP1 announce note; if I
cancel or search for the "source" the install/ repair is
not able to find some "Q323183_?_x286_?.exe" [?-I forgot
the exact name sequence] and I end up with what appears to
the system --and other fixes I attempt to load thereafter -
- as base-XP Pro without SP1.

Confusion here, the very CDROM I am installing/ repairing
from--xp sp1-- cannot find itself? I even downloaded the
SP1 from the windows update site, and it behaves exactly
the same, looking for that executable

 

[bernie- more info]

Just recalled another MS-anomoly: while the w2k & XP ntfs
systems are supposed to manage all disk I/O, there are
times that MS apps have driven the hard-volume-ID into key
registry settings. I'm starting to think that this may
have added to the issue- the former-C: volume ID may be
embedded at some key Registry OS entry, where it really
should be addressing the new install on the new C:
volume. [and I should add: "via NTFS, not vol-ids!"]

If all else fails, am I able to install a fresh XPsp1 into
the same C:\ partition or is this lost effort?
thanks all