Windows XP Service Pack 2 Corrupted Windows

[Mark]

My installation of service pack 2 froze and forced me to
restart windows. Unfortunately, by restarting windows
with a partially installed service pack 2 corrupted
windows. I am unable to use either my windows XP or
windows 2000 cds to repair the problem, both attempt new
installations which freeze at "installing start menu
components" or something like that. I tried intalling
windows on a secondary hard drive, but it appears that
the previous intallations on the main hard drive are
corrupting my new installations on the secondary drive.
Does anyone know of a way I can uninstall windows XP and
2000 on my main hard drive without reformating my main
hard drive? I will try basically anything at this point,
as I would rather not reformat my main hard drive (I
could care less about the secondary hard drive).

Mark

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

My installation of service pack 2 froze and forced me to
restart windows. Unfortunately, by restarting windows
with a partially installed service pack 2 corrupted
windows. I am unable to use either my windows XP or
windows 2000 cds to repair the problem, both attempt new
installations which freeze at "installing start menu
components" or something like that. I tried intalling
windows on a secondary hard drive, but it appears that
the previous intallations on the main hard drive are
corrupting my new installations on the secondary drive.
Does anyone know of a way I can uninstall windows XP and
2000 on my main hard drive without reformating my main
hard drive? I will try basically anything at this point,
as I would rather not reformat my main hard drive (I
could care less about the secondary hard drive).

Mark,

a few thoughts. First of all, try to run some hardware tests,
because it is possible that the cause is a hardware failure,
like disk or RAM, not Service Pack 2. You will find some tests
that can be booted and run from a diskette or from a CD.

The next thought is that you could have one of the processor
problems outlined in http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm.

A motherboard BIOS update can't hurt anyway.

Altogether the problem is most peculiar, and I couldn't propose
any other guesses as to what the cause may be.

Hans-Georg

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----

Mark,

a few thoughts. First of all, try to run some hardware tests,
because it is possible that the cause is a hardware failure,
like disk or RAM, not Service Pack 2. You will find some tests
that can be booted and run from a diskette or from a CD.

The next thought is that you could have one of the processor
problems outlined in http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm.

A motherboard BIOS update can't hurt anyway.

Altogether the problem is most peculiar, and I couldn't propose
any other guesses as to what the cause may be.

Hans-Georg,

I am currently away from the computer that is having
problems, but I went to your website and noticed
something that may explain part of my problem. You say
that installations may not be repairable using OEM
versions of windows, which is what I have. This may
explain why my further installations of windows are
failing, and makes me worried that I may not be able to
save my main hard drive from reformating. I was able to
install, and run windows 2000 on the secondary hard drive
once, but after restarting the computer, the entire
secondary drive became corrupted. I reformated the
secondary drive and reinstalled windows 2000 (which was
completed, unlike on the main hard drive- also windows
2000 is my original operating system, win XP was an
upgrade), but I was unable to get windows to startup
without errors (and I think the drive may be corrupted
again).

I will look into BIOS problems when I return home, but
mine should be up to date.

Finally, where could I find hardware tests? I really
don't have very much experience with this type of
problem, and any suggestions would be helpful.

Thank you for responding,
Mark

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

I am currently away from the computer that is having
problems, but I went to your website and noticed
something that may explain part of my problem. You say
that installations may not be repairable using OEM
versions of windows, which is what I have. This may
explain why my further installations of windows are
failing, and makes me worried that I may not be able to
save my main hard drive from reformating. I was able to
install, and run windows 2000 on the secondary hard drive
once, but after restarting the computer, the entire
secondary drive became corrupted.

Mark,

this is a further pointer to a hardware defect. If both hard
disks are affected, I'd guess it may be the disk controller or
cable.

If you can install Windows from your OEM CD then this problem
does not exist. Your CD is apparently a full version.

I reformated the
secondary drive and reinstalled windows 2000 (which was
completed, unlike on the main hard drive- also windows
2000 is my original operating system, win XP was an
upgrade), but I was unable to get windows to startup
without errors (and I think the drive may be corrupted
again).

Hardware defect highly likely.

I will look into BIOS problems when I return home, but
mine should be up to date.

The BIOS cannot cause disk data corruption.

Finally, where could I find hardware tests? I really
don't have very much experience with this type of
problem, and any suggestions would be helpful.

It seems you don't need any hardware tests any more. I would
take out the disk if it contains any valuable data and would
first try to repair the hardware, probably by swapping parts.
You may need the help of a dealer.

Hans-Georg

 

[Mark]

Well, Thank you to everyone who tried to help. I ended
up giving in to the corruption and reformatting my hard
drive using the windows 2000 cd. My main drive works
like new with no errors under windows 2000, and I will
probably reinstall windows XP (though the added 100Mb RAM
it takes is almost not worth it on my machine).

I managed to get a friend to take on my hard drive as a
slave to his so I saved the things I hadn't backed up
(guess that was a lesson learned). Nothing was corrupted
on the disk, yet my windows would not work, so I suspect
that the whole problem must have been windows all along
(maybe a compatability issue?). Either way, I hope
that's behind me now.

This time I'll be installing SP2 on a fresh install, so
there shouldn't be any problems. If there are, I'll know
where to come.

Thanks again for responding,
Mark

 

[Hans-Georg Michna]

Well, Thank you to everyone who tried to help. I ended
up giving in to the corruption and reformatting my hard
drive using the windows 2000 cd. My main drive works
like new with no errors under windows 2000, and I will
probably reinstall windows XP (though the added 100Mb RAM
it takes is almost not worth it on my machine).

I managed to get a friend to take on my hard drive as a
slave to his so I saved the things I hadn't backed up
(guess that was a lesson learned). Nothing was corrupted
on the disk, yet my windows would not work, so I suspect
that the whole problem must have been windows all along
(maybe a compatability issue?). Either way, I hope
that's behind me now.

This time I'll be installing SP2 on a fresh install, so
there shouldn't be any problems. If there are, I'll know
where to come.

Thanks again for responding,

Mark,

thanks for reporting back! Too bad we'll never know what exactly
caused the problem, but that's the way things often go.

At least you can look forward more optimistically now.

Hans-Georg