4th request, 2 weeks later, Stop Windows XP instal in safe mode?

[Guest]

Sorry for repetitive posts, but so far, nobody has the answer, short of
re-formatting and re-install. Which, while a pain, is OK with me. I just
cannot believe that there is NO other alternative.

Situation:
Bad/corrupt driver prevents windows boot up, resulting in blue screen of
death. Boot to Safe Mode is available, but once booted, screen says : Windows
setup cannot be run in Safe Mode, please reboot. There are no other options.

Question:
Is there a command line method to unravel, turn off, disrupt the XP install
so I can get back into Safe Mode?

Thanks,

JCC in San Diego, CA

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Sorry for repetitive posts, but so far, nobody has the answer, short of
re-formatting and re-install. Which, while a pain, is OK with me. I just
cannot believe that there is NO other alternative.

Situation:
Bad/corrupt driver prevents windows boot up, resulting in blue screen of
death. Boot to Safe Mode is available, but once booted, screen says : Windows
setup cannot be run in Safe Mode, please reboot. There are no other options.

Question:
Is there a command line method to unravel, turn off, disrupt the XP install
so I can get back into Safe Mode?

Thanks,

JCC in San Diego, CA

Your question is equivalent to asking "Can someone please
turn the lift motor back on again so that I can get to the top
floor" after an earthquake has badly damaged your appartment
house. It would not get you very far.

You received several replies to your previous posts, suggesting
that you could try a repair installation or boot into the "Last
Known Good Configuration". If these don't work then your
installation has suffered some serious damage and your best bet
is to re-install Windows.

If there is an issue with not-backed up data files then please
say so. They can usually be salvaged without loss.

If you find the process of re-installing Windows painful then
you should consider purchasing an imaging product such as
Acronis or Ghost. I use them all the time. They let me restore
a failed installation in less than an hour.

 

[Guest]

You can enter recovery console by booting to xp cd,in recovery try:LISTSVC
Locate the service you want shutdown by typing DISABLE.For all options or
cmds type:HELP Or read #314058 You can also boot to xp cd,select install
xp,
repair this copy.You only loose updates.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

To make your advice viable, I suggest you tell the OP ***which***
service he should disable, and ***what*** he should base his
selection on.

 

[Richard Urban]

Ask yet another time and you will still receive much the same answers.
Perform a repair install. If that does not work you need to perform a clean
format/install.

Yes, everything on your C: drive/partition will be lost. You did, of course,
backup all your pertinent files on a regular basis - right?

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

OK, got it, and thanks. I appreciate the elevator analogy. That explains the
answer to my question is 'no'.

I had thought I made it clear that the various other answers, (reformat,
recovery install, repair install, and now imaging solutions) while helpful in
addressing the core problem, did not, in my view answer the question. Namely,
can you stop an ongoing WindowsXP install from the command line. To this
point, no one had answered that question.

As far as the 'pain', it's just the matter of time, that's it, nothing lost
more than time.

In any event, I do appriciate the reply.

Regards,

JCC in San Diego

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your reply. I do appreciate it. Agreed that repetitive
questions have resulted in the same answers, hence the repetition. In
reviewing my posts and the replies, up to this point, no one had actually
answered the question. Good suggestions such as yours for work arounds have
been provided and I am grateful for that input.

The core question had remained unanswered, however, in my view. Namely, can
one stop a repair install from the command line? The answer appears to be
'no'.

No harm, no loss, other than time, and yes, my data is secured and will be
restored forthwith after the clean install.

Thanks again.

JCC in San Diego, CA

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

OK, got it, and thanks. I appreciate the elevator analogy. That explains the
answer to my question is 'no'.

I had thought I made it clear that the various other answers, (reformat,
recovery install, repair install, and now imaging solutions) while helpful in
addressing the core problem, did not, in my view answer the question. Namely,
can you stop an ongoing WindowsXP install from the command line. To this
point, no one had answered that question.

I cannot see the point of this question. The installation of
Windows occurs in a GUI. While it proceeds, there is no
Command Line, for the simple reason that the Command
Line requires its own process under an operative version
of Windows. If you wish to stop an installation of Windows
then you must reboot the machine (unless you have access
to Microsoft internal debugging tools).

 

[Guest]

Hmmm, I appreciate the dialog. It seems I've still not made my problem clear.
If you can bear with me, I will try to explain:

I cannot reach 'normal' windows GUI due to a bad driver. I get a continued,
consistent BSOD. I can reach 'safe mode' windows GUI, but, once there, I only
have a single dialog screen that tells me, to the effect: 'Windows cannot be
installed in Safe Mode, please re-boot'. There are no other choices, no way
past this dialog screen short of re-boot.

So, I'm stuck in an endless loop. What I've been trying to ask is, can I
boot to the command line and manually edit out a batch file, an .ini file, a
registry file, or something/somewhere, so that I can kill the install process
that is presently partially running?

Thanks again.

JCC

:

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Fine, this makes your question clearer. If you think that you
have a bad driver and if you know which driver it is then you
can boot into the Recovery Console and disable that driver
by renaming the driver file to something else. You can also
disable various services, as suggested by Andrew E - provided
that you know which service to disable. This is about the
closest to a Command Line utility available outside WinXP.

If you don't know what driver file is causing a problem then
you can try to install WinXP over the top of the existing
installation, as other respondents have suggested.

 

[Guest]

OK, I got that. I did give up on trying to locate the bad driver or service.
No indication from BSOD what driver is corrupt. Seems there are over 400 in
that folder, and I was not inclined to check them one by one.

So, I did try to re-install over the existing XP installation in hopes that
the bad driver would be overwritten and corrected. Sadly, the install did not
achieve that goal. In one of the install required re-boots, the bad driver
rears up and BSOD, same as before.

And this is precisely where the computer sits now. BSOD on failed
re-install to correct the original driver problem, and now, after the failed
install, when one boots to Safe Mode, the message appears that 'Windows XP
install is in process, please re-boot ' dialog. No other choices, save for
booting to the command line, which gave me the idea to ask the original
question, put another way, I guess:

Can you interrupt or defeat, stop the dialog in SafeMode which indicates a
WindowsXP install is ongoing, please re-boot?

It appears I'm flogging a dead horse here, but it really seems odd that
there is not a workaround. In any event, I do appreciate the suggestions and
discussion.

Regards,

JCC in San Diego, CA