Can you please help me?

[Tim Slattery]

Just one more thing. When you say, "Go to the Microsoft website and download
the Service Pack 3 iso image.

International Organization for Standardization (www.iso.org). They
write standards for all kinds of things. In this case it specifies a
file format that contains all the information on a DVD. For
instructions on turning an iso file into a DVD, look here:
http://www.wikihow.com/Burn-ISO-Files-to-DVD

 

[Mark Adams]

Just one more thing. When you say, "Go to the Microsoft website and download
the Service Pack 3

What does iso stand for?

I really do appreciate you guys helping me out more than you could ever ever
know, and for your patience in getting all of my questions answered as well
also, and for the amount of time it took to do it all in as well. It's all
time consuming to say the least, but at least we all hung in there together
and got the job done the right way the 1st time. JOB WELL DONE GUYS!!! Go pat
yourselves on the back and reward yourselves highly And thanks too for not
getting frustrated at me as well as a lot of people do. I can't help myself.
I was just born to be an inquiring mind. What more can I say! But that's how
you get the job done through patience and persistence. I just wished that I
had more guys like you that took the time needed to all of this in. THANKS
AGAIN GUYS!!!!

"Tim Slattery" has your answer for "iso". For burning iso images to disk, I
like to use "ISO Recorder" (Google for it) Once installed, it adds entries to
and runs from the right-click menu. To copy a CD place the CD in your burner,
open "My Computer" and right click on the CD/DVD drive icon. Select "Copy CD"
from the menu. A wizard opens, follow the prompts to begin the copy process.
When the copying is done, the drawer opens and you are prompted to place a
blank CD in the drive. Put in a blank disk and close the drawer, the writing
begins automatically. When the burn is done, the drawer opens and you have an
exact duplicate of the original disk. A very slick program!

It can't read and write to DVD media, (unless there is an updated version I
don't know about) and it won't copy copy-protected media. It can save an iso
image to your hard drive however, that you can burn fresh copies from
whenever you need. Just right-click on the iso image that you want to burn
and select from the menu "Burn image to CD". The wizard opens and follow the
prompts. I copy all of my software installation media to the hard drive. I
save the iso files to a folder "ISO Images" that I keep in "My Documents".
Copy your recovery disks once you get them, that way if they get lost or
damaged you can have good ol' ISO Recorder spit out new ones whenever you
need.

Now just a few more questions I'm not quite clear on. When you say, "Probably
the best thing to do now would be to purchase an external USB hard drive and
copy all of your data (documents, pictures, music, email, etc.) to
it." do you mean the stuff I have saved to the computer only? As I have done
that already.

Yes. Any stuff you have saved to the computer (documents, pictures etc.) as
I said above. Note that this does not include programs that you have
installed like "Dragon" or drivers or print applications for your printer.

When you say, "You will need the installation media of all your installed
applications,
hopefully you haven't lost those as well." Do you mean stuff like a printer
that was installed on the computer or a program such as Dragon Naturally
Speaking which is a word program that types as you talk for it so you don't
have to type to save your hands and wrists from CTS and Tendinitis, or a
webcam, etc.?

Yes. You will need to reinstall drivers for the printer, the webcam, and any
other devices that you use with your computer (Bluetooth devices, Ipod, etc.)
External hard drives and flash drives should work fine, as Windows XP has
drivers built in for those devices. Drivers for the printer, webcam and other
devices can be downloaded from the website of the manufacturer of those
devices.

As far as the applications like "Dragon", word processsing programs like
"Microsoft Office", and your printer's applications; you will need the
original install media (usually on a CD). If these softwares have been
pirated as well as the operating system was and you don't have the install
media for them; you will be out of luck.

When you say, "Go to the Microsoft website and download the Service Pack 3
iso image
here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=2fcde6ce-b5fb-4488-8c50-fe22559d164e
and burn the image to CD.

Apply SP3 and turn on the Windows firewall

Rather than spend $149.00 on a Genuine Advantage kit

By saying all of this, are you telling me that basically the SP3 will cure
the copy of Windows not being genuine for good even if I don't use the
recovery discs?

No. SP3 will not make your pirated OS "genuine". Use of the proper recovery
disks for your model will install a genuine Windows XP operating system. This
is an older machine, and no doubt SP3 will not be included with the recovery
disks. I suggested that you download SP3 and burn it to CD so you will have a
copy of it to update the install from the recovery disks. SP3 (for me anyway)
installs more reliably from CD than it does from Windows Update.

I know why you're telling me to do the iso image of the SP3 because it won't
have the disk space issue that it squaks and bugs me about.

But on the other hand, if I do use the recovery discs, being that it already
has the partition on there from the pirated software, will it work from the
recovery discs and create a whole new partition and not try to draw from the
partition that's already on there from the pirated software?

The recovery disks will restore the computer to an "as shipped" condition.
This is a "destructive" reinstall that wipes out everything on the hard drive
including the pirated recovery partition. This is why you have to save your
data to external media, and have your application install media before you do
this. If you must keep your current installation because you don't have the
install media for your other pirated software, you will have to bite the
bullet and use the Genuine Advantage kit.

You still will have the problem of having too small of a hard drive. Again,
this is an older machine, and the hard drive is no doubt a PATA type drive
with the wide, flat ribbon cable. From what I understand, these drives are no
longer being made and are getting hard to get. You might still be able to
purchase a much larger PATA drive from Newegg or Tigerdirect. Use the cloning
software that comes with the new hard drive to clone your old drive to the
new one. This will solve your disk space problem so you can use the Genuine
Advantage kit.

This is a lot of trouble and cost in an attempt to save pirated software on
an obsolete computer. You will need to decide whether the cost and effort is
worth it.

I really do appreciate all of the time and effort and help you guys have
been helping and giving me more than you could ever ever know and for you
patience as well. Thanks again!






:



:

Well, that's just it, I don't have a friend or colleague that I know of that
would have one of those discs that you tell me I should get and make a copy
of. Chances of finding one are like winning or hitting the lottery. About 1
in 10 million chances.

Anyway, this is why I need them. I bought this computer from someone that
sold him this and other computers as well and I bought this one from him and
when I did the Windows Updates it told me that this copy of Windows did not
pass genuine Windows validation and that I might be a victim of software
counterfeiting.

Well I turned off Windows Update (I know, not a smart thing to do---grill me
if you must) because for one, the computer has only 16 GB of Hard Drive space
as you can see and a forth of it is used up already from programs that are
needed on there already, and I've been told that that's way too small of a
space for updates to occur because you need more Hard Drive space for the
latest ones that come out which would be way to big for the Hard Drive
itself. They may have told me wrong. I don't know. I've deleted a bunch of
useless programs on there to gain more space, but it still didn't seem to
help much as far as trying to do Windows Updates.

Heres the problem I encountered which is why I say I need to do my operating
system with the recovery discs.

When I tried to do the Window Updates this is what happened.

I get a Window that says: Product Key update failure. The application has
encountered a disk-write error while updating system components. The system
may be low on disk space. Please check available disk space. [Error:
0x800402c9]

And this error message as well: This copy of Windows did not pass genuine
validation.

The product key found on this computer is a Volume License Key (VLK) that
has been blocked.

Then it wanted me to buy this Windows Genuine Advantage Kit for Windows XP
Professional $149.00 from microsoft so it would make the copy of Windows
legal. They told me I won't have enough disk space to do this. Obviously the
one that had it before me pirated all of the software that's on this
computer. That's what I'm trying to get fixed and because as a result of me
trying to update the system with these Window Updates, my computer is running
very very sluggish now, where as before it was running so very very smoothly
and fast until I started updating it, and now it's too late to go back at
this point, unless I can turn it back to day 1 with the recovery discs.

Then I get this error message saying: Service Pack 3 Setup Window that says:
(with an X inside a large red circle) An internal error occurred as it was
trying to install the updates.

Then I get this next error message saying: Service Pack 3 Setup Error Window
that has a large X inside a large red circle that says: Service Pack 3
installation did not complete.

Then I get this Window Update window that says: Some updates were not
installed. The following updates were not installed: Windows XP Service Pack
3 (KB936929)

Had I known what I know now, I never ever would have ever run Windows
Updates at all. I hope now I make more sense to you. It's not that I was
afraid of getting caught with the goods so to speak, I just thought it would
be an easy thing to do with no questions asked, but I'm glad you did anyway.
Maybe now, hopefully I can get somewhere with it now.

Even if I do get the Windows Genuine Advantage Kit for Windows XP
Professional $149.00, and it makes the copy of Windows legal, would the
recovery discs work if I used them? Please answer this one for me. Thanks.

This is another reason I want these recovery discs to turn it back to day 1
so hopefully it would make the copy of Windows legal and I would be good to
go from there and that I wouldn't have to buy the Windows Genuine Advantage
Kit for Windows XP Professional $149.00 . I've been told that yes, that's
very true. What do you say?

I guess now my big big question would be this, if I do get the recovery
discs, being that the computer already has a partition on there and that's
what it uses to draw from when you recover it with the recovery discs, would
it be able to turn the computer back to day 1 and create a new partition with
the recovery discs or is it going to use the partition already on there even
though it doesn't have that partition on there already? I really need an
answer on this one please as I'm still confused on what I should do at this
point. Thanks.

Any more advice I might try now?



Probably the best thing to do now would be to purchase an external USB hard
drive and copy all of your data (documents, pictures, music, email, etc.) to
it. Go to the Microsoft website and download the Service Pack 3 iso image
here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...FamilyID=2fcde6ce-b5fb-4488-8c50-fe22559d164e

and burn the image to CD.

You will need the installation media of all your installed applications,
hopefully you haven't lost those as well.

Use the recovery disks suggested by David Webb. They will restore your
computer to "as shipped" condition. This will wipe out everything on the hard
drive, so make sure that you have your data copied to the external drive and
your application media before doing this.

Apply SP3 and turn on the Windows firewall; set Automatic Updates to "notify
me but do not download or install updates" before connecting to the internet.
When prompted of available updates by the yellow shield in the system tray,
select "Custom Install" and deselect any updates you don't want, install the
ones you do. You will be prompted if you want to be notified again of the
updates you deselected; check the "no" box and you won't be notified again.

After your machine is updated, uninstall (from "Add/Remove Programs" in
"Control Panel") any preinstalled software that you don't want that came with
the recovery disk set. Reinstall your applications and copy your data back
from the external drive.

Rather than spend $149.00 on a Genuine Advantage kit, spend $35.00 on the
recovery disks and about $60.00 on an external drive. You will now have a way
to back up your data.



:

OK, I did like you asked me too. I hope this helps you out so you can help me
out. See below. msinfo32

OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name DELL-D163ABB8F2
System Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
System Model OptiPlex GX240
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 15 Model 1 Stepping 2 GenuineIntel ~1694 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Dell Computer Corporation A03, 3/1/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5508 (xpsp.080320-1628)"
User Name DELL-D163ABB8F2\dell
Time Zone Central Daylight Time
Total Physical Memory 640.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 263.13 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 789.78 MB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

I need them because I re-do my operating system to keep it refreshed and
running like new about once a year to keep it fresh. I thought that it was
recommended that a person do that to clean it up so it won't get bogged down
all of the time with registry junk etc.

When you say, "You would be well served to borrow a genuine bootable XP
installation CD that matches your system (XP Home, XP Pro) and just make a
copy of it, then you will have something useful for now and in the future..".

Where would I get a genuine bootable XP installation CD that matches my
system?

Is it the same as a recovery CD itself?

Please answer these questions and thank you for helping me out. I really
really do appreciate it more than you could ever ever know.



:
On Mar 14, 7:02 am, 24ggirl <[email protected]> wrote: