Double boot problem

[Guest]

Evidently when I set up auto-update it downloaded a competing version of
Windows XP x64. Both versions try to start up, so when I log-in under
administrator, it asks me if I want to 'activate my Windows product'. If I
say no, it logs me out. If I say yes, it starts up, gives me a screen saying
that Windows is already running, and logs me out too. Basically, I can't get
into my computer.

I've tried reinstalling windows, but that so far hasn't done anything except
get me to reformat my hard drive, losing everything I've stored there for the
past 4 years.

Previous to this, I had to shut down my computer twice to get it to stay
down. First time it would reboot after 3 minutes, and the second time it
would actually shut down. I have no idea if these two things are connected.

If it matters, I have an ASRock motherboard, a 2 GHz Athlon processor, and 2
hard-drives from different manufacturers.

 

[Gordon]

Evidently when I set up auto-update it downloaded a competing version
of Windows XP x64.

Do you have an MSDN Subscription? AFAIK that's the ONLY place you can
download MS Software.