Help Think I broke it good

[Hank]

In an earlier posting I talked about a friend's system that could not
see an external USB drive. I got several answers but they recommended
buying another product to use. Well PC World came out with an article
about fixing an XP system that won't recognize unrecognized USB
drives. "Goto http:support.microsoft.com/kb/92516" "scroll down a bit
until you see the Microsoft Fix It button, click it, and follow the
instructions. That should do the trick" Seemed to be simple so I
emailed the link to George. That was the start of a fatal mistake.
George is a salt of the earth guy but could not find the backside of
his computer if he tried. Turns out the link goes to a page with lots
of options and one has to hunter for the correct fix. Not sure what
George clicked on but when I looked at his desktop via Teamviewer.
There seemed to be a new hard drive "windowsXP pro sp3 ( I could not
see the small C) in the name. Okay I think he started it right (bad
assumption). Using Teamviewer I took his PC through the fixit link
and found the correct fix. However when I tried to use it I got an
error message saying it needed a file (not sure I have the name right)
dotnetfx35 do you want to download it. It is a large file and I have
had a problem getting it on my PC too. I downloaded the 21+ meg file
but it would not install kept getting an error.
THIS is where I screwed up big time. It was hard to read the small
print but I tried assigning a drive letter to this "windowsXP pro etc"
drive thinking it was the external drive. Turns out the last letter
was a C and I reassigned the drive as "R". Now the PC will not boot
because it can not find the boot files I guess.

It is WindowsXP Pro SP3 with I think all latest updates.

Any suggestions beyond " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
would be appreciated.
email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

 

[philo]

In an earlier posting I talked about a friend's system that could not
see an external USB drive. I got several answers but they recommended
buying another product to use. Well PC World came out with an article
about fixing an XP system that won't recognize unrecognized USB
drives. "Goto http:support.microsoft.com/kb/92516" "scroll down a bit
until you see the Microsoft Fix It button, click it, and follow the
instructions. That should do the trick" Seemed to be simple so I
emailed the link to George. That was the start of a fatal mistake.
George is a salt of the earth guy but could not find the backside of
his computer if he tried. Turns out the link goes to a page with lots
of options and one has to hunter for the correct fix. Not sure what
George clicked on but when I looked at his desktop via Teamviewer.
There seemed to be a new hard drive "windowsXP pro sp3 ( I could not
see the small C) in the name. Okay I think he started it right (bad
assumption). Using Teamviewer I took his PC through the fixit link
and found the correct fix. However when I tried to use it I got an
error message saying it needed a file (not sure I have the name right)
dotnetfx35 do you want to download it. It is a large file and I have
had a problem getting it on my PC too. I downloaded the 21+ meg file
but it would not install kept getting an error.
THIS is where I screwed up big time. It was hard to read the small
print but I tried assigning a drive letter to this "windowsXP pro etc"
drive thinking it was the external drive. Turns out the last letter
was a C and I reassigned the drive as "R". Now the PC will not boot
because it can not find the boot files I guess.

It is WindowsXP Pro SP3 with I think all latest updates.

Any suggestions beyond " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
would be appreciated.
email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

Major screw up...


I'd boot up the machine with a live Linux CD and copy all the data off
of it to an external drive...
then try a repair install

 

[Cash]

In an earlier posting I talked about a friend's system that could not
see an external USB drive. I got several answers but they recommended
buying another product to use. Well PC World came out with an article
about fixing an XP system that won't recognize unrecognized USB
drives. "Goto http:support.microsoft.com/kb/92516" "scroll down a bit
until you see the Microsoft Fix It button, click it, and follow the
instructions. That should do the trick" Seemed to be simple so I
emailed the link to George. That was the start of a fatal mistake.
George is a salt of the earth guy but could not find the backside of
his computer if he tried. Turns out the link goes to a page with lots
of options and one has to hunter for the correct fix. Not sure what
George clicked on but when I looked at his desktop via Teamviewer.
There seemed to be a new hard drive "windowsXP pro sp3 ( I could not
see the small C) in the name. Okay I think he started it right (bad
assumption). Using Teamviewer I took his PC through the fixit link
and found the correct fix. However when I tried to use it I got an
error message saying it needed a file (not sure I have the name right)
dotnetfx35 do you want to download it. It is a large file and I have
had a problem getting it on my PC too. I downloaded the 21+ meg file
but it would not install kept getting an error.
THIS is where I screwed up big time. It was hard to read the small
print but I tried assigning a drive letter to this "windowsXP pro etc"
drive thinking it was the external drive. Turns out the last letter
was a C and I reassigned the drive as "R". Now the PC will not boot
because it can not find the boot files I guess.

It is WindowsXP Pro SP3 with I think all latest updates.

Any suggestions beyond " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
would be appreciated.
email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

Hank,

Have search on the Microsoft website for the "fixboot" and "fixmbr" [1]
procedures, run these and if all goes well, you should get the proper boot
files back to start XP.

If not, then a repair or reinstall of the operating system may be the best.

[1] When running fixmbr, a message will probably pop up saying that if
you run this fix a disaster could occur. Ignore this and click yes to
accept - this is a know bug in this fix and all will be ok,

 

[glee]

In an earlier posting I talked about a friend's system that could not
see an external USB drive. I got several answers but they recommended
buying another product to use. Well PC World came out with an article
about fixing an XP system that won't recognize unrecognized USB
drives. "Goto http:support.microsoft.com/kb/92516" "scroll down a bit
until you see the Microsoft Fix It button, click it, and follow the
instructions. That should do the trick" Seemed to be simple so I
emailed the link to George. That was the start of a fatal mistake.
George is a salt of the earth guy but could not find the backside of
his computer if he tried. Turns out the link goes to a page with lots
of options and one has to hunter for the correct fix. Not sure what
George clicked on but when I looked at his desktop via Teamviewer.
There seemed to be a new hard drive "windowsXP pro sp3 ( I could not
see the small C) in the name. Okay I think he started it right (bad
assumption). Using Teamviewer I took his PC through the fixit link
and found the correct fix. However when I tried to use it I got an
error message saying it needed a file (not sure I have the name right)
dotnetfx35 do you want to download it. It is a large file and I have
had a problem getting it on my PC too. I downloaded the 21+ meg file
but it would not install kept getting an error.
THIS is where I screwed up big time. It was hard to read the small
print but I tried assigning a drive letter to this "windowsXP pro etc"
drive thinking it was the external drive. Turns out the last letter
was a C and I reassigned the drive as "R". Now the PC will not boot
because it can not find the boot files I guess.

It is WindowsXP Pro SP3 with I think all latest updates.

Any suggestions beyond " a little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
would be appreciated.
email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end

Hank wrote: "Goto http:support.microsoft.com/kb/92516"

Just to note: the Microsoft KB article you linked is for Windows for
Workgroups 3.x, not for Windows XP, and is not about anything to do with
USB, and contains no Fix-It. If that is the link you sent your friend,
no wonder he got confused.

The article you should have sent him to is
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196
The Fix-It button is right in the middle of the page, clearly marked and
visible. There are no "other options" on the page.

 

[Hank]

Hank wrote: "Goto http:support.microsoft.com/kb/92516"

Just to note: the Microsoft KB article you linked is for Windows for
Workgroups 3.x, not for Windows XP, and is not about anything to do with
USB, and contains no Fix-It. If that is the link you sent your friend,
no wonder he got confused.

The article you should have sent him to is
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196
The Fix-It button is right in the middle of the page, clearly marked and
visible. There are no "other options" on the page.

I typed the wrong kb number on the posting. However 925196 did not fix
anything either. Then I found out that George just pulled the USB plug
on the external drive out while it was still running. He said oh did
that lots of times. When I tried the drive on my laptop and later on
my main PC it still did not display under My Computer. I am assume
that he damaged the FAT or something so it was no longer able to be
read. As I type I am formating the 635 GB drive so it will be sometime
before it is done.

As for doing a repair WindowsXP it did not work. I did Fixboot
then a fixmrb. Said both were successful but PC would still not boot.
Finally had to do a complete install. However it required
re-formatting the C drive (or whatever letter it got changed too)
before I could do the install. Then I had to figure out what drivers
to install to get the DELL product back on the Internet. Both
operations were fairly quick. The biggest amount of time was in
downloading and installing ALL the Microsoft undates for the past two
years when the install disk was done. George is back online with a
clean system install. Probably for the better since I have no idea
what got into the PC in the first place to start all these problems.
We did salvage all his pictures etc to CD's before re-formatting.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.
email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

 

[Cash]

I typed the wrong kb number on the posting. However 925196 did not fix
anything either. Then I found out that George just pulled the USB plug
on the external drive out while it was still running. He said oh did
that lots of times. When I tried the drive on my laptop and later on
my main PC it still did not display under My Computer. I am assume
that he damaged the FAT or something so it was no longer able to be
read. As I type I am formating the 635 GB drive so it will be sometime
before it is done.

As for doing a repair WindowsXP it did not work. I did Fixboot
then a fixmrb. Said both were successful but PC would still not boot.
Finally had to do a complete install. However it required
re-formatting the C drive (or whatever letter it got changed too)
before I could do the install. Then I had to figure out what drivers
to install to get the DELL product back on the Internet. Both
operations were fairly quick. The biggest amount of time was in
downloading and installing ALL the Microsoft undates for the past two
years when the install disk was done. George is back online with a
clean system install. Probably for the better since I have no idea
what got into the PC in the first place to start all these problems.
We did salvage all his pictures etc to CD's before re-formatting.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.
email response not expected but to respond remove .uk at end
TIA
Hank

Thanks for the information Hank.

I must admit that I would not have been as patient as you, and would have
reformatted the drive sooner.

As a matter of interest, you can download the Windows XP SP3 (Service Pack
3) updates onto the desk top, and then burn them to a CD (just search the
Microsoft site for it) - and that has saved me hours of waiting after disk
reformats.