Help uninstalling SP2 Beta

[Kevin]

I'm currently running SP2 Beta on my XP machine. Unfortunately I no
longer have the files necessary to uninstall it. I have tried
everything, and am unable to install. Additionally, I cannot upgrade
to the latest SP2 RC2 because I cannot uninstall, and I can't
downgrade to SP1 without uninstalling. Is my Windows forever stuck in
SP2 Beta? Do I have to wipe my hard drive and start over from
scratch? Any help is much appreciated, thank you.

 

[DaddyBob]

If you are currently running the SP2 beta, you can install the RC2 over it.
Nothing needs to be uninstalled. Just install RC2 and you should be OK. When
the final release version is available, it will install over the previous
RC's.

Bob
-----------------------------------------
I'm currently running SP2 Beta on my XP machine. Unfortunately I no
longer have the files necessary to uninstall it. I have tried
everything, and am unable to install. Additionally, I cannot upgrade
to the latest SP2 RC2 because I cannot uninstall, and I can't
downgrade to SP1 without uninstalling. Is my Windows forever stuck in
SP2 Beta? Do I have to wipe my hard drive and start over from
scratch? Any help is much appreciated, thank you.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Exactly, and if you really want to uninstall it, you should still be
able to. Do this:

Click Start-Run-Copy and Paste this in there and click OK.

%windir%\$NTServicePackUninstall$\spuninst\spuninst.exe

Nathan McNulty

 

[Kevin]

This does not work at all. I downloaded the 260+MB version of SP2
RC2, and tried to install it. After extracting all of the files, an
error message pops up:

"This Service Pack cannot be installed on top of the Windows XP
Service Pack 2 build currently installed on your computer. Cancel
this installation process, uninstall your current Windows XP Service
Pack 2 build, then re-install this Service Pack."

Is there any way to *force* it to install?

 

[Kevin]

No dice:

"C:\WINDOWS\$NTServicePackUninstall$\spuninst\spuninst.exe refers to a
location that is unavailable. It could be on a hard drive on this
computer, or on a network. Check to make sure that the disk is
properly inserted, or that you are connected to the Internet or your
network, and then try again. If it still cannot be located, the
information might have been moved to a different location."

It appears that my SP2 Beta is intertwined with my XP install -- I
cannot remove it, and I cannot install anything else.

 

[DaddyBob]

It looks like you have already installed RC2 and as it says, you cannot
install it again over the current installation. If you do longer have the
files necessary to remove it, then you have only one alternative. Start from
scratch, and re-install windows XP and then install the SP2RC2. Just wipe
the hard drive clean and go from there.


Bob

This does not work at all. I downloaded the 260+MB version of SP2
RC2, and tried to install it. After extracting all of the files, an
error message pops up:

"This Service Pack cannot be installed on top of the Windows XP
Service Pack 2 build currently installed on your computer. Cancel
this installation process, uninstall your current Windows XP Service
Pack 2 build, then re-install this Service Pack."

Is there any way to *force* it to install?

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Not entirely true. You can slipstream RC2 into your XP CD and do a
repair install from that.

Here is a guide on how to slipstream your XP CD:

First, download the network version of SP2 and put it in C:\ .Extract
all the files in it to C:\sp2. To do this, click run and type
“C:\XPsp2.exe –x” (without the quotes).

Once the files are extracted, make another folder and copy your Windows
XP CD to C:\xpcd . Now click Start, click Run, and type
“c:\sp2\update\update.exe /s:c:\XPCD” (again without quotes). When it
gets done, you’ll be able to burn those files back to a CD and SP2 is
now a part of your install.

If you want to keep the Windows XP CD bootable, get a program like
Winiso or UltraISO. It allows you to copy the boot sector of the CD.
You can also google around for it

Once you have burned this CD, boot off it and chose install, then it
will find the existing installation. Now choose R to repair the
installation.

Warning: This will add a timebomb in which the OS will expire in 120
days. It may not be possible to remove this even with an upgrade to RTM
(I'm not sure). If worst comes to worst, you could do the same thing
you just did with the RTM service pack integrated instead.

Nathan McNulty

 

[Kevin M]

Where does it say I already have RC2 installed? I have SP2 Beta
installed, not RC2. I no longer have the files necessary, but isn't
there a way to upgrade w/out going back to my old version?

 

[Kevin]

Once you have burned this CD, boot off it and chose install, then it
will find the existing installation. Now choose R to repair the
installation.

Warning: This will add a timebomb in which the OS will expire in 120
days. It may not be possible to remove this even with an upgrade to RTM
(I'm not sure). If worst comes to worst, you could do the same thing
you just did with the RTM service pack integrated instead.

Can I do this repair trick with SP1? It might be safer to go back
down to that, then wait for the full SP2. Will I have still have this
timebomb if I go back to SP1? And I'm assuming all my programs and
everything will be safe? (i.e. I won't have to re-install everything,
will I?) Thanks for the help.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

You should be able to do that to SP1, but if you wanted to go up to RC2,
it would work fine as SP2 final will install over any previos version of
the beta

Nathan McNulty

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

You should be able to do that to SP1, but if you wanted to go up to RC2,
it would work fine as SP2 final will install over any previos version of
the beta

Nathan McNulty

Nathan,

We have never said that the final SP2 will install over "any previous
version of the beta".
We are supporting upgrade in place from the RC1 to RC2 to RTM.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Nathan McNulty]

I have been able to update to an RC from all of the builds that I have
had access to, so I assumed SP2 final would be able to do this. Sorry
for the inaccurate post. Do you think it may be possible, but not
necessarily supported?

Nathan McNulty

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

I have been able to update to an RC from all of the builds that I have
had access to, so I assumed SP2 final would be able to do this. Sorry
for the inaccurate post. Do you think it may be possible, but not
necessarily supported?

Nathan McNulty

Nathan,

Since the test matrix only includes what we support. If the product allows
you to upgrade from one of the Betas or interims (which it may or may not) -
you have a system of unknown state and I would strongly advice not
continuing to run in a non determined state.
You would be better to deinstall the unsupported Betas etc and then install
the final build.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Kevin]

You should be able to do that to SP1, but if you wanted to go up to RC2,
it would work fine as SP2 final will install over any previos version of
the beta

I'd like to get my install back to a stable configuration. If I do
the SP1 trick, will all of my installed programs be safe? And will I
have this 120 day timebomb? Thanks.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Since SP1 is RTM, there is no timebomb in it. If you were to do this
with SP1, it should repair everything and put you back down to SP1. I'm
not sure if doing this repair operation will leave tidbits of SP2 behind
(such as Security Center) as there is nothing in SP1 that I can think of
that would overwrite it. In this case, it may be best to update to RC2
after you repair to SP1, but then again, RTM has to be coming some time
in the near future.

Nathan McNulty