Lost Windows XP - file 'atms' needed

[Terry Pinnell]

I'm at my wit's end trying to get my wife's XP Home System up and
running again, and would be very grateful for some urgent help please.

Not sure what caused it (possibly a glitch while using Windows Update
yesterday, and/or some spyware I found later - IEHacker??) but the
result is as follows:

On booting (from HD or the official original MS CD, in either of two
CD ROM drives) we get told that a Windows update is in progress, and
asking if we want to complete it. No real choice, so we proceed. But
we always end up getting the message:
'Files Needed asms'
and the path box offers the strange looking default
'GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386'
But clicking OK does nothing. Nor if I change the path to
E:\I386 or E:\I386\ or E:\I386\asms etc.

BTW, when I Explore the MS CD-ROM on my own PC, there *is* no file
called asms, only the folder E:\I386\asms

Google found me the MS 'solution' at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311755
but it's not only dauntingly complex but also requires the use of a
W98 Second Edition CD ROM.

From other google hits, this appears to be a fairly widespread issue,
so I'm hoping there are by now some practical solutions we can try
please.

 

[Guest]

Hello Terry

You may want to check out the following Microsoft KB article - hopefully
this should help you solve your problem

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311755




Jon

 

[Guest]

sorry didnt read all your post - silly me - ignore my last post

 

[Terry Pinnell]

sorry didnt read all your post - silly me - ignore my last post

OK, thanks anyway Jon. I'm hoping someone knows of an easier solution,
not requiring access to W98 2nd Edition CD-ROM! (How many XP users
just happen to have one of those to hand?)