Mysterious behavior on clean install

[DennisQWilson]

After installing Acronis OS Selector and then uninstalling it when my
system failed to boot, my brand new clean install of Windows XP is
acting funny.

Most programs will still launch, but it seems like programs that
required activation when they were installed are an exception: Avast
Anti-Virus won't start without reregistration, for example, and Total
Uninstall simply crashes, to name two examples. In addition, I am
getting the "no mixer devices found"error message on bootup.

Restoring the complete system from a recent backup -- one which was
verified to have worked -- yields the same result. Ditto for earlier
backups.

It's almost as if the system doesn't know where to find certain files
or information it needs to launch certain programs or services.
Everything in the boot.ini file checks out, however, and I don't know
where else to look. (Though I did check the 8.3 names of all the
major directories to make sure Program Files hadn't changed from
Progra~1 to Progra~2 or the like.

Can anyone guess at what I might look at next? I beklieve I've
eliminated the MBR as the culprit, because the problem is the same
even when I restore the system to a different, clean drive.

 

[db.·.. >]

well, if you used it to resize
your partitions, then there is
a dynamic involved and perhaps
it is the cause of your issue.

depending on how you resize
the partitions or disk, the
system files may have been
relocated.

for example if you added space
to the system folder, there
would be issues if the space
was added to the beginning of
the partition or at the end of
it.

if you added more space to the
beginning of the partition,
then it lodged your system
file from their assigned
locations on the disk.

your mentioning the mbr is a
good point and you can tune it
up/reconcile it via the
recovery console from a
windows installation cd.

there are older partitioning
programs that screw up the
o.s. because they can no
longer re write the mbr
successfully after rearranging
the data.

in fact they can cause the
ntfs to crash. however, with
acronis you can recover from
this kind of crash, if it ever
occurred.

anyways, after you log into
the recovery console you
will get to the disk system
prompt

at the prompt run
the command: fixmbr

other commands like
fixboot
bootcfg /rebuild
and
chkdsk
are also helpful to do at that
time.

i think the above will get you
back in.

if not then a windows repair
following the above commands
will.

i use acronis and haven't had
any issues with it. but
before i use it i ensure that
the mft is reconciled with the
file system by using chkdsk,
remove all trash and then
defrag. it simply provides a
bit of assurance that the
resizing can be error free.

--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

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