repair previous installation failed

[Rich]

ok, I really screwed up.
I had a perfectly working XP pro system with default ATI 8500 series
(Microsoft Corporation) video driver and things were going smoothly.
Thinking I could play GOD and make Windows an even better place, I decided
to upgrade the current video drivers. After doing so, my GTA Vice City
wouldn't work. So, instead of just rolling back the driver like I should
have, I decided to let "driver cleaner" eliminate the left over ATI files
first. BIG mistake. It cleaned not only the new driver, but the MS ati
driver as well. So now I'm in vga driver looking at my screen when I
*accidently* disabled the standard VGA driver. Now, I'm looking at a black
screen. So then I decide to try to re-install windows xp pro over the
existing setup using the "repair previous installation option", thinking it
will overwrite all the crap I've done.....but it doesn't! :-(
Now, when I reboot all I get is a "setup is being
re-started................" and it freezes like this....not going anywhere.
I have 2 1/2 years of programs and data and such on this system, but through
the blink of an eye I think I may have lost it.
Do I throw myself in front of a semi now or is there a way to recover from
my periless error? TIA

 

[wojo]

Well atleast you now know most of the things you "Should" have done.
At this point a clean install is in order. The best bet then would be to
delete & re-create the partition and format it then do a clean install.
Unfortunately anything you installed on your computer (IE: GTA Vice City)
will be gone and need to be reinstalled.

 

[Michael Burk [MSFT]]

Rather than doing the "Repair" option, you can also tell it to do a clean
install on top of itself. You will lose some of your personal settings and
it is not the most stable configuration, but this will at least get you the
opportunity to save all of your files and data off of the computer and then
rebuild it and restore your files.

During set up, choose a new installation. Select the exact same drive where
the old installation was. DO NOT delete the partition or allow it to
format. Leave the partitions alone. You will then have to confirm that you
want to use the same Windows directory. Go ahead and do that and this
should redo drivers as well.

--
Michael Burk

Longhorn Shell
http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn
----===========================----

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

 

[Len]

take that box to a local shop...have someone who knows what they are doing
fix it...ya shoulda did that in the 1st place...

 

[Guest]

Hey Rich

If only I knew of the problems that you had... Then I wouldn't have made the same mistake. The only differnce is that I have a Raedon 9200. Hmmmm. Same scenario, same results, same stupidity. Bill pays god, we play the deciples, I'll one day learn to stop adding new (and more flashy components) to an already stable and functioning machine

BTW, how did you go? Did the fresh install do the trick

Luckily, I always partition my drives so that I have a separate data section, just in case the next upgrade doesn't go as planned

Paul.
3 and counting.