Two concerns after XP reinstall

[EMK]

I've got an old PC that's gotten slow and mildly buggy over the years, so
after getting a new laptop I decided to start over with a clean slate and
reinstall the OS. I used the Reinstallation CD (XP Home Edition with SP2)
that came with the system (from Dell, if that matters). I found that the PC
had a small FAT32 partition and a large NTFS partition. I deleted both of
these and started over with a single new partition (I didn't get a choice
here, so I assume it was a NTFS partition). [One odd thing was that the max
size of the partition was 8MB shy of the total disk size, so now I have 8MB
that are unpartitioned.]

Anyhow, things were going fine; I got my video driver installed and was
doing a disk cleanup in safe mode prior to running Windows Update. When I
rebooted normally I noticed the first thing that concerned me:

1. I now have two OS to choose from when I boot up! I get a message saying
"PLEASE SELECT THE OPERATING SYSTEM TO START:
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDEITION
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDEITION"

Now, the first/default selection booted me up normally, but every time I
reboot the PC it'll take that extra 20 or 30 seconds stuck on that screen
for no good reason. Why would that be there? (The boot disk is no longer
in my CD drive, which was my first thought.) How would I get rid of that?

Then when I went to run Windows Update for the first time I made the
(perhaps foolish) choice to use the Microsoft Update link on the page. That
when I started to get this error:

2. When running Microsoft Update, while "Checking for available updates..."
I would get a WIN32 error message. It wasn't consistant and shows up at
different times in the process (for instance, this time it pulled up the
list of available updates, which is a first). Any ideas what this is and
what I might have done wrong to get it? I'm guessing I'll have to
re-install XP again, but I just don't want to make the same mistake twice!

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I've got an old PC that's gotten slow and mildly buggy over the
years, so after getting a new laptop I decided to start over with a
clean slate and reinstall the OS. I used the Reinstallation CD (XP
Home Edition with SP2) that came with the system (from Dell, if
that matters). I found that the PC had a small FAT32 partition and
a large NTFS partition. I deleted both of these and started over
with a single new partition (I didn't get a choice here, so I
assume it was a NTFS partition). [One odd thing was that the max
size of the partition was 8MB shy of the total disk size, so now I
have 8MB that are unpartitioned.]
Anyhow, things were going fine; I got my video driver installed and
was doing a disk cleanup in safe mode prior to running Windows
Update. When I rebooted normally I noticed the first thing that
concerned me:
1. I now have two OS to choose from when I boot up! I get a
message saying "PLEASE SELECT THE OPERATING SYSTEM TO START:
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDEITION
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDEITION"

Now, the first/default selection booted me up normally, but every
time I reboot the PC it'll take that extra 20 or 30 seconds stuck
on that screen for no good reason. Why would that be there? (The
boot disk is no longer in my CD drive, which was my first thought.)
How would I get rid of that?
Then when I went to run Windows Update for the first time I made the
(perhaps foolish) choice to use the Microsoft Update link on the
page. That when I started to get this error:

2. When running Microsoft Update, while "Checking for available
updates..." I would get a WIN32 error message. It wasn't
consistant and shows up at different times in the process (for
instance, this time it pulled up the list of available updates,
which is a first). Any ideas what this is and what I might have
done wrong to get it? I'm guessing I'll have to re-install XP
again, but I just don't want to make the same mistake twice!

1) You failed to properly clean the system or you misstepped during your
installation.

Edit the Boot.ini to remove the bum entry and move on. Google "edit
boot.ini" if you need more instruction.

2) Clean up this supposed clean install first.

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Reboot.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net stop wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\regsvr32 %SystemRoot%\system32\wups2.dll
--> Click OK.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemRoot%\system32\net start wuauserv
--> Click OK.

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the root
of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer Windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Log on as a user with administrative rights and open Internet Explorer and
visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select to do a CUSTOM scan...
(Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.)

Once the scan is done, select just ONE of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one. I would completely avoid the Optional
Hardware updates.

Come back - let us know if that worked.
.... Really - come back and let everyone know if that worked.

 

[WhiteTea]

I've got an old PC that's gotten slow and mildly buggy over the years, so
after getting a new laptop I decided to start over with a clean slate and
reinstall the OS. I used the Reinstallation CD (XP Home Edition with SP2)
that came with the system (from Dell, if that matters). I found that the PC
had a small FAT32 partition and a large NTFS partition. I deleted both of
these and started over with a single new partition (I didn't get a choice
here, so I assume it was a NTFS partition). [One odd thing was that the max
size of the partition was 8MB shy of the total disk size, so now I have 8MB
that are unpartitioned.]

Anyhow, things were going fine; I got my video driver installed and was
doing a disk cleanup in safe mode prior to running Windows Update. When I
rebooted normally I noticed the first thing that concerned me:

1. I now have two OS to choose from when I boot up! I get a message saying
"PLEASE SELECT THE OPERATING SYSTEM TO START:
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDEITION
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDEITION"

Now, the first/default selection booted me up normally, but every time I
reboot the PC it'll take that extra 20 or 30 seconds stuck on that screen
for no good reason. Why would that be there? (The boot disk is no longer
in my CD drive, which was my first thought.) How would I get rid of that?

Then when I went to run Windows Update for the first time I made the
(perhaps foolish) choice to use the Microsoft Update link on the page. That
when I started to get this error:

2. When running Microsoft Update, while "Checking for available updates..."
I would get a WIN32 error message. It wasn't consistant and shows up at
different times in the process (for instance, this time it pulled up the
list of available updates, which is a first). Any ideas what this is and
what I might have done wrong to get it? I'm guessing I'll have to
re-install XP again, but I just don't want to make the same mistake twice!

I had not decided whether to post this, but your problem encouraged
me.

Good luck and continue sticking with it.

Andy

I found some things that help when you run into things like corrupt
files
and behavior like System Restore won't start.

This info is based only one person using the computer !!

** At this point you have decided you want a CLEAN install with no
chance that anything in the past
** can be reconstructed.

1. If you haven't been doing, backup to a non-hard drive source.(Even
if you have 2 drives)
(Things that help in your restoration include bookmark files,
windows address books,
batch files, etc that you have backed up)

2. If you get messages that your install disk can't copy some files,
suspect the drive first.
3. Try it with a second CD/DVD player/recorder. If your primary CD
burner is suspect, disconnect
and use another.
(You'll have to change the boot order in your BIOS)


SEE ** above before doing this !!

With admin rights, delete all profiles, files in windows and system
directory.

Reinstall XP using a known good CD player/recorder and decline any
prompts to fix or repair.

I use a second drive(FAT 32) just for backup.

Outta here.