XP boot crash

[Guest]

Tried to write XP SP2 over SP1.

Authentic copy of Windows worked great until final installation re-boot, at
which time it FROZE at the black Windows screen.

Tried everything imaginable—used bios to change boot order, boot from
downloaded “boot CDâ€, downloaded six floppy boot disks and got to DOS prompts
through them, but final boot never works.

The floppy boot disks have gotten me to many options, including Format C:,
Format D:, last known good, only to reboot and return to the CRASH at the
black Windows start-up screen.

I have gotten out of various messes before between the bios and DOS, and
have never run into this kind of frustration with a box.

Any ideas on how I can finally “talk†to this thing and get it to write XP
SP2 onto the hard drive would be greatly appreciated…

 

[Rock]

Tried to write XP SP2 over SP1.

Authentic copy of Windows worked great until final installation re-boot,
at
which time it FROZE at the black Windows screen.

Tried everything imaginable—used bios to change boot order, boot from
downloaded “boot CDâ€, downloaded six floppy boot disks and got to DOS
prompts
through them, but final boot never works.

The floppy boot disks have gotten me to many options, including Format C:,
Format D:, last known good, only to reboot and return to the CRASH at the
black Windows start-up screen.

I have gotten out of various messes before between the bios and DOS, and
have never run into this kind of frustration with a box.

Any ideas on how I can finally “talk†to this thing and get it to write XP
SP2 onto the hard drive would be greatly appreciated…

You could create an installation CD that has SP2 integrated on it, in a
process called slipstreaming, and do a clean install with that. Here are
some links for how to do this. Autostreamer makes it easier.

Slipstream

http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/

Autostreamer
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1092632287/1
http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/using_autostreamer/using_autostreamer.html
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=223562

Here are some links with info on installing SP2 on an existing installation.

How to use the Automatic Recovery feature to recover your computer if the
Windows XP Service Pack 2 Setup program is not completed successfully
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=875355

How to remove Windows XP Service Pack 2 from your computer
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=875350

Download Windows Service Pack 2 Standalone Version
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default810.mspx

Installing Service Packs
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/xpsp2.htm
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spackins.htm

Cannot install Service Pack 2
http://www.michna.com/kb/WxSP2.htm#Cannot_install_Service_Pack_2

Pre-Install, Install, Cleaning Up Afterwards
http://forum.aumha.org/viewforum.php?f=45

What to Know Before You Download and Install Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2

Get the Latest Updates and Information from Your PC Manufacturer Before
Installing Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/oemlinks.mspx

The hard disk space requirements for Windows XP Service Pack 2
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=837783

 

[Guest]

Chose the Automatic Recovery feature and remove Windows XP Service Pack 2
options (in DOS, describes the same operations); got error message = The
system cannot find the file or directory specified... please HELP!! (I hope
the error message tells you what's happening.

 

[RedForeman]

Tried to write XP SP2 over SP1.

That's called a dirty install, for obvious reasons...

You are, where most of us HAVE been before...

My advice, copy your data off, and start over...

You COULD spend 12 hours trying to recover, or 4 hours installing and
being back to normal...

....the choice again, is yours..

RedForeman

 

[Guest]

Willing/want to blow the drive off, but nothing will do it completely. Boot
from XP SP2 CD will get me to DOS, where I have typed FORMAT C:, and it has
even told me, "You will lose all of your unsaved data," and I enter "Go
ahead, make my day," so it spends half an hour "formatting," "loads" what
should be a new, clean copy of XP, and the thing crashes at the black Windows
start-up screen again.

I can't seem to overwrite a working copy of XP SP2 to my hard drive, despite
repeated messages that DOS is doing (usually through the recovery console
process) just that. Aaaaaaah! Thanks for replying/posting. I'm not happy
about the phantom foul that fouled out Baron Davis that I watched while
fighting with my box, either!!

 

[RedForeman]

Willing/want to blow the drive off, but nothing will do it completely. Boot
from XP SP2 CD will get me to DOS, where I have typed FORMAT C:, and it has
even told me, "You will lose all of your unsaved data," and I enter "Go
ahead, make my day," so it spends half an hour "formatting," "loads" what
should be a new, clean copy of XP, and the thing crashes at the black Windows
start-up screen again.

I can't seem to overwrite a working copy of XP SP2 to my hard drive, despite
repeated messages that DOS is doing (usually through the recovery console
process) just that. Aaaaaaah! Thanks for replying/posting. I'm not happy
about the phantom foul that fouled out Baron Davis that I watched while
fighting with my box, either!!

Here's a shot in the dark...

http://www.bootdisk.com - and get a MS boot disk with CD support
Boot to disk, wipe drive... hopefully having a 'outside' disk might
help...

or secondly, pull the drive, stick it in another machine, or external
enclosure and format it that way.... and there is a chance the drive
has developed a bad sector and is trying to write data to it, which
could cause some similiar issues that you're having.... maybe running
a chkdsk on it to see if it's having problems... ultimately, if it is,
it's futile to re-install anything on it... Forefront troubleshooter,
hirens boot cd, Darik's Boot and Nuke - all ISOs that you could
download, burn and boot from, independantly from your computer and
dianose these issues...

RedForeman

 

[Guest]

Autostream asks me for a "Service Pack file." I inserted my authentic SP2
disk, but the disk did not tell Autostream the information for which it
asked. Do you know what I should key into that field? (The first field,
"Windows CD drive," populates automatically.)

This will be my last "soft" attempt to get XP2 to communicate with the hard
drive. I will probably pull the hard drive out and put it into another box
and try to write XP2 on it there, and see what happens. Diskcheck spotted no
problems...