[Jay S]

Hi all,

Would appreciate any help possible -- my wife's laptop can no longer start Win XP.  We are away from home for at least another week and she needs to be able to access her email and get her work done.  

I updated her laptop (IBM R40, 2 gHz Celeron) with SP2 over the weekend.... without first backing up her data.    We restarted the machine and everything was fine for a while... then got an error message saying the PC had to be rebooted.  But Win XP will now not start up!!     I have tried booting up in Last Known Good Configuration and also in Safe Mode... but no luck at all.  I have found anything useful on Microsoft's website!

I've read that it is possible to uninstall SP2... but I can't even get Win XP to start up at this point.  I don't know if there is a way to get to DOS and do the uninstall from there.  I am worried about losing her data.

Many thanks in advance!

- Jay

[EchiDna]

Hi Jay S,
are you saying you can't get to safe mode at all? or that going to safe mode didn't help?

assuming you can get to safe mode, then you can surely roll back the install to the day before the SP2 installation....

[pjchappy]

Do a repair install.  It will re-install XP and keep your data.  

Go to the menu were you will totally re-install/re-format w/ XP, then pick the Repair option.

Also, a good site for questions about XP/PCs is http://www.osnn.net

p

[Carlman]

Do a repair install.

I did this exact same thing to my parent's PC (to solve a different issue) but now it takes almost 5 minutes to boot.  I've created backups of files and will be reformatting and reinstalling.... ugh.  I wish Microsoft could be a little more communicative with how their product worked exactly.

[Levi]

I second pjchappy's recommendation.  99.9% you can boot back with all the programs and data functional.  You may need to re-install security patches and critical updates.

[Jay S]

Thanks.  How do you normally do a repair install?  Do you need the XP CD ROM?  We don't have it since the ThinkPad R40 came preinstalled with XP.  You can totally reinstall XP using the built-in Access IBM utility -- it looks pretty basic though... there was 1 option which was to re-format the hard drive and reinstall XP and utilities.  I pressed the Help button and it didn't say anything about a repair function... so I decided not to proceed...

By the way, I can't enter Safe Mode.  

I had a similar problem in the past (also when installing an XP update!) and what we did was take out the HD from my wife's laptop, put it in an external HD case, copy all the data to my laptop, reformat her HD/reinstall XP, then copy back all the data.  Problem is, we don't have an external HD case with us.  I also wonder why this problem has happened again.  

Thanks!

- Jay

Do a repair install.  It will re-install XP and keep your data.  

Go to the menu were you will totally re-install/re-format w/ XP, then pick the Repair option.

Also, a good site for questions about XP/PCs is http://www.osnn.net

p

[Levi]

Thanks.  How do you normally do a repair install?  Do you need the XP CD ROM?  We don't have it since the ThinkPad R40 came preinstalled with XP.  You can totally reinstall XP using the built-in Access IBM utility -- it looks pretty basic though... there was 1 option which was to re-format the hard drive and reinstall XP and utilities.  I pressed the Help button and it didn't say anything about a repair function... so I decided not to proceed...

By the way, I can't enter Safe Mode.  

I had a similar  ...

You will need a copy of Windows XP CD.  If you use the restore CDs that came with your IBM, it will destroy all your data.

To recover your computer to a bootable state and remove Windows XP SP2, follow these steps:  Please follow this down to the T:
Start your computer by using the Windows XP Recovery Console or by using the Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), depending on your situation. To start your computer by using the Recovery Console, follow these steps:
Insert the original release version of the Microsoft Windows XP CD in your computer's CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.

Note Your computer must be configured to start from the CD drive or DVD drive. For more information about how to do this, see your computer's documentation or contact your computer manufacturer.
When the "Press any key to boot from CD" message appears, press a key to start your computer from the Windows XP CD.
When the "Welcome to Setup" screen is displayed, press R to start the Recovery Console.
When you are prompted, type the number that corresponds to the installation of Windows that you want to access from the Recovery Console, and then press ENTER. For example, if you have one installation of Windows on your computer, type 1, and then press ENTER.
When you are prompted, type the Administrator password, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt in Recovery Console, type the following lines. Press ENTER after each line.
cd $NtServicePackUninstall$\Spuninst
batch spuninst.txt
exit

Remove the Windows XP CD from your computer's CD drive or DVD drive, and then restart your computer.
Run the Windows XP SP2 Removal Wizard to remove Windows XP SP2. To do this:
Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following lines. Press ENTER after each line.
cd %Windir%\$NtServicePackUninstall$\Spuninst
spuninst.exe

Follow the instructions to remove Windows XP SP2.

Your other option is to extrac the data from HDD or let someone do it for you.
Cheers-
Levi

[Levi]

Once your computer started correctly do the following method:

Method 1: Remove Windows XP SP2 by using the Add or Remove Programs tool in Control Panel
Click Start, click Run, type appwiz.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
In the list of currently installed programs, click Windows XP SP2, and then click Remove.
Click Next, and then follow the instructions that are displayed on the screen to remove Windows XP SP2.

Method 2: Remove Windows XP SP2 by using the Spuninst.exe command-line command
To do this:
Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type the following lines. Press ENTER after each line.
cd %Windir%\$NtServicePackUninstall$\Spuninst
spuninst.exe

Follow the instructions to remove Windows XP SP2.

[Jay S]

Levi,

Many thanks!  We don't have the XP installation CD (since our IBM was pre-installed), so we can't use the Recovery Console.  How do we get to WinPE?  

Regards,

- Jay

[Levi]

Levi,

Many thanks!  We don't have the XP installation CD (since our IBM was pre-installed), so we can't use the Recovery Console.  How do we get to WinPE?  

Regards,

- Jay

You can get to WinPE by going through the recovery console.  You will need WindowsXP CD.  

Option 1: Extract the data from HDD.
Option 2: Borrow XP Cd from friend.
Option 3: Have someone else do it for you who knows what they are doing.

Levi

[Jay S]

Levi,

This is helpful -- I didn't know that I could use any Win XP cd (my assumption had been that I needed a CD that somehow corresponded with the serial no of my copy of Win XP.  I'll hunt down a CD...  

Many thanks!

- Jay

[viggen]

I just had an episode with this damn Win Service Pack lastnite.

After my Windows update thingy prompted me to download the WSP2, I clicked OK.  After about 10 mins of pre downloading and about 20 minutes of actual downloading, I started wondering just how big this WSP2 file is.  Well. after about 1/4 of the way done, it already took up about half a gig of my HD.  I then googled to see what this WSP does.  Apparently it has a bunch of sh*t but the main benefit is a security feature that is on by default.  And, supposedly, this is a benefit because the current ICFis not on by default and most people neglect to turn it on manually thus are open to hacks and virusses.  Well, I already turned the ICF on, so I canceled the WSP download and restarted my computer.  The computer had to reinstall every hardware that is connected to it from the CDRom to the drive controller about 20-30 devices... AND, the worst part is, I didn't free up any space in my HD that the WSP install has occupied.  I guess I have to reformat to get it back.  Them bastards....

[ABEX]

I had the same probs with my instal and eventually had to just rename my progs and window files OLD extension then reinstal XP Pro over it.

I htink Service PK. II has bugs that they need to sort out.

Other techs I have talked to say it's junk!

Good luck!!

[pjchappy]

I've had no problems w/ SP2.  W/ most major upgrades, one should do a fresh re-install/format, which is what I did.  A bit of a pain; but, it works great.

p

[Jay S]

Thanks for all your help.  It turned out to be quite an ordeal.  I was able to get help from the IT people at work.  Getting the HD out of the laptop was easy (I have done this before).  We decided to connect the HD to another computer so we could copy out the data.... so far no big deal... but, what was truly bizarre was that the HD would crash the computer and bring up the blue screen of death immediately!!  We tried using an external USB hard drive housing and also putting the HD into the modular drive bay of a Thinkpad... some blue screen of death...  

We then copied an exact image of the HD to another hard drive... again we got the blue screen of death.  Note that we were not trying to boot up... just access the HD as a slave.  

Finally, we "ghosted" the contents to an archive, from which we were finally able to extract individual data files, make a backup and burn to DVD.

Given that this HD had crashed 2 or 3x and given the blue screen of death, we figured that the hardware may be suspect.  I was able to reformat the drive and reinstall Win XP -- I was half expected the drive to no longer be usable.  This is just a stop gap so my wife could at least use it to surf the web.  We have bought a new HD (took the opportunity to upgrade from 40 gb to 60gb), which we'll install next week.  

Thanks!

- Jay