Enchantermon on 12/9/2009 at 23:37
I'm thinking that the problem may have occurred because of XP flipping out when the video file I moved was no longer available. This stopped the permission-changing process and I was told that the drive was corrupt. I could be wrong, but that's the only thing I can think of that may have caused this, especially since it worked fine for you.
I thought there was an option on the installation screen to repair an installation, which there is. Unfortunately, that just took me to the recovery console, a DOS prompt, and I have no idea what to do since I don't know what the heck the problem is. So I guess I will just have to reinstall XP. It's safe to install it over the original? I know I should make a backup first, of course. Since I don't have any backup software, would creating an iso of the disk be a good way to go?
Al_B on 13/9/2009 at 00:13
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
So I guess I will just have to reinstall XP. It's safe to install it over the original?
Yes, should be safe - I've done it a few times with no real problems but I would always recommend taking a backup of your key documents / emails / favourites etc. first. You may have problems if you have folders encrypted to your own user account - but if you haven't done that then that probably isn't an issue.
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
I know I should make a backup first, of course. Since I don't have any backup software, would creating an iso of the disk be a good way to go?
I wouldn't have thought that you'd be able to fit your entire drive onto one disk image. I'd just copy things you want to keep onto an external hard drive or memory stick. Copy them back onto your Vista drive first and open them to make sure you have everything you need first.
You probably have backup software that comes with XP anyway - check under accessories / system tools. It's pretty basic but it should do the job.
Enchantermon on 13/9/2009 at 00:45
Quote Posted by Al_B
I wouldn't have thought that you'd be able to fit your entire drive onto one disk image.
Well, I have a 100 GB drive and over 100 GB free on another external hard drive, so I figured I could just create the image right onto the external.
I'm a bit OCD when it comes to computers; I can't stand the thought of losing something by accident, and I figured the best way to keep this from happening would be to make an image of the hard drive.
Of course, thinking about it now...
My computer came with a built-in fingerprint reader and a nifty little folder called My Safe which you could lock and unlock with your fingerprint, protecting any sensitive information. Since my new hard drive with Vista, I haven't found a way to get any of this to work. I've installed the Vista drivers for the device, but the reader doesn't seem to do anything, and who knows if I can manually create the folder even if I do get the fingerprint reader working. It's also integrated into the Windows login, so I don't have to type my password; I just swipe my finger and I'm in. Haven't gotten that to work in Vista either.
All that to say this: if I reinstall XP, I'd probably lose that, which would be a major bummer.
I'm gonna have to do some more research on this. Maybe there's some software I'm missing.
EDIT: Wait...never mind, I'm an idiot. I never installed the Protector Suite. D'oh!
EDIT 2: Okay, the fingerprint reader stuff isn't an issue anymore. :p I'm going to attempt to make an image of my hard drive, just to see if I can actually do it. If not, I'll just use whatever software XP has and then just scour the drive and make sure I've gotten everything. Thanks for the help.
Enchantermon on 18/9/2009 at 17:49
Okay, so since I couldn't make an image, I booted into Fedora, mounted my drives, and just copied the entire contents of my XP drive into external storage. Then I went to reinstall XP and found out that there is an option right past the EULA that offers, since a version of XP was found on the drive, to fix the installation (as opposed to a complete reinstall). I chose this. It deleted a bunch of Windows files, pulled them from the CD and began the installation. I ended up going through the usual 39 minute installation process and had to enter the new XP key I have, too. Eventually, the computer rebooted and I was shown this:
Inline Image:
http://www.snapdrive.net/files/391413/waiting.jpgAlmost immediately, the hard drive and CD stopped spinning. I waited quite a while and nothing happened. Frustrated, I rebooted, then Windows took me as far as showing my profile's background before grinding to a halt. I rebooted again and retried the installation. It was faster this time, I noticed. When I reached the Please Wait screen again, I went to bed, thinking it might just take a while, since waiting a long time was useful earlier in the installation when it seemed like nothing was happening. I awoke
five hours later and
nothing had changed.
Any theories?
Al_B: When you said it's safe to reinstall over the original, did you mean this method of repairing the installation or did you mean completely reinstalling the whole thing? I just want to make sure that it's safe, because if I do a complete reinstall and it works, I don't want Windows to come crashing down on me later after I've been using it and before I've been able to make any backups of new files.
Thanks guys; you're all a big help.
Al_B on 19/9/2009 at 09:30
Yes - you go through the "Install XP now" step but choose to repair the installation. I have done this both with XP and with Server 2003 successfully with no data loss. Doing a clean installation will probably require you to reinstall your programs and I wouldn't like to guarantee that your data would be intact.
It sounds as though you did everything right. I would suspect that your current problem may be due to a device driver not starting correctly (or a dodgy hard drive - but hopefully not). Have you tried booting in safe mode. I can't remember if it's available at that stage of the installation but it may give some clues about where it's stopping if it is.
Enchantermon on 19/9/2009 at 12:52
Safe mode isn't available at that point.
Crap...
I found this problem on the internet and it seems like it is indeed a device driver error; all suggestions were to remove extraneous devices (like graphics cards, etc) and install them later. This is all well and good, but the only thing I could take out of the laptop is my CD-ROM drive, and that obviously isn't going to happen.
Dodgy hard drive...well, it is three years old. I guess it wouldn't surprise me too much.
Here's what I'll do. I know if I swap my hard drives out now, XP will take me as far as my desktop background. Maybe safe mode will work at this point, so I'll try it and report back.
EvaUnit02 on 19/9/2009 at 13:11
Run (
http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/) TweakUAC which puts UAC into "Silent Mode".
Only the ignorant disable Vista's UAC. It provides the Windows platform with a tiered levels of read/write permissions structure that's comparable to Unix/Linux based OSes. Microsoft's way of implementing in Vista was very intrusive, yes, but it's a security feature that the Windows had sorely lacked for many many years.
W7 supposedly out of the box has a native nag free UAC option that's very similar to "Silent Mode".
Enchantermon on 19/9/2009 at 13:51
A bit late to the party, but still much appreciated; I'll grab this. Though now that I have Windows 7, I may upgrade anyway after I get XP up and functioning.
Okay, so I found that Safe Mode is available, so I got into it. The only file it seemed to have trouble loading was mup.sys, but the CD spun up and after a bit the boot continued, so it must have either pulled the file from there or was checking the device itself.
So I got into my profile in Safe Mode. Explorer loaded properly with my desktop icons and taskbar, and I noticed a pop-up saying that Windows hadn't been activated yet. Never got to act on it, though, because soon after I het a BSOD with this message alongside the generic BSOD ramblings: "A process or thread crucial to the system operation has unexpectedly exited or been terminated."
Then a little further down: *** STOP: 0x000000F4 (0x00000003, 0x8AA2C850, 0x8AA2C9C4, 0x80605666)
The hex string gives me nothing in Google, unfortunately.
Sorry this took so long; the BSOD insisted on dumping my memory to the hard drive before restarting.
By the way: if I start Windows normally, I can't log on unless I agree to activate Windows via a popup displayed when I click my username. Do you think that maybe the activation process is doing something wrong since I'm trying to repair Windows with a different copy of XP than the one that came installed on the computer?
EvaUnit02 on 19/9/2009 at 14:19
Eh, you're doing an upgrade installation? Why? A clean installation is always the better option. The Windows installer should be able to do a quick wipe of partition that's already formatted for NTFS, if you don't choose to upgrade.
Back up your Documents and Settings folder. Especially the following sub-folders:- the Application Data, Local Settings, My Documents, Shared Documents (and My Favourites, if you primarily use IE). You like to store stuff on your Desktop, you might want to back that up as well.
Scour your Program Files for any programs of interest, some programs still store their INI/setting files in there.
TIP for Vista/W7, don't install games, Steam, Impulse, etc. into Program Files, since it's now write-protected by Windows. Doing so will just cause headaches, especially for mods. <drive letter>:\games\ is what I usually use.
Enchantermon on 19/9/2009 at 14:27
No, no, sorry for confusing you. I want XP available as a backup in case I can't get some things running under 7, like SS2 (primarily, since I'm working with CCP), Thief, and my older DOS-based games.
Once I get XP fixed, I want to wipe my Vista drive and install 7.
And you can't upgrade XP to 7, anyway.
