Botched Windows Repair Install - What can I do?


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I generally can solve most XP problems on my own / through looking them up on the web - but this specific problem has been a rather large pain in the anal region.

Essentially it started when I booted up XP and the screen went black and two faint grey lines appeared (more like specs on the same horizontal plain)

I looked it up and said - possibly a repair install could do the trick! So I put in my XP CD - and went through all of the options - setup copied files, etc.

...

But then - after it restarted and took me to the nice Windows Setup GUI (not the DOS-like one - the GUI that actually looks like XP) - it FROZE. Setup froze on me. It got stuck on the screen that said 39 minutes left. I left it there for an hour hoping for it to clear up but nothing happened.

(I found a picture of that exact screen)

Setup06.jpg

Finally, I just restarted the computer and let it run again. This time around it took me to a screen that said "Setup is being restarted......" and then the screen went black and the white cursor appeared.

From then the screen froze at that image of a black screen and a cursor in the middle.

At this point, I thought - must be a botched install; so I tried the repair install / "in-place upgrade" again.

Same result.

What makes me rather mad is that my machine was working perfectly until this.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Help is greatly appreciated

Also (more diagnostic information) -

I booted up in Safe Mode - and the same thing happened - except now I can move my cursor around

I've repeatedly followed the in-place upgrade steps and the same effect keeps happening. Any ideas?

Edited by dtrinh
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^---- Pretty much what he said. Once you start the install process, you're stuck until you've actually installed it. You can't manually restore registry files etc. I'm thinking though that you might have some sort of hardware issue because a repair install doesn't really rely on information on your hard drive ( save for the registry ) it just refreshes the system files among other things. If your repair install keeps freezing up, I'd look at memory issues, hard drive issues, power supply perhaps.

I had one instance where I tried a repair install and because my registry hives were corrupted or missing, the repair install failed.

Freezing issues on installation usually is caused by some hardware issue.

Ryan

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^---- Pretty much what he said. Once you start the install process, you're stuck until you've actually installed it. You can't manually restore registry files etc. I'm thinking though that you might have some sort of hardware issue because a repair install doesn't really rely on information on your hard drive ( save for the registry ) it just refreshes the system files among other things. If your repair install keeps freezing up, I'd look at memory issues, hard drive issues, power supply perhaps.

I had one instance where I tried a repair install and because my registry hives were corrupted or missing, the repair install failed.

Freezing issues on installation usually is caused by some hardware issue.

Ryan

Hardware Issues?

Okay, I'll attempt to unplug all non essential stuff - thanks for your advice; we'll see how this goes

Use Erd Commander if you need to backup your data and then delete you HDD partitions. Reinstall from scratch. Its your only way to go.

Mike

Now thats just painful - I'm sure there are other options?

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you probably also want to test the memory and hard disk drive. Ultimate BootCD (google it) has several tests built into one cd, including Windows Memory Diagnostic and MemTest86, plus hard disk tests from most major manufacturers.

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you probably also want to test the memory and hard disk drive. Ultimate BootCD (google it) has several tests built into one cd, including Windows Memory Diagnostic and MemTest86, plus hard disk tests from most major manufacturers.

Okay - I'll also try that, thanks!

This is on the side - but I installed Windows Media Center on another partition of my hard drives; just now, and am able to back up my data. Although - its denying me access to my "Documents and Settings" user folder

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So I've concluded that the problem lies in the actual install;

I keep trying to repair the installation, and each time I do, the windows Dos-like setup says "Windows has already attempted to upgrade this" (generally) - and then I press enter - it copies files - and it reboots

When the computer reboots it does the windows loading screen (logo with little trackbar moving repeatedly) and then goes to the black screen with the white cursor.

My options seem a bit limited. Should I just back up my data and wipe the partition as Mike originally suggested?

I'm sure there must be some other way, but I guess this is it.

Does anyone have any other suggestions before I wipe it

:(

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another option, that may work is to insert your xp cd.

boot from it, and run thru the dos blue screen section.

when you are given the option to repair etc, choose the recovery console.

once there, log into your partition, and type the admin password. Then try "fixboot".

Once that is completed, do a reboot. The reason im recommending this, is because i am guessing that when doing the repair option, it puts something into the boot record to keep running it.. all your main files should be there still. fix boot simply fixes the bootup.

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another option, that may work is to insert your xp cd.

boot from it, and run thru the dos blue screen section.

when you are given the option to repair etc, choose the recovery console.

once there, log into your partition, and type the admin password. Then try "fixboot".

Once that is completed, do a reboot. The reason im recommending this, is because i am guessing that when doing the repair option, it puts something into the boot record to keep running it.. all your main files should be there still. fix boot simply fixes the bootup.

Interesting! I'll try that;

Update : I attempted to do it, but it won't accept my admin password. Which makes me incredibly mad. Is there anyway to bypass the admin password? TT

Edited by dtrinh
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Another update:

I've turned to Emergency Boot CD to help me, but I'm having a dilemma with it - my drives are on a SCSI controller and I can't figure out how to get it to load my drivers on my floppy disk.

TT

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Have you tried with different case combinations?

there are ways of cracking it... but im not 100% sure how, ive seen a few posts on neowin with tutorials on how to do it, maybe a search will help you.

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Okay - I'm using Winternals Pak 5.0 with my loaded SCSI drivers - we'll see how this goes

(to change my administrator password then try out the "fixboot" command)

another option, that may work is to insert your xp cd.

boot from it, and run thru the dos blue screen section.

when you are given the option to repair etc, choose the recovery console.

once there, log into your partition, and type the admin password. Then try "fixboot".

Once that is completed, do a reboot. The reason im recommending this, is because i am guessing that when doing the repair option, it puts something into the boot record to keep running it.. all your main files should be there still. fix boot simply fixes the bootup.

http://www.cix.co.uk/~davedorn/computing/w...s/xprepair5.htm

That seems to concur with you :p

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recovery tool? hmmm

But I highly doubt that will work - because currently my computer is stuck between setup copying the files and the setup program actually installing them

XD

nonetheless, I can't seem to find a "recovery" tool - I do see System Restore though...

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Your hdd is losing it. Time is of the essence. if u need ANY personal data off that dying drive then i suggest you slave it on another computer and Run GetDataBack for NTFS 2.31 if u dont need any data, run the manufacturer's diag tools on the Ultimate Boot CD (full test not just the quick test)

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It is? XD

Winternals is finding my installations just fine (with the SCSI driver) and did a system restore - I can also run another windows installation which is installed on another partition on the harddrive

Edited by dtrinh
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Okay - I did a system restore - and then attempted setup again; just to have the same problem - when the computer rebooted it went straight to loading Windows (except this time it just froze)

I think the multiboot may be causing problems?

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TT

so backup the files and then do a clean install?

*sigh*

okay - but I have so many programs installed TT - do I have to reinstall them? (is there some way to keep / restore the registry?)

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