Update to my XP SP2 installation problems:

I have had no further response from MSoft. I last contacted them on Friday. Looking at my case number it appears that the case has been closed. Anyone had support from MS? How long do they normally take to respond? Am I being impatient?

I have the feeling that I'm going to have to re-install XP from my disc. Any comments folks? I have saved and stored on the web all important info and files as much as I can.

What settings will it affect?

Thanks in anticipation.

7thFloor

If you haven't already done so download Belarc Advisor from http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html this will give you a list of most things about your system.

When you install XP from the CD you are initially offered the option to repair using the recovery console. Unless you understand this, forget it. Later on in the install proccess XP setup will look for your existing windows installation and offer you the option of trying to repair it.

If you do this then all of your original Windows files will be re-installed but your programs will remain installed you may lose some user settings but that should be all. You will need the original XP license key.

I have known this process to fail, after which I reformatted the hard disk.

Depending on how old your computer is, it may be worth buying a new hard drive and doing a fresh installation on that. If your computer is more than a couple of years old a modern drive will be far larger and faster. You could then keep your old disk as a secondary from which you could copy your data to the new system. But you will still have to reinstall all of your programs.

Iain, it doesn't happen very often but it looks as though I will have to disagree with Optimist on something ;-)

If you use large files and you have a home network and you move those files or access them from another machine then a wireless network could be very much slower. I have a lot of digital photographs and videos on my network and some of the files are huge for example 2GB (1 hour of DV uncompressed is about 18GB) I have over 200GB of video and hundreds of MB of still. I would not even try and edit a dv file over a wireless network, even wired these files take a lot of time to backup or access remotely.

I do agree that most people will not have this sort of setup but if you do use large files think very carefully about using wireless.

Optomist.
Ill go for the wireless option then.
Expect desperate messages foir assistance soon:-))
Mr Euro.Ill keep you Informed

7th floor, when we used to have MS support for a huge project I worked on at Shell I understand they were very quick and good. However I have never used them for personal support and I don't think I would ever expect much from them. Personally I would use Google to search the newsgroups.

I don't know enough about XP to assist with your problems, if you machine is working without SP2 I would probably stick with it for the time being and keep searching, its very likely that someone else will hit the same problem if they haven't already. A rebuild is a pain.

Sorry I cant be more help and good luck

Spaceman

I don't think we disagree, you just explained it better ;-)

We all would all be stuffed without you guys!!!Thanks for all your help!!!

Ditto that!

By the way - my system is only 6 months old. It is a Mesh and the help is minimal on software problems.

Well, Well!

2 hours after saying that Mesh don't help with software I received the following email from them:

"We have seen this fault a number of times as a result of installing Service Pack 2. This is currently being looked into by ourselves and Microsoft. You can uninstall Service Pack 2 from Add/Remove Programs in Safe Mode.
If you wait we may have a fix within a week or so. If you cant wait to install Service Pack 2 you can format the hard disk and reinstall everything so everything is reset back to default. We have found that SP2 will then install OK.
If you wish to reinstall Windows we will need to send you a special SATA Windows CD. If you need this CD please reply confirming your address so we can sent it out to you."

So it isn't just me! Phew! That's a relief. Good of them to tell me eh?

There's no way I'm re-formating if there's achance of a fix in a few weeks, so I guess I'll sit back and wait.

Think I'll send off for this SATA disk though. Might come in handy (he says pretending he knows what it does!).

Thanks again guys.

On behalf of Splat; something has hijacked his PC so that he is unable to log on to windows (XP Pro). We need a way of bypassing the login so that he can at least get access to his data to back it up.


thanks


Neil

robber, do you have any more deatils of what is happeneing on splats machine? does he get a login prompt? does he get any messages? is he using caps lock by mistake? when did it happen, has he any ideas what might have caused the problem etc etc?

robber, try logging in as a different user, perhaps Administrator. ctrl-alt-Del may help to log out.

thanks both of you, got a few ideas to try now. Will get back to you with a progress report.

Can anyone help? This problem happens in an identical manner on each of my three monitor screens and started about an hour ago:-

When I 'maximise' my IE6 browser windows, I can still see about 30mm of Desktop above the maximised window right across the top of the screen.

I can still stretch an 'intermediately' sized window so as to fill the whole screen and also move this latter type of window around.

Does anyone know

a. What has gone wrong or happened?
b. How to fix it so the browser window can be controlled as per the norm?

DP, drag the taskbar to the top of the screen and down again, that should fix it.

Doc

Have you tried a power off re-boot of the computer?

Can anyone point me in the right direction.......
I have a medion comp and the hard disc is split into C: boot, D: backup and E:recover.Ihave all my files and documents on D.
Can I reformat and reload all the programs on C without loosing every thing on D.
If so where can I find out how to do it.....We all have to learn some time (or pay some one else) Thanks Graeme.

Kayak, Optimist

Tried a shutdown and re-boot. -ve

Tried moving the Task Bar to the top of the screen and then maximising the window. This gives me a 'gap' in between the TB and the window. The thickness of the gap is still 30mm, which tells me it has slipped a 'TB thickness' lower down the screen. If I do this on "1" and also on "2", then the one on '2' is actually higher by a 'TB thickness' as expected.

No virus detected.

Programs like Spybot S&D, Word and OE6 work normally and with a typically normal full-sized windows. Tried Spybot S&D. -ve

Graeme

Assuming you are running Windows then you need to boot from your installation CD (do not run it from windows). During the installation you will be asked which disk you want to install on it may give you the option of formating or you may have to delete the partition - make sure you get the right one - and then reinstate it.

Although your data is on drive D your user settings and many of your program settings are stored on drive C. Win XP has an export routine for user settings but you will still have to re-install all your programs.

Why do you need to take such drastic action?

DP, also try F11 in IE and then F11 again