34 minute hang - XP Pro

[psb]

Hi all,

I am trying to upgrade a PC from XP Home to XP Pro using an XP Pro upgrade.

During the process it stops at 34 minutes and just waits... indefinitely. I've browsed on the internet and there are various posts relating to this but nothing seems to really help.

Microsoft has the follow information http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;828267

I've read through this and have done what I could. I've looked through the setupapi log files and have indentified where there have been .inf problems. I have turned off everything (LAN, Wireless etc) that's not needed in the BIOS. I have re-booted countless times to see if it would skip past the problem, but it doesn’t.

The last .inf problem was acpi.inf, which was the reason the last 5 times. I looked into this and it's the advanced power driver, so I removed this and the driver that seems to be causing the problem is machine.inf. Now, I have no idea what this is but it sounds pretty important and I do not want to get rid of it.

I'm totally stuck and at my wits end. Having battled this for a number of hours I really do now know what to do. How on earth can I get past this issue and upgrade the PC. I'm now concerned about losing some important data that was on the machine (I haven’t backed it up for about 2 weeks thinking that this process would be a doddle).

I would ideally like to get XP Pro up and running with the data intact.... OR... get it back to how it was before so that I can get everything off it. This PC is used in a small business environment and has various work files on it. The XP Pro upgrade was so that it could be added to the SBS Server.

Any help would be hugely appreciated

[JedMeister]

My 10c worth: Always backup important data when doing any task like this, no matter how straightforward and easy it may seem to be (or even how easy it was last time)! Personally I don't like upgrades as all the ones I've done (admittedly not many) have always had bugs or instability issues (although never anything as bad as you're experiencing). I much prefer a clean (but nLited) install.

Anyway, my first step at this point would be to backup all important data. Either use the recovery console (do able but a bit painful unless you know everything you want and where it is) or download and build UBCD4Win, boot off that and backup to portable HDD/USB/Server/DVD.

You may be able to find out whats going on in your XP install from within UBCD4Win too. There maybe some way of stopping it from starting up the setup process and then it may just start into XP Home again, although to be honest I'm doubtful. I suspect its already overwritten files which may make it unusable, even if you can get Home to boot again, it'll probably be a bit unstable if some important files have been replaced.

Failing that just do a clean XP Pro install. You may find that this path is actually the most time efficient and reliable. That's what I'd do, backup and clean install!

[Redhatcc]

That's what I'd do, backup and clean install!

agreed. a clean install is always a good answer.

get a flash drive or borrow (lol) a hdd from a friend, back up your data in miniPE or something, just do a clean install and what-not.

if for some ungodly reason it freezes go to the flee market and find a emachine dvd-rom, it normally reads the cd's over other cd-roms.

(dont ask why but we do keep several handy at work for this same reason lol!)

[Jeremy]

An upgrade from Home to Pro?

You also refer to this as a clean install?

If it hangs at 34 minutes than I will assume it is a pirated/customized install CD that has something either removed or integrated that doesn't agree with your system.

Your best bet would be to obtain a legit known-good install CD.

[psb]

Thanks for the replies.

Firstly, this is a genuine XP Pro upgrade kit (retail) that came in a sealed box with the original CD and product key. It is also being installed on a machine that is running a genuine copy of XP Home. The reason for the upgrade is so that the PC can be added as a client PC on a SBS 2003 R2 network.

I'd really like to avoid doing a clean install if at all possible. In addition to the file and folders (which I'll be able to retrieve if all else fails) there are many applications that will be a pig to reinstall. If there's anyway past this problem I would really really like to find it!

The '34 minute' hang during setup seems to be fairly common and a hang at this stage apparently points to a device driver. What else can I try? I've disabled everything that's not needed in the BIOS (or at least I think I have) but still I get this hang. It now seems to point to machine.inf being the problem, which sounds more serious than a simple driver issue!

IF I am unable to resolve this, how do I get the data off the PC... it's a laptop!

[Redhatcc]

Hi

On the network do you have any other computers that are the same type/model running xp pro? if you do then you could use the hdd out of another one to put in that laptop, and put the one with home into the other laptop and do the upgrade that way.

Seeing that its a laptop exchange of cd-roms would be easier said then done but if possible i would mabe try that too. I had one just yesterday that would freeze a couple steps after entering the product key, but luckly after about 6 tries they had called to say i breezed by and is working now.