XP SP2 Installation Recovery Help

[mojokid]

Why can't I just leave well enough alone?

I was previously running XP Pro SP1a and everything was fine, but I got the new SP2 RC2 Slipstreamed CD and I put that in to 'upgrade' install.

So it's going through the normal upgrade/install process but the computer magickally reboots when there is approximately 34 minutes left. I think it was at the point of the install where it checks the video card because the screen blanked, came back, and then the computer just reboot. No Blue Screen messages, nothing; just turned off and back on again.

I cannot repair install from my SP1a CD as the installation fails at the same point. I removed ( or thought I removed ) all the files related to the installation setup, but when I reboot and it starts to load my old XP, it wants to start setup again.

My question is, how does XP know that I was previously in the setup phase of things and what files do I need to delete/modify so that XP will want to boot normally without thinking it's still in setup-mode.

I'm an id*** though, my XP partition is only 4 gigs and it would have taken minutes to back-up with Norton Ghost. Eh, patience is a virtue I guess.

-Ryan

Crescit Eundo / It grows as it goes

[ME2U]

I had similar problem, XP won't boot up after SP2 RC2 update, the update was completed but upon restart, it won't boot up anymore. Finally, I decided to download BIOS update of motherboard, then flashed it, it went through and XP booted properly. I was using P4 2.8 Prescott and an Intel 865 chipset MB.

[wyattXP]

can u still get to windows?? if so then go to start > run > type msconfig

then go to the boot.ini tab, click on the installation OS path and click "check all boot paths" then remove the installation path

and if u cannot get back to windows then slap in the SP1a XP CD and do a repair

and finally if all that fails, FDISK FORMAT REINSTALL

[mojokid]

It seems the video card did not like the 'upgrade' process. That's where the problems seemed to have stemmed from. I have a USB Mouse and the mouse would lose power around the same time the computer would start to 'freeze' before rebooting. So I thought it might be a USB issue, so I plugged the mouse into a USB->PS/2 converter and the mouse stayed powered on right up until the reboot.

I formatted and did a fresh install and everything is well.

Thanks for the suggestions