SP3 update crashed pc - HELP!

  • Thread starter Thread starter jen011074
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J

jen011074

I am running Windows XP Home Edition. I have been having various stop errors
recently and was given by windows the suggestion to install SP3 to resolve
these problems. So, of course I did not back-up, installed the upgrade,
which seem to install fine, but when I restarted the computer it was a
disaster. Windows would never start and the computer just kept restarting
itself over and over again. I finally caught a glimpse of an error message
in between start ups which said "A write operation was attempted on a volume
after it was mounted."

I tried to start in Safe Mode, which just restarted the computer again, same
problem.

I tried system restore with a borrowed Windows XP PRO disk because my
Windows disks disappeared during my divorce - and my administrator password
does not work.

I would love to get the system working again, but am most concerned with
getting my music and photo files (among other things) from the hard drive.

Can anyone help?
 
jen011074 said:
I am running Windows XP Home Edition. I have been having various stop
errors
recently and was given by windows the suggestion to install SP3 to resolve
these problems. So, of course I did not back-up, installed the upgrade,
which seem to install fine, but when I restarted the computer it was a
disaster. Windows would never start and the computer just kept restarting
itself over and over again. I finally caught a glimpse of an error
message
in between start ups which said "A write operation was attempted on a
volume
after it was mounted."

I tried to start in Safe Mode, which just restarted the computer again,
same
problem.

I tried system restore with a borrowed Windows XP PRO disk because my
Windows disks disappeared during my divorce - and my administrator
password
does not work.

I would love to get the system working again, but am most concerned with
getting my music and photo files (among other things) from the hard drive.

Can anyone help?
Click to expand...


At this point, you need to remove the drive from your computer and put it
into another system such that the data can be recovered at least.. Do this
before attempting any other procedure..

You can't do a repair on Windows XP Home with an XP Pro CD.. In order to get
your computer working properly again, you will need to access the recovery
partition if there is one, or contact the vendor of the computer for
installation media which will restore the computer to factory state..



--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
 
Just to be sure I am understanding correctly, I can place the drive in
another pc with an operating windows system and read the drive as I would a
cd or usb drive?
 
jen011074 wrote on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:57:18 -0700:
:
Click to expand...

What is this SP3 update? I have installed every supplied update to XP
Professional. Have I installed this mysterious system-crashing thing
without noticing?
--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
 
jen011074 wrote on Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:57:18 -0700:


What is this SP3 update? I have installed every supplied update to XP
Professional. Have I installed this mysterious system-crashing thing
without noticing?
Click to expand...

You would have noticed, James. It takes a while to install, and a few
minutes to download even on a 20 Mb cable. I don't know whether it's
a critical update on the WindowsUpdate site, but it is on the
MicrosoftUpdate site.
 
I have a new hard drive with operating windows. I can read the old hard
drive, but I cannot access the administrator account under documents and
settings, which is where all of my files are saved. The non-administrator
accounts are all accessible. Can you tell me what to do to be able to get to
these files?

Thanks for your help.
 
I should also add that the old drive was operating under Windows XP Home and
the new hard drive is running on XP Pro, so I am logged on in Pro, but trying
to access a user that was created with Home.
 
jen011074 said:
I should also add that the old drive was operating under Windows XP Home
and
the new hard drive is running on XP Pro, so I am logged on in Pro, but
trying
to access a user that was created with Home.
Click to expand...


Try this..

http://support.microsoft.com/kB/308421


--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
 
That worked! Thanks.

So now that I have access to everything (I think) on my old drive, I'm not
sure where to go from here. If I can backup everything from the old drive
onto the new, can I reinstall/repair windows on the old drive without loosing
all of the installed programs and then copy what I need back onto the old
drive?

Or is there a way to set up the drives so that I can keep windows on the new
drive but still run program files on the old drive - this works for a few
things now but not for Office which tells me it has not been installed for
the current user.

Thanks!
 
jen011074 said:
That worked! Thanks.

So now that I have access to everything (I think) on my old drive, I'm not
sure where to go from here. If I can backup everything from the old drive
onto the new, can I reinstall/repair windows on the old drive without
loosing
all of the installed programs and then copy what I need back onto the old
drive?

Or is there a way to set up the drives so that I can keep windows on the
new
drive but still run program files on the old drive - this works for a few
things now but not for Office which tells me it has not been installed for
the current user.

Thanks!
Click to expand...


Jen

As long as your important stuff is saved away from the old drive, you can do
what you want with it.

If you want to keep it in your new computer, once having saved everything,
you are going to need the original installation media for MS Office and
maybe other stuff too.

Then you can format the old drive and use it for saving data and downloads
etc

If you put it back from whence it came, you have the option of a full system
recovery from the recovery partition or you can attempt to repair it. You
will still require original Office installation media Only the simplest of
programs will run from a former installation of Windows on a slave drive..

--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
 
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