Aragorn

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Sorry to be posting this here but I'm not getting much in the support area and this area seems to have some of everything.

I wanted to get a clean version of Windows XP MCE to use to virus and spyware scan my working copy (to make it easier to find and remove root kits). So I put in my install CD and told it to install a new copy.

After it claimed to have copied all the files to my disk and wanted me to restart it started giving me an error that there was an invaild boot.ini file and then would not boot at all.

After that I tried to repair my origonal installation with the cd, that process completed but popepped some error messages as it was going about DLL with missing entry points and not being able to hook DLLs. Then when it rebooted and came to the set up your computer screen (the set of screens where is gets your time zone and such) it would not accept any input. No USB or P/S2 ports worked.

I have since managed to install a clean install that works great (I am posting this from that) but would like to get my old installataion back with all my settings and programs. Any ideas?

Rig Specs:
CPU = Athlon 64 3000+
MB = Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
HD's = 4 Hitatchi 250 GB SATA drives
GPU = ATI All-In-Wonder x600 Pro 256 MB
Ram = 2x512 MB (I don't remember the brand)
PS = SurePower 600W (Techie Toys/Mad Dog
Belkin True MIMO wireless card
2x Sony DVD Burners
Generic Floppy Drive
Wireless KB and Mouse plugged in through P/S2 Ports
Additional mouse sometimes plugged into USB (wired)
Zalman 7000b HSF
 

p8ntslinger676

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You might be able to revert it back to a previous date before the install of MCE or whatever it is called, what you do is first turn off you computer and reboot it, while windows is starting up agian reboot it again, the next time it resarts it will pop up this windows blackscreen with the choices of "Start in safemode", "safemode with internet", "last good configuration" and "start nornmally" choose the top one, safemode and after it starts up in sfemode it will say "SAFEMODE" in the corners of the screen and a revert to checkpoint box will pop up, revert to the checkpoint before you installed the program and i think that it might work but im just going on instinct.
 

Aragorn

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I've already tried both "safe mode" and "Last known good configuration" several times each. I still get a machine that appears to do stuff (the folding log gets entries and the hard drive gets accessed a bunch, but it does not respond to any input. No mouse or keyboard response at all and if I plug in my USB wired mouse I no response from that either.

Thanks it was a good shot. I'm really wondering if anyone knows or has any leads on how to fix this with the recovery console or from the new instance of Windows MCE.
 

Lan

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Well if you re-installed once already, unless you did it on a different hard drive or different partition, it's a good bet that all of your previous programs and settings are gone.

Where and how did you setup the installation you are running from? Did you create any sort of backups (to CD, DVD, or a different hard drive)? Also include how all of your hard drive space is partitioned, and where data is located, etc.

Post that stuff or send me a PM and I'll try and help as best as I can.
 

Aragorn

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I created a new instance of XP after the old one stopped working. The old one and all of its programs and files are still around. I am currently folding with the same install of F@H and I have used some of the other stuff from the old install so I know its still there I just can't use it cause even though it boots up okay it doesn't respond to anything in a USB or PS/2 port.

There may be other problems or something else that makes it look like its not responding to input but I have no idea what.


EDIT: I forgot some of the aksed for information.

The new installation is in another directory on the same drive. The other user directories are still in place and the new istall has user directories that have '.WINNEW' on the end (the new versions directory).

I have 4 hard drives and they are in 2 Raid 1 arrays. Each array has one partition I use one array for OS and Programms and the other for Data.

The new install of Win XP MCE can also read all the files from the old install just fine (nothing was encrypted).

If you need any more info just ask.
 

Lan

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Okay, well from my personal point of view, the first mistake was trying to put a whole different fresh install on the same partition as your old one without formatting it first. Obviously windows is having an issue detecting the devices, or processing the information that they recieve from them. I am not familiar enough at that depth of Windows to resolve the issue directly within Windows.

Another question I just thought of. When you first told it to "install a new copy" how did you do that? Did you tell it to upgrade, a new installation, and did you tell it to prompt you for what partition to install to? I ask this because if your computer was up to date with windows patches and you try to do a fresh install on an existing windows installation, that has the potential to cause some major file compatabilty issues.

What service pack is the old installation running? And what service pack is the CD? It sounds like there are different versions of files in the old installation that are causing in compatabilities, as evidenced by the DLL errors you got during the repair install.


EDIT: I'm assuming that the keyboard doesn't work either in the old installation, correct me if I'm wrong
 

cowboytech

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Hey, what viruses and spyware, or rootkit did you find? depends on what you had if it is easier to save data and do a clean install. Or repair incrimental steps
 

nobly

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Okay, well from my personal point of view, the first mistake was trying to put a whole different fresh install on the same partition as your old one without formatting it first. Obviously windows is having an issue detecting the devices, or processing the information that they recieve from them. I am not familiar enough at that depth of Windows to resolve the issue directly within Windows.

Another question I just thought of. When you first told it to "install a new copy" how did you do that? Did you tell it to upgrade, a new installation, and did you tell it to prompt you for what partition to install to? I ask this because if your computer was up to date with windows patches and you try to do a fresh install on an existing windows installation, that has the potential to cause some major file compatabilty issues.

What service pack is the old installation running? And what service pack is the CD? It sounds like there are different versions of files in the old installation that are causing in compatabilities, as evidenced by the DLL errors you got during the repair install.


EDIT: I'm assuming that the keyboard doesn't work either in the old installation, correct me if I'm wrong

I agree. Installing Windows twice on the same partition is asking for alot of trouble (as you've found). Even if its in a different folder, two installations of the same OS will throw it for a loop.

You're probably better off saving all your data and reformatting. Because if/when you get this figured out, you're probably going to spend 4x the amount of time it would take to save off your data and reinstall everything. Plus you'll probably still have Windows issues later on down the road, which will probably force you to reformat anyhow.
 

Aragorn

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Thanks for the input everyone.

Yes the assumption that the keyboard doesn't work either in the old installation is correct. If I had my keyboard and no mouce I probably could have fixed it myself I am normally pretty good with these things. I am a programmer and I did work for a while fixing peoples machines (before geek squad existed and before I started programming for a living).

The installation was a new install from the CD boot, I did not do it through windows. I selected the partition and then told it to use a different directory.

As for installing more than one instance on the same drive I have done it before without problems. But of course past success is no indication of future preformance. The reason I ended up doing the new installation on the same drive is because when I treid a fresh installation on the other dirve I kept getting a message about an invalid boot.ini file or ntldr missing.

As far finding a root kit I have not found anything the whole reason for the exersize that landed me in this mess was that I suspected there was something. IE would always crash as soon as I tried to start it. The machine never shut down with errors even though all patches were up to date. It also did other strange and otherwise unexplainable things at times. Though aside from IE being fubar it ran quite well and never did anything that stopped me from doing what I was looking to do and it ran quite quickly.

I am stumpped.
 

Lan

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I see. Well then, if you were having issues before (true only small ones, but still issues) it seems to me that you might be better off just backing up the essential files such as your favorites (sp?), any program configuration files and/or settings, and just do a format anyway. As nobly said, we might eventually figure this out, but by the time we do you could've had a new installation up and running, which it sounds to me like you were on the brink of needing anyway.

That being said, you never did answer about what service pack the old installation was running vs what Service Pack the CD was, because that could cause potential problems as well. For example, if your old installation was WinXP SP2, but the CD is only XP (with no service packs) and you use that CD to try a repair install, that is a recipie to make Windows FUBAR (believe me, I've done it). In order to do a repair install on a later service pack you need to slipstream the latest service pack into the installation CD.
 

Aragorn

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Sorry I missed that one question. The now corrupted OS is/was SP and so is the disk. Thanks for the help.

At this point I think I will at least work on this issue a bit as the callenge is tempting and I have spent about a year getting the OS just the way I wanted it. Also I don't have all the install files for all the programs I used on it (I know pretty silly). If anyone else finds the callenge interesting then great, cause I could sure use the help.
 

Lan

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Okay, sorry I couldn't help out more. You're right though, it's an interesting problem. Let us know how everything goes. :)
 

nobly

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In this case, its really hard to help you w/o seeing the matter firsthand.
I think this part really messed you up:

"After that I tried to repair my origonal installation with the cd, that process completed but popepped some error messages as it was going about DLL with missing entry points and not being able to hook DLLs."

That means that the DLL's aren't being recognized correctly, and during the repair it probably overwrote some files, etc, in your old install.

Heh, I guess a windows restore point won't work?
 

woodchuk

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Initially if you got a boot.ini error you might have somehow corrupted the boot sector, which reformatting won't fix. I had similar problems but was able to add a spare hard drive, format it and xfer some files to save, but not the executables unfortunately. Then followed writing 0's to the drive. There is a boot repair utility in Windows Repair but it wipes the drive also. Just a thot :)
 

cowboytech

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You have a tuff one. First, you said you didnt find "any" (spys, hijackers, viruses) so I would suspect those results because of your prior running symtoms, and try an advantaged scan senario. Your data sounds like it has been through a lot, do a scan to get the product keys and versions you are running. When people bring me one like you have described I get the keys, pull their hard drive(s) and save a data image as it is to one of my extra hard drives. At this point its cool cause you can put the imaged drive in their machine and get bold with stuff, but from here I will have to change my story line because by this time I have seen a lot more areas in your system and may have a miracle available for you instead of "save what you can and do a clean install" Hey when was the last time you heard "You should make a backup (many different methods available my favorite is a hard drive image) that is, after extensive multiple cleaning scans and no symtoms have been observed. Most customers learn this very important rule the same way we did, through something just like this!

"First do no harm"
 

brainysmurf

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Two words:
Norton GoBack.
It won't help you this time.
But buy it, install it, and you'll never have to deal with this kind of aggravation ever again. Much better than the restore function built into Windows XP.