Trapped in restart

[Lazzie]

Hi all!
Here is my situation: I have a copy XP Pro somewhere in my C drive.So i decided to do an upgrade on my machine.I used that xp in my local drive although I wondered if it will work out coz I'v neva done that b4.The istallation process staerted well,the machine restarted and continued copying installation files.When it reched the "Istalling Windows" step i decided rest on the bed coz it said '54 minutes remaining' (it was around 1am in the morning).Of course i ended up taking a nap.When I got up,abt an hour later, I found that it was showing a menu screen with options like Safe Mode,Last known gud config,start windows normally and others.I hit Enter to select the default (Start Windows Normally).It then failed to do that, restarted and came back to the same screen.Thats all that it does....it jus iterates there.Tried fixboot and fixmbr from the recovery console but both didn't work.
Any ideas???

Regards.

[willawake]

Re: Trapped in restart

at that point i would zerofill (quick) the drive and install fresh again....

[Topcat]

Re: Trapped in restart

at that point i would zerofill (quick) the drive and install fresh again....

oohhhh, Will said the 'F' word.....














FORMAT

That's what I'd try.

[willawake]

Re: Trapped in restart

lol you caught me too fast

i have no experience in upgrades. i NEVER do those

[Lazzie]

Re: Trapped in restart

I created another windows folder,called it WINDOWS1 to differentiate it from the already existing WINDOWS folder, and then intalled in it.Stil have all my programs but now a new different registry hence all applications that reference the WINDOWS registry do not work here.Jus wanted to avoid possibility of losing My Documents folder.

[Fizzycapola]

Re: Trapped in restart

There may be a program to move program registry entries so it works on
different installations.

Once you have a working system. A backup and restoring program like Acronis Trueimage
can be handy. Any time you want a fresh system put Acronis boot CD in and it's done
in 2 minutes. My C partition is very tiny and used only for the OS so it works very fast
when my system gets errors that would normally require formatting to sure fix.

[willawake]

Re: Trapped in restart

OS upgrades are a good time to have a cleanout, starting fresh and installing only the software which you keep using currently and new drivers, new updates etc. Machine will run so much faster.

if the hdd is over 3 years old then i will insist on a new one (clients usually think i am kwazy but then they get kwazy when then inevitable happens a few years down the line). Or i stick a second hard disk in and copy the good stuff over. and then format and reload. If i am using a new hdd i will have scanned the hdd fully for errors using manufacturers utility. I will also check the caps on the board and the psu with the esr meter. and use lots of canned air....When i am done i will backup their stuff to DVD (And then a few years down the line i will use that same DVD to restore their stuff after a fail since no backup has been made since...)

trueimage or ghost is a good idea, have to keep making images though as time goes on.

[PedroDaGr8]

Re: Trapped in restart

If you use a different user name on your install. You won't loose your My Documents folder. It will be located at

C:\Documents and Settings\OLDUSERNAME\My Documents

you may have to turn on showing of hidden files. Also you can also access the old desktop at

C:\Documents and Settings\OLDUSERNAME\Desktop

A lot of people don't realize this.

[yanz]

Re: Trapped in restart

heh, yeah...i would copy that entire "C:\Documents and Settings\my_login_name\" to second partition (D:\) or zipped it all and copy it to removable disk..

the alocation of C:\Documents and Settings\bla2\ for default documents folder is so annoying i will always edit the reg to set the default doc folder to my own preffered place (d:\my_data\). or you could do it with usefull tool like tweakxp or such.

[Lazzie]

Re: Trapped in restart

If you use a different user name on your install. You won't loose your My Documents folder. It will be located at

C:\Documents and Settings\OLDUSERNAME\My Documents

you may have to turn on showing of hidden files. Also you can also access the old desktop at

C:\Documents and Settings\OLDUSERNAME\Desktop

A lot of people don't realize this.

Yah, dats wat i did.Copied everythin to the username.Only a few .exes were missing due to the spradle worm that i once compiled in old user profile.

[starfury1]

Re: Trapped in restart

If you were sitting at that screen its because windows couldn't start normally I suspect
Sometimes a safe mode boot might clear the problem.

As TC and Willawake said ...with flaky windows "Format, fresh install" is probably the best way to go

Of course first
Backup all your data, make sure you have all program you want and drivers etc

Then perhaps do an image of the drive as suggest by fizzycopla

widows does have a "file settings transfer wizard" but how well it works I don't know....I would go the TC willawake method.

Only thing that pevs me about that is that dam stupid activation crap which probably wont work through your firewall.
Then cause the thing to hang and crash, now we have the new genuine spyvatage so unless you install that you cant get the updates.
(ok there are ways and means)

this of course if you have an XP copy that will install fresh....some are upgrades which check for win98 etc whatever...(go search the dark side of the net on that matter)

this really makes you want to learn Linux or buy a mac

[davmax]

Re: Trapped in restart

Nearly always Windows gets the blame. XP is a good OS that has stood the test of time (now 5 to 6 years) coping with a huge variety of hardware and software. Problems always occurr on any operating system you do not install or upgrade correctly. And all fail (including MAc OSs) with hardware failure.

Typically Mac users in this country are professional people or artists who know nothing about computers and do not mess with them like so many Windows users. Additional the range of hardware and software is restricted thus reducing risk.

All computers fail and always critical data must be backed up then all worries are gone and a hard drive can be formatted in the case of a real failure or screw up.

Sometimes it is possible to attach a corrupted hard drive to another Windows computer and there the contents of My Documents can rescued.

I hope you get a solution Lazzie. Keep backing up.

[Topcat]

Re: Trapped in restart

Nearly always Windows gets the blame. XP is a good OS that has stood the test of time (now 5 to 6 years) coping with a huge variety of hardware and software. Problems always occurr on any operating system you do not install or upgrade correctly. And all fail (including MAc OSs) with hardware failure.

You're right there. I wasn't blaming M$, XP is a good OS. However, if he had a case of bad caps, its not uncommon at all for data to become corrupt and unusable (hosed OS). This isn't Microsoft's fault, it's the motherboard's fault.... After a recapping and you still have strange OS issues, formatting and reinstalling 99% of the time fixes it.

[davmax]

Re: Trapped in restart

Whilst backup is very much on mind. XPPro does have a backup facility. However I use and recommend AIS Backup http://www.aiscl.co.uk/ it not only has a one time low cost fee but has a generous trail period of 30 actual days, this means if used for backup once every month it is free for two and a half years. This is a great piece of software and simple to use.

[starfury1]

Re: Trapped in restart

Actually I did have bee in my bonnet re widows when I posted that comment above about activation and a genuine advantage.....I was a bit hash on it

I dont really have anything against M$ trying to protect there software...just that it tends to crop up when you lease expect it

I had just lost a system I was trying to save from viri and spyware

Ideally format and reinstall would have been best and normally what I would have done, but for a few reasons was trying to save it at that point...anyway i lost it

( I didn't have the stuff I needed to do it the way I wanted, like image the HD before I tried to fix windows ...so Only my self to blame really)

As for XP when you get it working right (sorting out any badly behaving software drive etc that sometimes happen) its best to do a disk image.....on the Hole xp has been a lot more stable then 98 but even 98 when sorted out and left alone worked very fine.

Dave you are right that the more you tinker with any OS the more liable you are to break it...as to mac and linux it was a tongue in cheek statement really.

As you say graphic designers don't tend to tinker just load up (or have loaded) what they need software wise and use it

I guess the lest stressful way of handling windows is to have a disk image or backup method in place before you do any tinkering at lest you can get it back in whole as it was before you tinkered with it.

Also as pointed out...make sure you keep a copy of any files you don't want to risk losing in at lest 1 other place and preferably 3 places
(esp if you have a habit of keeping doc etc in the My document or on your desk top)

TC yep thats what I think happen with my windows on the other board I recapped.... but windows was screwed up because of restarts and hangs from badcaps.

Oh and Thanks TC for putting up this site too, its a great resource and frequented by many talented people...thanks to them too for the input

anyway hope you get it sorted too lazzie

Dave I will check out that software sound interesting Thanks

Cheers all

Oh its from Wales....like tom jones...what a voice that bloke has

[Lazzie]

Re: Trapped in restart

Yah,I agree wit u guys...tinkering with any OS wil usually result in disaster.I've learnt that from both my windows and linux machines.But i've realised that its more common in windows than in unix simply becoz most people treat their windows administrator account like any other account and they tend to almost everything from that account.U know, in linux the use of less privileged is highly encouraged and most linux users know that root account offers unlimited powers.In fact most windows users do not know that its advisable to do like its done in linux.I gues thats becoz windows will let u instal,after that it reboots and logs u into admin account...there is nowhere where the need for another account is emphasised.Then the user wil take it from there and follows suite.I have seen situations whereby someone will open folders they realy dont need to open at all and start deleting some files jus becoz they have strange names or becoz they wont open when they double-click on them.Qiute weird!

[starfury1]

Re: Trapped in restart

Yep been down the now lets delete this file folder cause I need more space road....with people

the big problem is as you said its not dill proof, it allows programs to change core type files and it allows users to go places they shouldn't got.

it leaves all the doors and windows open.

General statement here

Guess this is why you really need someone to admin you box and save you from you own stupidity...and yes Ive been the victim of my own stupidity at times...not watching what I was doing.

apart from windows leaving an account at admin level
(although I think they do advise you not to)

is most people when they get their shiny windows want to install software so guess what happens, they need admin and then leave the user at admin.

XP was a good step in the right direction but they just didn't take it far enough, I suppose there help desk would have been floored and cost a
fortune if the had properly lock the system down.

people that are users just want it to work so this is why they don't run good av software/ spy-ware or firewalls..yeah I know to some extend not really needed for some home users but it can get very debatable so I'll just leave it as a general comment

Anyway no system admin here, just know a bit more then your average user

not that I am going to rush and buy one of the ten different flavors of Vista but I wonder if they have improved this situation

anyway gone a bit off topic


So how did you go Lazzie ?

have you got it sorted?