SP2 is ROTTEN!
<*(((><
worked for the rest of that evening. The next morning, nothing. Zip,
Zilch. No boot. I finally got it into the shop, thinking probably bad
motherboard. (What's the chance of TWO internal hard drives with dual boot
going out at the same time?)
Guess what? The tech says SP2 didn't take well, and mangled a couple of
files.
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shenan Stanley
Don't pay the tech.
SP2 'mangled a couple of files' or 'didn't take well'. hahahah
--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
antioch
"<*(((><" <fi...@ocean.net> wrote in message
news:eBUkBmd...@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
Spoke too soon by the looks of it
Antioch
Gerry Cornell
Sounds like he swallowed the tech's line hook, line and sinker! Isn't
that what fish are supposed to do <G>!
--
~~~~
Gerry
~~~~~~~~
Enquire, plan and execute.
Stourport, England
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<*(((><
very pleased. But SP2 killed the DESKTOP. When I booted it up the morning
after, I got ntdlr (or something similar) is missing. Then the screen went
black. I couldln't even boot from a boot disk. And with two OS on two
different internal HD, you'd think I could get something to boot.
I was using the two internals as backup for each other, and as a safety --
figuring if one wouldn't boot, the other would. Rats! The tech says he can
get XP to install over itself on one of the HD, but he'll have to do data
recovery on the 2nd HD and then nuke it and reformat.
You guys are smart. But this tech is with one of the best local companies
and comes highly recommended. I don't think it's a hook-line-sinker story
at all. I think somebody here doesn't want to agree that SP2 can trash a
machine.
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Gerry Cornell" <gc...@tenretnitb.com> wrote in message
news:OlTMygmQ...@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
Shenan Stanley
> You guys are just too cynical. I installed SP2 on my two LAPTOPS. And I'm
> very pleased. But SP2 killed the DESKTOP. When I booted
> it up the morning after, I got ntdlr (or something similar) is
> missing. Then the screen went black. I couldln't even boot from a
> boot disk. And with two OS on two different internal HD, you'd
> think I could get something to boot.
> I was using the two internals as backup for each other, and as a
> safety -- figuring if one wouldn't boot, the other would. Rats! The tech
> says he can get XP to install over itself on one of the
> HD, but he'll have to do data recovery on the 2nd HD and then nuke
> it and reformat.
> You guys are smart. But this tech is with one of the best local
> companies and comes highly recommended. I don't think it's a
> hook-line-sinker story at all. I think somebody here doesn't want
> to agree that SP2 can trash a machine.
No - that line they fed you is that - a line.
Have them hop on the newsgroups and explain in this thread what they mean
has happened (if they are so highly recommended - they surely know how to
use newsgroups...) I am willing to listen to what they believe happened.
However - what you repeated here is either *not* what they said or they fed
you that line so they would not have to try and explain what is actually
going on.
SP2 can *seem* to be the cause of a problem when all it actually did was
expose an existing issue. This is the most common scenario. It is very
similar to when someone who has been running Windows 9x for a long time on a
machine decided to install Windows XP and it will not install - giving them
assorted errors. A lot of the time it is hard disk or memory errors that
Windows 9x was not sophisticated enough to discover.
I have seen this happen and usually a rollback followed by a thorough
cleanup of the machine in question before installing SP2 again was all that
was required. The other cases were hardware issues (like bad memory or bad
sectors on the hard disk drive.)
In other cases - there was information left out of the owner's story - such
as...
"I just converted it from FAT32 to NTFS..."
"I just uninstalled Norton Internet Security..."
"I had some infestation of some sort but XXXX software told me I was
clean..."
and so on.
Again - I am willing to listen to your tech explain to us - in no simple
terms - what he believes has happened.
Ask them to hop on - tell them there are a few interested parties in this
'story' of his - or at least in the way you presented it...
You're quote:
"The tech says SP2 didn't take well, and mangled a couple of files."
--
Shenan Stanley
<snip>
> Again - I am willing to listen to your tech explain to us - in no
> simple terms - what he believes has happened.
> Ask them to hop on - tell them there are a few interested parties
> in this 'story' of his - or at least in the way you presented it...
>
> You're quote:
> "The tech says SP2 didn't take well, and mangled a couple of files."
In case they don't all-out refuse to explain here in technical terms what
they believe happened...
Here is the Google Groups link for this thread.
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsupdate/browse_thread/thread/44db9e490afaa1c6/690416684528ce82?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1#690416684528ce82
In order to better utilize these groups, in case they do not have a
newsreader:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/newsgroupsetup.mspx
Again - I am willing to listen.
They may explain it in a fashion other than you have above.
I just don't buy an SP2 "... mangled a couple of files ..." explanation.
Too many installations of SP2 on too many different machines over the past
2+ years for me for that to sit as 'accurate'.
There's (at least) details missing from you or details left out in the
explanation to you.
TaurArian
this alleged computer which always ends up in disaster for some reason.
Let her "Tech" handle it.
K
Gerry Cornell
Not cynical just amused at <*\(\(\(><" <fi...@ocean.net> being hooked!
Your statements demonstrate something which does not sound right:
"And with two OS on two different internal HD, you'd think I could
get something to boot."
Unless you have set up the computer to dual boot you will only ever be
able to boot using one system partition. It is my understanding from
your statements that the computer is not dual booting.
"I was using the two internals as backup for each other, and as a
safety -- figuring if one wouldn't boot, the other would."
You don't back up from the back up to the operating system drive /
partition. You might restore if the operating system failed but it
didn't fail so there was no need to restore. In backing up from the
second drive to the first you could well have either overwritten the
boot partition or got the boot.ini file totally confused as to where
it has to look for the operating system!
This post by Wes Vogel gives a good explanation of the "ntdlr is
missing" scenario.
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/browse_frm/thread/5b2951c8bffb2f1d/4ca316562e511530?lnk=st&q=ntdlr+missing&rnum=3&hl=en#4ca316562e511530
or if the link is broken try
http://snipurl.com/18ly1
I would conclude by pointing out that the value of a recommendation is
totally dependent on the knowledge and understanding of the person
giving the recommendation. Just because you have a strong
recommendation from a good friend does not mean you are necessarily
doing the right thing by trusting the repair of your computer to the
person recommended. We all fall into this trap from time to time.
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<*(((><
said -- they used more specific, technical language. I reported it in my
own words. As you can see, I have a long way to go before I become a geek.
So the misunderstanding was caused by my poor wording.
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Shenan Stanley" <newsh...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:eaL1PFwQ...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
<*(((><
I was having problems on my Sony laptop since at least June 2006 --
right after WGA was instituted. I have fixed that now.
The computer of which I speak is my Desktop computer. It was
compromised by a couple of bad updates in 2005 and 2006; when MS released
the corrected updates, it was fine. But I learned a lesson -- if you want
to keep your computer productive, be very careful about applying updates.
Some of them caused a lot of problems. Lost internet connections, in
particular. I had been told repeatedly here in this group to update it to
SP2. I finally did, in July 2006. It wouldn't boot up the next morning.
THAT's the |"alleged computer" that's in the shop now.
I'd be happy to invite you guys over to see for yourself!
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"TaurArian" <Taur...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9877AAB0-005D-4D43...@microsoft.com...
<*(((><
first screen taht shows up -- a black screen with white letters that names
my two OS and asks which to boot to.
Each OS was on a different HD, and each was on the primary partition. I
used one for testing, experimenting, and backup, and the other for current
work.
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Gerry Cornell" <gc...@tenretnitb.com> wrote in message
news:ubGZ66yQ...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
TaurArian
said on this subject.
BTW - According to your old posts it was the desktop you have been having
problems with.
Have a good day and pleased your problem is finally being rectified.
Gerry Cornell
In that case what were you using to up back up and where were you
backing up to? How many partitions were on each drive?
--
Hope this helps.
Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
wrote:
<*(((><
Drive C: to Drive F. Drive C: had a primary partition with the system and
programs. It had a logical partition D: with My Documents and data and
such. Drive F: had, IIRC, three partitions. An OS on the first, with
"trial" programs. Backups of documents on the next partition; and a third
partition with downloaded applications that needed to be checked for malware
before I brought them over to one of the other partitions.
Does that make sense?
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Gerry Cornell" <gc...@tenretnitb.com> wrote in message
news:Ok8S2yzQ...@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
<*(((><
hard drive. I figured I was covered -- if one drive went bad, I could boot
into the other and move my data over.
That computer has been just sitting there for 6 months. I knew it was
beyond me to figure it out. I had already read the link you provided and
tried the suggestions, as much as I was able to. But it was just beyond me.
So I found a tech shop that I thought would be as good as I could expect --
in business a long time, contracting to handle warranty repairs for several
manufacturers, and once-a-week pickups and drop-offs to outlying communities
up to 90 miles away.
I asked for recommendations for a local shop, but the only information I got
was "my friend so and so does a really good job even though his garage/shop
looks messy ..."
The tech called me to say that he had installed XP onto the F: drive, and
that it was accessing my documents. He said the C: drive was messed up, and
that the only thing he could do was a data recovery operation, looking for
files with common extensions. He said when the data got transferred off, he
would be able to wipe the drive, reformat, and move the data back onto it.
I do some customized multi-lingual work at times, and had installed some
rather obscure software and designed relational databases to handle the
languages. I told him about the location and extensions for those files,
which were in Programs, and not in Documents. He found them. Thank god!
What would you want me to do? I have a computer crash, I can't get it to
boot, and I reached the limit of my ability to try to fix it myself. I
don't know a good shop or a good tech. What would you suggest I do in the
future should such a dreadful thing happen again?
I'd be happy to fix you dinner if you would come over and fix it fore me.
:-)
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Gerry Cornell" <gc...@tenretnitb.com> wrote in message
news:ubGZ66yQ...@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
<*(((><
corrupted, I thought he meant the data on the C-HD was corrupted. Turns out
he meant the HD itself was corrupted. But he rescued the files and I've
still got one good drive.
I've been having trouble with my Sony laptop too, mainly because the
early WGA protocols would not give me permission. I'm still having trouble
with the sound -- it's deader than a doornail, all of a sudden.
I'm sorry that you guys couldn't fix my computer. I would have been
delighted to have such esteemed experts working on it, instead of just a
tech.
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"TaurArian" <Taur...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1E0F06D1-35D9-4F1E...@microsoft.com...
<*(((><
..." Oh no -- I think you haven't been paying close enough attention.
I've got three computers, plus I clean up my sister's computer every 6
months or so.
But I did have a coincidence of disasters about the same time and I'm
still reeling.
I sure hope you weren't being snippy. That just wouldn't be nice.
--
<*(((><
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"TaurArian" <Taur...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9877AAB0-005D-4D43...@microsoft.com...