XP Pro Repair Installation

[Brian]

Don't tell me here that clean installation works better, please.

Okay. I know how to do I repair installation, but some things have just
gotten messed up.

I have a SP1a XP Pro disk from Dell. I was trying to perform a repair
installation, and I got the message "The file 'asms' is needed..." I found
something about it in the knowledge base (KB) about deleting registry keys
because the computer cannot communicate with the cd drive, but it wasn't
sufficient. I asked about it here, and I was told that I needed to slipstream
SP2 into my disk. I had some complications. I asked about them here as well.
I had to delete svpack.dl_, svpack.inf, a .cat file, and a .cab file. I also
needed to delete the svcpack directory, but it was not present on my cd.

I used NLite to create and burn an iso image to a DVD+R. I inserted it into
my DVD drive, and it blinks for almost 15 seconds. After waiting for that, I
tried to boot from it and it told me something about memory overload when
trying to boot from it, after I press a key to boot from cd. Then it booted
to my C: drive, and it restarted my installation.

But this is still my SP1 repair installation setup, and it asks me to insert
the Service pack 1 cd. I keep the SP2 cd in there, and then I get the 'asms'
error again. The next time I try to boot to the DVD-R, it fails.

Give me answers to all of these problems, please. Thank you in advance.

[Shenan Stanley]

My actual advice:
Take it to someone who can repair your computer. You have reached a point
that helping you remotely is risky, at best (for you.)
Also - you may not want to hear it - but compare the amount of time you have
spent trying to do a repair install with how much time you would have spent
doing a clean install and getting things back up to a usable state. Worried
about data? If you know how to do a repair install, then making a BartPE CD
and booting from it and copying your data off or making an image of the
entire machine should be easy for you.

Stuff that may help you above the actual advice:
Unless you integrated many more things than SP2 - you have no need to make a
DVD. Stick with CDs. Do not complicate things anymore than you have to.
Burning a CD as opposed to a DVD (altough technically it should make no
difference) may remedy your problem.

Don't use NLite to make your CD. Copy your files, download the entire SP2,
integrate it the old fashion way, burn your new CD the old fashion way.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

[peter]

The easiest Slipstreaming tool I have ever used and it works 100% of the
time....on CD's
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/System-Tweak/Autostreamer.shtml

peter
"Brian" <Br...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1C7BC9E6-F058-4638...@microsoft.com...

[chigbie]

Took me a while - I had the same problem and was using a CD with SP2
already applied. Found out the problem is caused when install quits
seeing the CDROM drive. The solution is here

'\"The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed\" error
message when you install Windows XP'
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=311755)

The only thing is that when that was done - I had to go back and give
System and Administrators (plural) full access rights to the drive for
the paging file.

But other than that it worked like a champ.
Carrie

[Brian]

Well... It didn't work for me. I deleted the registry keys but it still
doesn't work.

[Lchmst]

I am attempting to slipstream XP Raid drivers.......the Slipstreaming worked
fine with integration into winxp professional. However upon installation,
the drives partitions are still not properly formatted. The drive is damaged
with bad sectors, and I am ready to replace it, however I would like to
perform at least one successful install before installing the new drive. Can
anyone make any suggestions

[Shenan Stanley]

Lchmst wrote:
> I am attempting to slipstream XP Raid drivers.......the
> Slipstreaming worked fine with integration into winxp professional.
> However upon installation, the drives partitions are still not
> properly formatted. The drive is damaged with bad sectors, and I
> am ready to replace it, however I would like to perform at least
> one successful install before installing the new drive. Can anyone
> make any suggestions

If the drive is 'damaged' - it may be impossible to have a successful
*anything* with it involved. I do not understand your hesitance in
replacing and performing a clean installation on the new drive <-- in any
case the bad drive has to be replaced, correct?