Re: Slipstream install on new machine failed

"Anna" <myname@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:e$v3HYDkHHA.4904@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:


"OceanView" <me@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns9928BC4D3C0AAoceanbaby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Posted here a few days ago. The short version: I have an old PC,
built a new one (no disc). I'm trying to move the old disc drive to
the new machine
and install/upgrade XP Pro on the new machine. (The original issue was
that
I need to do do an upgrade with SP2 but only had SP1 install disk, but
I got
around that with the sliptream disk. Thanks to those who help me
through it.)

I did a slipstream upgrade to SP2, burned it and tried to install. I
get "disk read error" Ran both the first "Repair" and second repair
options. No
change. I did the bootcfg /Repair, no change. I did the copy ntldr and
ntdetect files from the cd in the repair console, no change. I've read
the
Micrsoft articles and a few others and I can't find a fix. The drive
reads,
the install, the windows instance gets found by the XP install (but
bootcfg
can't find it). Chkdsk says the drive is fine, which I believe since
I've been using it without incident for several weeks. I even went
back to the original SP1 install just to see if somehow I messed up
creating the slipstream disk and , you guessed it, no change.

I'm getting very frustrated at what should be a very simple thing: New
computer, move old stuff over. I have 8 years of programs and related
data on this drive. I'd REALLY hate to do a fresh install (which I now
have low confidence in anyway) What have I missed? Help appreciated (I
may send you a
fruit basket if I can get thjis fixed!)


OceanView:
We'll start off with a few assumptions, OK?...
1. The XP installation CD (slipstreamed with SP2) is perfectly fine and
mirrors the same XP edition (Home or Pro) on the HDD you're planning to
transfer to the new machine.
2. The HDD itself is non-defective. Hopefully, you've checked this out
with the diagnostic utility from the disk's manufacturer. (Chkdsk isn't
enough). 3. The newly-built machine has been properly assembled with
non-defective components and when equipped with a non-defective HDD
containing a non-corrupted XP OS the machine will be perfectly
functional.

I assume you now know how to run a Repair install of the XP OS (what you
call the "second repair option"). This thread has been running for some
time has it not? So I guess you've been referred to the usual sites that
contain step-by-step instructions for running a Repair install. If not,
just do a Google search on "XP repair install". The Repair install
should work but sad-to-say there's no guarantee of this. For one reason
or another it fails and the only recourse is a fresh install of the OS.

Using the Recovery Console (the "first" repair) and its concomitant
commands given your situation just doesn't work in virtually every
instance. And it's just possible that by doing so it made the Repair
installation a non-starter. In these types of situations we always try
(using a disk imaging program) to create a disk clone *before* any
attempt is made to run a Repair install. So that we have a backed-up
drive to fall back to in the event things go awry. Particularly so if
the data on the HDD is critical to the user. But what's done is done...

In any event give it another try. Occasionally we have found that the
second or third time around is the charm where a Repair install is
involved. But I wouldn't be too sanguine about it. I assume by now that
you've copied off the HDD any user-created data that's important to you,
but in case you haven't you should do this forthwith.
Anna




Thaks, Anna. I've done all that except for a some files I had been working
on that I neglected to backup, but basically 98 percent of the drive exists
on a very overload version of that drive, which I'm currently using. I had
a done a dry runof this on another drive with the non-slipstream version
and it seemed to work so I had reasonable conficence (silly me).

I just tried again to do a clean install on a different (older) drive. Same
result. So at this point either the slipstream disk I created is messing up
the drives (likely) or the motherboard has some problem (less likely, but
possible). I tried, also, with that older disk, to install a clean windows
2000 with a full format and it too failed. Could the slipstream do so much
damage to the drive that even a clean format fails to fix it? (I'm
wondering about what Nero 5.5.10 wrote to the cd) Could it be a bad cable?

Warning: Stop reading here and take a stab at the problem if you don't want
your head to explode. The following could be a Fellini movie.

This part is a footnote to the whole disaster, but might offer a clue,
though it's a bit Bizzaro world. The disk I'm now using was my 'original'
on OLD system. (I'm missing a month of files, but it still works.) How I
got back there:

1. I installed a new larger disk (on old system) a month ago and copied all
the files to it, swapped them.
2. Moved the OLD disk to the new system to test the upgrade/repair on it.
I ran into the sp1/sp2 "can't upgrade" snag, so I just went ahead and did a
fresh install (old drive, new system), since all my files were copied on
the new, larger disk. It ran fine for a week or so (new system with old,
newly upgraded disk) and I intended to use that disk as backup after I
swapped the disks (I.e. old small disk, now moslty empty, would go back to
the old old machine). So at this point: New drive in old machine, old drive
in new machine.
3, The weird part: At some point last night before the disaster set in I
moved the old disk to the old machine in preparation for IT'S
repair/upgrade to sync back with the old hardware to use it as a
backup/file server. So I thought.
4. When I booted the old machine, expecting "Auntie Em, it's a twister"
errors because it now had the new machine's hardware configuration, the old
machine booted the old partition (that I thought I'd deleted during the
fresh install) as if nothing had happened! Where's the new, clean XP
install? Not a clue. I got a month of overdue appointments from Outlook,
like where've you been? Very strange.

So, hoping against hope, I'm going to try that with the new drive and see
if the same thing happens, though I doubt it since I tried so many
potentially damaging things on it. I don't know where to go from here.
.

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