Re: reinstall failes

Is the message your getting ASMS specific to using a service pack 2 CD or is
it mentioned in the error?

I'm really curious now... about those MSDN disks? Do they have holographic
labels too?

David B, SWE <DavidBSWE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
One more thing. The URL you gave me,
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246 , didn't work. I did find it
though by adding en-us to the end:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246/en-us.

"C J." wrote:

My full retail CD Says "Service Pack 2 Included, Version 2002" on the
holographic label.

You're having some doubts about the condition of the disk media too?

One other thing I was meaning to ask you ... have you made any
significant hardware changes to your system. I'm assuming the OEM disk
shipped with your PC initially. Does the COA sticker for that disk say
"OEM -software" or "OEM-SLP" on the label. This would be an important
detail to make note of. If its an OEM-SLP CD then the original
hardware that shipped with your system would still have to be in the
PC.. as the disk is BIOS locked for a specific configuration of hardware.

I've been re-thinking this problem over and over since you started this
thread. While it doesn't make sense to me that 3 MSDN disks would all
display the same ASMS error - as the OEM disk, it would if you couldn't
use them to do a "repair installation" on an existing OEM build.
A Full Retail disk would be a different matter.

Its either a significant hardware change you've made, your CD Drives, or
something about the Setup Media. I don't know why, but I keep coming
back to the CD/DVD drives myself.

I did a search last night online... and I hate to admit it but most of
the articles I found, all pointed to the knowledge base article you cited
earlier one as being a pointless remedy. Aside from a few assine
suggestions to copy ASMS to the harddrive before doing the repair.

Damaged or defective media is a different matter. Microsoft does have a
policy in place for replacing damaged or defective software and products.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326246 <<

If the disks are defective - see if you can obtain replacements.
Particularly for the OEM disk from the builder of your PC. Microsoft is
pretty Anal about OEM disks, but if the manufacturer is no longer in
business they will work with you on it. One post I came across lastnight
about ASMS was resolved with the poster obtaining a new OEM Install CD
from where they purchased their PC.

Final option www.Restoredisks.com If your Make, Model, and series of
PC is listed there, then there is a chance you could pick up a disk from
them pretty cheaply.






David B, SWE <DavidBSWE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
One last question, for les, Patrick, CJ, and "Not Me". My Windows XP
setup CD, the one with the hologram, says 2002 on the front. Would you
mind telling what year you see on yours ?

Thanks for responding, and thanks for your feedback and advice. :)

"David B, SWE" wrote:



"les" wrote:

doing a system restore it stopd and said file asms is needed from cd
cd is in the drive can anyone help

Complaints in newsgroups, etc., about this "missing asms file" issue go
back about five years. I personally have encountered the error at
least three times in as many years. Microsoft's Knowledge Base article
Q311755 -- the one that MVPs refer XP users to when they respond to
this complaint -- is irrelevant and useless. What we have here is a
serious bug in the Windows XP setup CD that MVPs probably do not know
about.
Not only is it a serious defect, one that affects virtually every copy
of XP Professional Setup CD and DVD (I don't know about Home ed, never
used it), but it is a defect that has never been acknowledged by
Microsoft; there is no helpful KB article about it, no workaround.

It's as hard to be precise about this as it is to be brief, because now
that I've spent three days restoring my OS and apps, I don't want to
step through the XP CD setup steps again. But I can summarize briefly
for all MVPs who may be listening: 1) what leads up to this Windows XP
setup disk error; 2) how to reproduce the "missing asms file" bug on
the XP setup CD; 3) why the KB article Q31175 is unhelpful.

1. A user elects this "repair" option in the XP Setup only after all
other efforts to recover have failed. I got to this do-or-die place
last week by exporting and then deleting 10 registry keys that all
pertained (I thought) to an app that didn't properly uninstall itself.

You've tried "Last Known Good Configuration", Safe Boot and its
variants, and you know you can't boot to Safe mode; you've tried
"Don't reboot after startup failure" (or whatever the wording is,
toward the bottom of the list) -- you'll get a Hex 7B error code in
this case, which no one in all of New Delhi understands. Without Safe
Mode, you cannot import saved "reg" files, run the Reg.exe tool,
restore a System State backup made with NT Backup, or use System
Restore. You've tried the Recovery Console, and copied the original
five registry files from Repair subfolder of Sys32, and that doesn't
work either.

2. According to the authoritative "Windows XP: Inside Out" (Microsoft,
2001, p.815ff), "you may be able to repair your Windows XP installation
using the Windows Setup program. . . . The repair option is quick and
painless..." The same advice appears in other XP books. This is *not*
the repair option that appears right after "Welcome to Setup" screen.
At that screen, press Enter, not R. Then press F8 to accept the EULA,
and from the screen showing your Windows installations (usually one),
choose the correct installation, and *then* press R. The setup program
reloads XP OS files, then reboots your PC. Soon after this reboot,
you'll get a message saying the system cannot find a file called
"ASMS", and it gives you an input box to enter the correct path of
that file. However, though an ASMS *folder* exists, there is no ASMS
file on *any* Windows XP setup disk, no way to work around the error,
and no way (for any XP Professional user anywhere in the world) to
continue past this point. The "repair" option has to fail for
everyone who tries it.


At this point, you write to a newsgroup or search Microsoft or Google
for a KB article that could help. Or, like me, you call Microsoft Tech
Support (incident 1038826788) about the problem -- they'll guide you
through all the above steps, and then give up when you get to the ASMS
error, advise you to reinstall XP, and refund your $80.

3. The only Microsoft Knowledge Base article that pertains to this
issue, Q311755, under the section on the NTFS file system, offers three
"methods" to fix the problem. The first, running RegEdit, can only
work if you can get to the command prompt -- but if you could run
Windows in Safe Mode, you would not be using this last resort from the
setup disk in the first place. The second method advises installing
Windows in another partition; no thanks, that is no easier than
reinstalling the whole OS on the main partition. The third method
says to "use the original XP CDROM" (the one with the hologram), not a
copy. If the original can't be found, "look for the Asms folder. If
the folder is missing or the files that it contains are zero bytes,
the CD-ROM was not burned correctly. "

But as stated above, while an ASMS folder exists, there is no ASMS
file, even on the hologram copy of the XP Pro setup CD. That's why
this third solution always fails.

It is time Microsoft publicly acknowledged this defect in its
omnipresent XP Setup disk CD and offer some kind of workaround. I also
would appreciate it if Microsoft tech support representatives would
stop pretending they don't know about this issue. I am convinced they
do know about it, because in all three cases where I have called upon
their help over the past three years, they have known when to give up
and offer a refund: "ASMS File Not Found" is endgame; they all know
it, and unlike the KB article, they don't bother asking you if you are
using an original hologram XP setup disk or advising you to try a
different CD ROM drive, because they know that neither of these steps
makes any difference.

I don't plan to buy Vista until all the serious bugs in XP have been
worked out. I can handle minor bugs -- no OS is perfect -- but this is
not minor! I suggest other XP Professional users do likewise.


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: reinstall failes
    ... They come with an MSDN (Microsoft ... You're having some doubts about the condition of the disk media too? ... display the same ASMS error - as the OEM disk, ... setup CD, the one with the hologram, says 2002 on the front. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: W2k boot failure after new RAM
    ... Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. ... Note If the registry is corrupted ... and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. ...
    (microsoft.public.win2000.hardware)
  • Re: XP install failed
    ... "The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed" error message ... setup CD that MVPs probably do not know about. ... never been acknowledged by Microsoft; there is no helpful KB article about ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)
  • Re: XP install failed
    ... "The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed" error message ... setup CD that MVPs probably do not know about. ... never been acknowledged by Microsoft; there is no helpful KB article about ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)
  • Re: Repair install hangs!
    ... error message when you install Windows XP ... | I'm doing a repair install of XP SP2, and after the first reboot .. ... | "asms" anything. ... the XP CD setup steps again. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
Loading