World of hurt...

[rdamurphy]

My Windows XP went belly up, can't do anything with it. I tried using the Recovery Console, no joy. I finally broke down and installed Windows to another hard drive to rescue my files (including my GMAX files, whew!), and I'm going to try a repair. Betcha I end up doing a clean install...

Robert

[chucksc]

Betcha do too Robert :(

[rdamurphy]

Yep, that's what I'm doing now, hoping for no problems with WGA or that activation crap, I don't feel like sitting on hold with M$ for half the night. Oh, well, last clean install was July '07, I made it an extra month!

Robert

[Conrail Tweety]

Was MSTS running at the time Windows quit?

Mine went belly up while a train was looping on Test Track. I couldn't even boot to Safe Mode. Replaced the harddrive with a larger one, reloaded Windows XP Pro SP3, MSTS and accessories. Used a USB HD interface to sucessfully recover the data off the old harddrive.

[rdamurphy]

Ummm, no, oddly enough, it crashed with notepad, and then wouldn't reboot. I've fixed it before, but this time, the Windows Repair Console let me down, and I couldn't find ANYTHING on the net that solved the error message I was getting.

Oh, well, we all need a good re-install every once in a while.

Except, well, now my C drive is my E drive, and my backup drives are C and D. I don't feel like starting over again now, think I'll just learn to live with it. What scares me is I think the boot.ini is on the C drive, so if I lose it...

Robert

[glcbn]

Norton Ghost version 12,in most cases can save you from having to reload everything. There are other programs that do the same,but I like this one.
The one thing to remember,if you add or update anything,its wise to keep renewing your image file. It has saved me from "format C:" a few times:)

[rdamurphy]

Well, I'm up and running. I think I'll go ahead and image the drive just in case - for next time. Oh, yeah, and DOUBLE backup my GMAX project folder. I almost lost almost two dozen projects...

Robert

[AZ Rail Rat]

Robert, had you updated to SP3? The automatic update pushed down a couple of days ago. I held off after reading this thread to one, make sure I backup everything and two, make sure it was not SP3 that is causing youse guys crashes.

[rdamurphy]

I updated to SP3 about a month ago, right when it came out, I noticed my laptop, which I didn't manually update, got it pushed from Windows Update just a day or so ago.

Hmmm, verrryyyy interesting!

Robert

[cnwfan]

I stoped mine when I saw this thread but The icon isnt there so mine must have been bumbed because I didnt fishish installing....Is itpossible that the solitioun to SP3 is to get a bigger HD from the looks from the post it might be.

[djt1]

On a fresh install of Windows the best way is to install XP/SP3 is by using the redistributable burned to CD before you reformatted.


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5B33B5A8-5E76-401F-BE08-1E1555D4F3D4&displaylang=en


After the installation of SP3 is complete then comes the chipset drivers, latest DirectX updates and network adaptor drivers.
When that’s complete you can then connect to Windows update and install the remanding updates for Windows, followed by the video card and sound card drivers.

[pwillard]

This is the way I did my SP3 (using the CD) after failing when using the method microsoft wanted me to use.

---

I've just come to the conclusion that the best approach is the following.

1) Do regular backups.
2) Just deal with rebuilding windows from scratch once per year

Oddly enough, I've had issues with image backups that were based on original "small" clean builds. It seems like a nice idea originally to have normal backups and then to just restore a simple starting image backup (like 2 G or so) to save time for a fresh clean slate rebuild. I ended up spending more time trying to get mine to work since it was a year old and so far behind on updates that it eventually failed miserably trying to apply patches and finally screwing it up but good.

I just do a reformat and fresh install anually and restore what I need from backups. Been doing that since 2004 with no issues other than a little time wasted. On the other hand, both time and aggravation were saved in the long run.

I'm a firm believer that Windows gets old and tired with use (or misuse) and starting over actually saves time.