Problems with sp2

Here is my progress so far. My desktop was is a Dell E510 running XP media
center. The hard drive failed but I did back it up a week before. I got a
new hard drive but I don't have the XP media CD, I only have the XP home CD
from my other comp.

So I loaded XP home and tried to extract the backed up files from the
external HD I have it on. It loaded most files. Just enough to get my modem
working so I could run the windows updates. Now, it starts downloading SP2
but stops half way and says "Setup Error" XP has been partially updated and
some programs may not work.

Any thoughts? Should I write to Dell and ask for the XP media cd and redo
everything?

Josh <> wrote:

> Here is my progress so far. My desktop was is a Dell E510 running XP
> media center. The hard drive failed but I did back it up a week
> before. I got a new hard drive but I don't have the XP media CD, I
> only have the XP home CD from my other comp.
>
> So I loaded XP home and tried to extract the backed up files from the
> external HD I have it on. It loaded most files. Just enough to get
> my modem working so I could run the windows updates. Now, it starts
> downloading SP2 but stops half way and says "Setup Error" XP has been
> partially updated and some programs may not work.
>
> Any thoughts? Should I write to Dell and ask for the XP media cd and
> redo everything?

There is no possibility that the path you have set out on will come to a
successful conclusion. You cannot convert an XP Home installation to a
valid XP Media Center by over-writing XP Home files with an earlier backup
of XP Media Center files.

If your earlier backup had been a complete backup of the entire Media Center
partition, then a sufficiently capable backup/restore application should
permit an entire reinstatement of the Media Center partition onto a virgin
hard disk (with no prior installation of Windows present). If your backup
application is not of this nature, then you will not be able to do this.

The only alternative is to reformat and do a proper installation of XP Media
Center from a CD installer.

--
Robin Walker [MVP Networking]

I figured as much. I just got Dell to send me all the CDs needed to
reinstall media center OS on the new drive. To my knowledge it was a
complete backup but I didn't have a way to extract the files onto the new
drive.

I did get the old one "back to factory settings" but I still get a BSOD on
some start ups. So here I sit with a failing HD and 2 newly formatted ones
with no OS and a complete backup file on a fourth external HD.

Any solution besides waiting for the OS disks and then installing them on
the new drives and then extracting the backup. I assume the extracting can
be done with the backup program that is conveniently not auto installed from
the OS disk. I thought there was a recovery option instead of backing up.
So, that is where I am.





"Robin Walker [MVP]" wrote:

> Josh <> wrote:
>
> > Here is my progress so far. My desktop was is a Dell E510 running XP
> > media center. The hard drive failed but I did back it up a week
> > before. I got a new hard drive but I don't have the XP media CD, I
> > only have the XP home CD from my other comp.
> >
> > So I loaded XP home and tried to extract the backed up files from the
> > external HD I have it on. It loaded most files. Just enough to get
> > my modem working so I could run the windows updates. Now, it starts
> > downloading SP2 but stops half way and says "Setup Error" XP has been
> > partially updated and some programs may not work.
> >
> > Any thoughts? Should I write to Dell and ask for the XP media cd and
> > redo everything?
>
> There is no possibility that the path you have set out on will come to a
> successful conclusion. You cannot convert an XP Home installation to a
> valid XP Media Center by over-writing XP Home files with an earlier backup
> of XP Media Center files.
>
> If your earlier backup had been a complete backup of the entire Media Center
> partition, then a sufficiently capable backup/restore application should
> permit an entire reinstatement of the Media Center partition onto a virgin
> hard disk (with no prior installation of Windows present). If your backup
> application is not of this nature, then you will not be able to do this.
>
> The only alternative is to reformat and do a proper installation of XP Media
> Center from a CD installer.
>
> --
> Robin Walker [MVP Networking]
>
>
>
>

Josh <> wrote:

> Any solution besides waiting for the OS disks and then installing
> them on the new drives and then extracting the backup. I assume the
> extracting can be done with the backup program that is conveniently
> not auto installed from the OS disk.

I don't wknow what backup/restore system you are using. But you should
ensure that the "restore" is only for your personal files, not Windows
itself. You should leave Windows as installed by the CDs.

--
Robin Walker [MVP Networking]