Win2K installation broken by Service Pack 4

1. I tried to run Windows Update on a working Win2K installation
2. Windows Update complained that I'd have to install Service Pack 3 first
3. I proceeded to the Service Pack area and downloaded SP4
4. I tried running this but half-way through the upgrade it complained that
the file NTKRNLPA.EXE was in use
5. I had no choice but to cancel the upgrade
6. when I rebooted Win2K would no load and just died at the logon
7. I used my Emergency Repair Disk to recover and logon successfullu
8. after logon Win2K complained with the error message:

Another installation is already in progress. Complete that installation
before proceeding with this install.

9. Also, the Windows Installer dialog kept popping up whenever I tried to
access anything (Explorer, IE etc)
10. I tried running SP4 again, which failed
11. I tried running SP4 again and this time it worked however when I
rebooted Win2K would not boot at all complaining that the file NTOSKRNL.EXE
was missing or corrupt
12. I used the Emergency Repair Disk to recover from this
13. Once I had logged on I tried uninstalling SP4 (using Add/Remove
Programs) - during the uninstall it complained that several files could not
be copied (even though they existed at the source location)
14. SP4 was uninstalled (it nolonger appears in Help > About) but Win2K
would not reboot so again I used the Emergency Repair Disk
15. My Win2K installation is now booting but I am back to the error message
in #8 with the annoying Windows Installer messages in #9

What can I do next?

Sometimes it's best to just reformat and reinstall fresh. In fact
sometimes it's the only option.

"Craig Ward" <> wrote in message news988D135-54DF-4E07-AE59-...
> 1. I tried to run Windows Update on a working Win2K installation
> 2. Windows Update complained that I'd have to install Service Pack 3 first
> 3. I proceeded to the Service Pack area and downloaded SP4
> 4. I tried running this but half-way through the upgrade it complained that
> the file NTKRNLPA.EXE was in use
> 5. I had no choice but to cancel the upgrade
> 6. when I rebooted Win2K would no load and just died at the logon
> 7. I used my Emergency Repair Disk to recover and logon successfullu
> 8. after logon Win2K complained with the error message:
>
> Another installation is already in progress. Complete that installation
> before proceeding with this install.
>
> 9. Also, the Windows Installer dialog kept popping up whenever I tried to
> access anything (Explorer, IE etc)
> 10. I tried running SP4 again, which failed
> 11. I tried running SP4 again and this time it worked however when I
> rebooted Win2K would not boot at all complaining that the file NTOSKRNL.EXE
> was missing or corrupt
> 12. I used the Emergency Repair Disk to recover from this
> 13. Once I had logged on I tried uninstalling SP4 (using Add/Remove
> Programs) - during the uninstall it complained that several files could not
> be copied (even though they existed at the source location)
> 14. SP4 was uninstalled (it nolonger appears in Help > About) but Win2K
> would not reboot so again I used the Emergency Repair Disk
> 15. My Win2K installation is now booting but I am back to the error message
> in #8 with the annoying Windows Installer messages in #9
>
> What can I do next?

"Craig Ward" <> wrote in message
news988D135-54DF-4E07-AE59-
....
> 2. Windows Update complained that I'd have to install Service Pack 3 first
> 3. I proceeded to the Service Pack area and downloaded SP4
....
> What can I do next?


Try looking for some diagnostics to understand your symptoms better.
"Service Pack 3" might really be for Office instead of Windows
in which case installing W2Ksp4 won't have changed anything.


<title>&quot;ERROR_INSTALL_ALREADY_RUNNING&quot;
error message when you run the Setup program to install Office programs</title>
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?id=822454


What I would do is try searching for files, especially log files,
which were changed by this procedure. E.g. use Find Files
for a single day, view Details and sort by Date Modified.
Then you can scroll the results to find the exact minute that
the update was done. Hopefully that way you can find a log
file which will give you better clues about was going on and
what is wrong.

BTW if it is an Office service pack you are installing you might
find better assistance in an Office newsgroup. Similarly, you're
more likely to find people familiar with your particular OS in
a windows2000 newsgroup.


Good luck

Robert Aldwinckle
---