XP SP1 cannot reboot after applying 10/12/04 patches

I keep my system current with XP patches and run a pretty clean ship as far
as "purchased/stable" software on my system (versus "free spyware/virus"
software).

When I applied the latest 5 critical updates to my system (I have NOT
applied the Windows XP SP2 patch), my system confirmed they had been
installed successfully and prompted for a restart. I restarted and got the
message that the startup failed and I had a choice to "Use last good
configuration" or the "safe mode options".

I tried the last good configuration and safe mode options and the result is
the same. The PC reboots after about 30 seconds. Choosing the "command
prompt" shows the PC running through about 20 items before a reboot occurs.
No visable blue screen. No option to "disable reboots" in boot options.

Booting from the XP (OEM) CD with SP1 would NOT work until I reset the BIOS
(switch) because the PC was not seeing the CD-ROM/DVDs (I have two of them).
After resetting the BIOS, the XP CD could see the CD-ROM but NOT the hard
drive. Attempting the Recovery Console or re-install XP gave "Hard drive
not found. Press F3 to restart".

Resorted to the "HP Restore Plus! CD". It did see the hard drive, but the
only choice here is to re-format/re-install XP. Before I zap all my files
by re-formatting my drive, I'ld like help trouble shooting this problem.

Thanks,

Rob

Solved my own problem...

After logging a ticket with HP to be told "reformat your drive and
re-install. Sorry about your data".

I logged a ticket with Microsoft who could not help much more in booting off
the corrupted drive from Original Windows XP Pro SP1 CD's.

I solved the problem myself (while on hold for 20 minutes with Microsoft) by
following these steps:

Create a Windows XP boot diskette by looking up Microsoft Article ID 305595.
I had one from 2 years ago because of problems with the /3G NTLDR switch
that was causing my previous system to die. You need a working computer
(friend/neighbours not necessarily XP) to create the floppy.

The floppy disk only has a few MBR files and points to the C: hard drive for
the rest of Windows. Though it won't fix the problems with Windows, it
SHOULD let you get to the Restore utility from the command line option of
"Safe mode".

The files on the floppy are:
boot.ini
DRVSPACE.BIN
IO.SYS
MSDOS.SYS
NTDETECT.COM
ntldr

Once in command line - safe mode, follow the instructions at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

which explain how to recover from a restore point.

The recovery takes a while, even if there are volumes that you have taken
offline.
Once things are back up, I suggest you make a backup of critical data before
going too far. Nero (multi-CD/DVD backup option) or Drive Image 7 are good
tools to do this.

Good luck!

Rob