Recently I had the very same problem and ended up re installing my windows XP with format (NTFS). Fortunately I have a strict backup regime so did not lose anything.
I can only suggest that if you cannot resolve it then a like option is the only way out of it. Like you I have had probles with SP3 so have restored my computer to SP2 and disabled the automatic updates. It now works fine.
I used Knoppix-STD to reset the password. The Adminstrator password was already shown as blank. I changed the "Brad" password to blank. No change when trying to boot. Ran Steve Gibson's Spinrite. One bad sector that could not be recovered.
The standard (not STD) Knoppix Linux came in handy, though. I copied My Documents onto an external hard drive and burned the Outlook Express mailboxes to a CD. Now, if I can just recall how to recover that e-mail.
In April 2005, I installed Ghost 9 and a big secondary hard drive for this friend. Made a backup that night. It's the only backup in the drive. Aaaarrrrrrgh! So, it's back to 2005. Downloading all the Windows Updates should be loads of fun.
I downloaded service pack 2 on to my C drive and then copied it to a CD. My XP disk is at SP1. So I just installed this and then ran the SP 2 from the CD. I find that running them off the microsoft website is a non starter. I don't use Outlook Express because I have Office 2003 so I can use Outlook 2003 which has a junk filter. The biggest pain is relaoding all the software again such as two Epsom printers, antivirus, my camera software, mobile phone software, Nero, Broadband software and last but not least Flight Simulator 2002.
Buckby Man
16 Posts
0
July 12th, 2008 12:00
Recently I had the very same problem and ended up re installing my windows XP with format (NTFS). Fortunately I have a strict backup regime so did not lose anything.
I can only suggest that if you cannot resolve it then a like option is the only way out of it. Like you I have had probles with SP3 so have restored my computer to SP2 and disabled the automatic updates. It now works fine.
Dell Optiplex 170L
256 mb ram
40 GB hard disk
Microsoft office 2003
nilo
2 Intern
•
491 Posts
0
July 13th, 2008 08:00
I used Knoppix-STD to reset the password. The Adminstrator password was already shown as blank. I changed the "Brad" password to blank. No change when trying to boot. Ran Steve Gibson's Spinrite. One bad sector that could not be recovered.
The standard (not STD) Knoppix Linux came in handy, though. I copied My Documents onto an external hard drive and burned the Outlook Express mailboxes to a CD. Now, if I can just recall how to recover that e-mail.
In April 2005, I installed Ghost 9 and a big secondary hard drive for this friend. Made a backup that night. It's the only backup in the drive. Aaaarrrrrrgh! So, it's back to 2005. Downloading all the Windows Updates should be loads of fun.
Buckby Man
16 Posts
0
July 13th, 2008 17:00
I downloaded service pack 2 on to my C drive and then copied it to a CD. My XP disk is at SP1. So I just installed this and then ran the SP 2 from the CD. I find that running them off the microsoft website is a non starter. I don't use Outlook Express because I have Office 2003 so I can use Outlook 2003 which has a junk filter. The biggest pain is relaoding all the software again such as two Epsom printers, antivirus, my camera software, mobile phone software, Nero, Broadband software and last but not least Flight Simulator 2002.
Happy restoration. Good luck