Not exactly a call for help, but

[Theophylact]

I may have spoken too fast about the stability of WinXP.

Came home last night and was unable to get into Windows XP Home. The error message said that it couldn't open Windows because a particular file (C:\Windows\system32\something -- didn't copy it down; I left it on the screen until later) was corrupt, and that I should boot into the setup CD and open the recovery console. I did that, but after reaching the C:\windows prompt, I had no idea where to go.

So I called Microsoft support and got a guy to walk me through the repair procedure. This took about an hour, and involved backing up, renaming, copying and deleting numerous obscure files, and then (because I still didn't have access to various necessary folders), changing permissions all over the map. Ultimately everything worked, except that we couldn't get the activation procedure to work.

So we ran a complete reinstall, which worked fine (except for activation, which required me to activate over the phone). Now all I have to do is bring by drivers and so forth up to date, including downloading and installing Service Pack 1.

On the one hand, I'm glad that my programs seem to be intact and working. On the other hand, You'd think that my XP Home manual (some 950 pages of info) would have had some clue about what to do after getting to the C prompt.

Just grousing.

[discreet]

Guessing you only have one PC?

Screw tech support, one word - Google.

[tmx468]

The saviour of the PC man... of course, ask jeeves can have its uses!

[Theophylact]

No, I have three PCs. My wife had one in use, and the second runs Linux Mandrake 8.1, and I've never got its connection to my home network or the Internet to work.

Even if I had, I would have had a problem with Google. When a Windows install goes bad, the curative steps are so arcane that I, at least, pretty much need someone to walk me through them. Not likely that I'd find the specific fix on Google. Maybe here at TechIMO.

But then, I'd need the second machine up and running (perhaps on Win98); and the two share one monitor (using a KVM), so it's hard to read the advice on one while applying it to the other. Too much of a hassle, too much time spent. As it was, it took me three hours to get the machine back to a usable state.

[cat1947]

A good Ghost backup would solve that problem also.
CAT