stop repair?

[AntunB]

Is there a way to stop the windows XP repair?

so when you have the XP CD and you run setup, but do a repair.. if you keep restarting the comkputer it will run the repair until you let it go through the whole repair.

Is there a way once the repair has been initialised to stop it?

like change some files or something to tell windows not to repair nemore


thanks

 

[linney]

There are options offered, such as pressing F3 early on in the Setup to exit. If you have gone past that point, turning off the machine may be your only option. You would then be left with a half installed operating system which would automatically restart itself after any reboot. The bootup/restart sequence could be terminated by amending the boot.ini file.

Perhaps you ought to clarify what you are trying to achieve?

 

[AntunB]

ok it is past the point of no return, so F3 wont help
There alreasy is an OS on there, it is just being repaird, so somehow terminating the repair will not leave a half installed OS.
I was doing a repair. Now it asks for the product ID, i put it in and it says invalid product id. It must use the exact same id????
so thats y i want to cancel the repair, what is in the boot.ini that i have 2 change to boot normally without starting the repair

 

[linney]

I don't pretend to know the inner workings of how a "Repair" proceeds, but when you see terms like "Installing Devices", "Setting up Networks" and the like, you can be pretty sure of something going on that is not being completed. So it will be interesting to know in what state the "to be repaired" install is.

Boot.ini is a hidden, system file, usually with a read only attribute. You may have to boot to the Recovery Console and replace it with another Boot.ini that is not going to automatically load Setup, but will try?????? and load what is left of your original install.

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console for Windows XP (Q307654)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q307/6/54.asp

HOW TO: Edit the Boot.ini File in Windows XP (Q289022)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q289/0/22.asp

Basically you would have to edit the Default Operating System which will be saying something like Windows Setup.

I wonder if you could just restart Setup from scratch and use F3 to cancel it that way? Boot from your XP CD. You have about a second to "Press Any Key" when this message is displayed as the CD starts to load. This will take you to the Repair Installations options. Maybe canceling it there might work?

 

[AntunB]

Thanks, but its not in the boot.ini

maybe another way to do this is to run through the setup, though the thing preventing me from doing it is the product ID

The way i got the product id is to run a keyfinder program and it gives you the key of the current OS

though it always says invalid key???

any ideas

Thanks


Oh should any XP Key work? or it has to be the exact key used, because its a repair?

 

[linney]

Try some of the workarounds mentioned in the first article.

310637 - Troubleshooting Invalid CD Key Error Message During Windows XP Setup

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310637&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

326904 - Error Message: The Product Key Used to Install Windows Is Invalid

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326904&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Is there any Product Key on any sticky label attached to the Tower?

Can you post a text copy of the current Boot.ini while it is looping in Setup for future reference?

 

[bcastner]

If the boot.ini file has no special extensions related to startup, then what becomes controlling is:

BootExecute
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\BootExecute

But you are going to be very unmappy unless the install finishes by this point.

 

[AntunB]

Ok thank you all very much for your help

i found the problem

on this website

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;326904&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

Thanks linney

i think its a pirated copy, so it didnt work, i dont think it had any SP installed, then when i tried to repair wif sp2 then it didnt work.

i changed the ID in the reg and it works ok now.....

Thanks all for the help