After Windows update Windows won't start

[Murphie]

New computer--Acer Power FG. Windows XP pre-installed. Added an IDE controller card and 2nd hard drive, and Modem card; got those working OK. Installed Partition Manager and resized the partitions that Acer had created. Restarted and worked OK. Installed TweakUI and moved special folders. Worked OK. Also enabled automatic logon, which isn't working smoothly yet. Got Windows Update, restarted--now it gets stuck on "Windows is starting up" screen, hard drive activity quits after several minutes. Force restart. After 2 or 3 tries it did finish booting and I installed Office, but after that I can't get it to finish starting at all. I tried "Last Known Good Configuration" and Safe Mode, but neither one worked.

At this point I'm calling it a night, but does anyone have any idea if there's anything that can be done besides wiping it out and reinstalling everything? Does my idea that Windows Update caused the problem sound right? Or did I do something else wrong?

Many thanks!
Murphie, tired, frustrated and discouraged

[ski]

You may have to do a repair install. Note that this will not wipe out your current applications, data, and settings. However, it will delete all restore points, and you will have to reinstall all Windows updates.

Go to the following site, select 'Repair XP', and then select 'How To Run A Repair Install' -
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/

[Murphie]

Thanks Ski. I did a restore from the CD's that came with the computer--no other choice. But at least it works again.
Thank you!
Murphie

[Sylvander]

When doing the kind of hardware and software building you described you should make backups at key points along the way and make a detailed log of each change and backup.
Then if you hit a problem you can "jump back" to some point at which everything worked by restoring a backup [image].
Your log will give guidance on which would be the best backup to restore.
You need to make sure that the hardware matches the arrangement when the backup was made.
Then once the backup is restored and the software working again, you move forward once again, but this time forewarned and aware of the possible problem and its likely causes.

Once everything is working well, continue to make backups and complete the log.
If ever you suspect a software problem, just "jump back" to a suitable working state by restoring a suitable backup.

Use a system of backup that allows you to make and restore them from outside of Windows, so you can do it even when Windows won't boot.

[ski]

You're welcome.
Glad that you were able to get things fixed.

[Murphie]

Dear Sylvander, thank you. That is a very good idea...if only I were not always in a hurry to get it done...of course in the long run it would be more efficient.
I'm curious about this:

Use a system of backup that allows you to make and restore them from outside of Windows, so you can do it even when Windows won't boot.

How can you backup and restore outside of Windows?

Thank you!
Murphie

[Sylvander]

"How can you backup and restore outside of Windows?"
Any backup program that loads from a bootable floppy or CD will do the job.

For example:

1. How to make a free “Smart Boot Manager” floppy
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41498
This makes it easier to boot a chosen drive [particularly the one holding the EBCD].

2. How to make a free EBCD bootable CD
http://www.pcguide.com/vb/showthread.php?t=41485
This has a number of useful utilities included including a trialware version of "Image" for DOS, by Terabyte.
If you make a number of partitions, one of which is a FAT32 partition used to hold the backup image files...
a. You boot from the "Smart Boot Manager" floppy.
b. Choose to boot from the optical drive holding the EBCD.
c. At the 1st EBCD menu, hit enter to be taken to the 2nd menu.
d. OK the English language & mouse driver [CD-driver not necessary if saving to the HDD partition].
e. Use the mouse cursor to highlight the "Image" program in the menu.
f. Hit "Enter" [or click the mouse button], "Image" will run, make choices to make a backup.
g. You will eventually need to type a folder location and name for the file. [The folder must already have been made within Windows.] In my case I type "G:\image\c\060114".
G: is the partition; "image" is the folder I made to hold the "Image" backups; c [d, e, f] is the drive for which a backup is being made and stored; 060114 is the name I give the file [06 is the year, 01 is the month, 14 is the day the backup was made].

h. The same procedure [almost] is used to restore a backup.
The only difference is that once "Image" is running you choose to restore a backup, then navigate to the location of the backup image file, choose it and specify the partition to restore it to. [Make sure you choose a backup of c: and restore it to c:]