And I thought I'd seen everything.

[theweaselking]

So, a Windows XP machine won't boot, corrupted registry. BSOD on startup. Fine by me, I tell it to go with Last Known Good and try again.

.... and suddenly the machine boots just fine, but now I'm looking at a lovely fresh install of XP Professional.

Service pack 1.

It was SP2 two minutes ago, for the record. And that was installed, as SP2, outright.

All the data and programs are still there, and all the user folders, but no user accounts, according to Windows. All the device drivers for the stuff Windows doesn't handle natively are not installed. They're THERE - just tell the machine to install the "unknown device" and poof, they install themselves.

IE 7 is still installed, for the record. Despite this now being SP1.
Windows Firewall is still there - or, rather, all the services are still there, but none of the control interfaces.

The fuck?

None of the network connections work, of course, because Windows Firewall is totally gefucked. Luckily, I've got an upgrade-to-SP2 CD.

Comments

[mhoye.livejournal.com]

Some manufacturer's preloads are sold as SP2, but are really upgraded-to-sp2 images. Laziness, really, but might do what you're seeing here if you cranked it hard enough.

Still, bad things don't happen to people with good backups. I'd do that first.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I've got good backups. I just want the machine working again.

Here's a fun one: SP2 is installed and working, and now I have internet. However, IE7's security settings are really blasted so I can't run ActiveX controls, I can't change the settings, and the system is convinced that IE7 isn't installed, so I can't UNINSTALL it.

I'm impressed!

I mostly want IE7 and ACtiveX for Windows Update. Without that working, I don't trust *anything* else.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

A-ha! "I trust microsoft, Mr. Internet Man", and problem solved.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

PS: This wasn't a manufacturer's preload. This was a straight install of a Microsoft OEM SP2 disk.

[flemco.livejournal.com]

What. The. Fuck.

[matgb]

Wot he said

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Upgrade to SP2, run Windows Update a few times, and suddenly it *thinks* it's up to date and working, but there's all kinds of shit that's just not quite working right.

But, now it's got network access, and so I ran the daily backup again to get the MOST-recent data off the machine, and I'm going to wipe it flat and restart rather than worry about it.

[flemco.livejournal.com]

Always the answer. Always correct!

[pegla.livejournal.com]

I've had this happen once. Basically one of Windows's remedies against a completely corrupted registry, it replaces it with a fresh copy. Everything is still there, just not linked in the registry, which is bound to have some big WTF moments when you nose around in the system.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what happened. Still, FUCKED UP.

[elffin.livejournal.com]

Either
A: What pegla said above (which I'd love to see), or
B: there is more than one WINXP installed directory on the disk: one had XPSP2 and one was SP1. That's what I'd seen once before that sorta jibes with what you describe; I don't know for certain if LKG will re-write the boot.ini file but it might be possible. Check boot.ini and check for multiple Windows directories.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Looks like pegla was right. There's only one Windows installed.

But yeah. Back up data, wipe machine flat, reinstall. The Plan!

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Sort of on topic, I used to work at an Apple dealer - long before the actual Apple stores started popping up, and the original iMac was released about halfway through my time there.

One lady brought in her iMac because it refused to start up. She said she got a sad Mac icon when she started it up, but when we tested it in the store it worked perfectly. This happened a couple times, until we eventually told her to bring EVERYTHING in that she hooked up to the computer, down to the plugstrip. After some quick plug/no plug trials, we found out that the hockey puck mouse was causing the whole machine to fuck itself on startup. We didn't get the problem because we were using the service shop's peripherals. We ended up giving her a new mouse and all was well.