Can't reinstall ME

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Menno Hershberger - 30 Jun 2004 21:43 GMT

I have a Compaq Presario 5000 US which was brought in to be "cleaned up".
It is indeed a mess. After booting in Safe Mode and removing most
everything from startup in msconfig, I was able to get it to boot in
Normal Mode. There was no virus application installed, so I decided
that's where I would start. I started to install Norton, and it came up
with the message that it had updated Windows files needed to complete the
installation and I needed to reboot. During boot a DOS screen came up
with "Windows could not upgrade the file %1 from %2. If Windows fails to
start you may have to run setup. Press any key to continue." So I press a
key and it keeps spitting out the same message endlessly except for the
"Press any Key" part. So I tried booting in Safe Mode. Same thing there.
The setup files are in windows\options\cabs, so I booted with a floppy
and ran setup from there. It does its thing and copies all the files, and
when it does the first reboot, I am back to square 1. Next I deleted all
the files in the windows\temp folder and was going to restore the
registry to an earlier date, but came up with "No restore points saved."
If I have to, I can mirror the drive off onto another drive to keep his
data (and the cab files) and do a clean installation. But I'm not sure if
he can come up with all the software installation CD's, etc.
Can anyone think of an easier way out?

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Menno Hershberger - 30 Jun 2004 22:18 GMT

OK, I've made some progress. I found that after about 10 minutes of those
"can't upgrade file %1 from file %2" messages going by, it finally came
back to a Press any key message and went on from there. I was finally
able to get a reinstall of ME, by waiting out those error messages every
time it rebooted. Then when I finally got into Windows, I deleted
everything from the RunOnce keys, and a couple of suspicious Run keys,
and now it reboots normally. Now I think I'll go with the free Grisoft
Antivirus instead of Norton... maybe installing *that* won't crash the
damn thing again.

> I have a Compaq Presario 5000 US which was brought in to be "cleaned
> up". It is indeed a mess. After booting in Safe Mode and removing most
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> he can come up with all the software installation CD's, etc.
> Can anyone think of an easier way out?

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-- What happens if you get scared half to death twice? --

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Noel Paton - 30 Jun 2004 22:38 GMT

Your %1/%2 error is caused usually by Norton LiveUpdate, corrupting the
System Restore archive - although there are other possible causes.

Do a Search for the file WININIT.INI - if you find it, then rename it to
WININIT.JNK, and reboot - your problem should be gone.

If you don't find it, then try this - Start|Run - enter SCANREG /FIX into
the dialog box, and click OK - windows will reboot - see if that fixes it.

If not, then open Windows Explorer - check in Folder Properties that you are
able to view Hidden and System files (two settings), then Search on your PC
for files named '_RESTORE' (without the quotes) - you should find the
C:\_RESTORE folder - r-click on it, and select Properties.
How many files/folders are there? If it's around 64 thousand, then
LiveUpdate has been up to its tricks again, and you'll have to completely
remove the folder from DOS - use the following method, which seems to be
the easiest at present.

Reboot to DOS using your Startup disk enter the following commands at the
A:\> prompt.

ATTRIB -R -H -S C:\_RESTORE
REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

remove the floppy, and reboot to normal windows. - your error should be
gone, and you should now have a new, single restore point. Go to Windows
Explorer, and delete the C:\OLDREST folder

HTH

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Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2004, Win9x)

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> OK, I've made some progress. I found that after about 10 minutes of those
> "can't upgrade file %1 from file %2" messages going by, it finally came
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> > he can come up with all the software installation CD's, etc.
> > Can anyone think of an easier way out?

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