(no subject)
I just tried to install SP2 for XP on the Windows box I use at home. Halfway through the process, I get an error message whining about a missing file. I verify that the original cab contains a compressed version of said file. I look in the directory where the installer unpacked itself; same file there too. I try to uncompress it with extract.exe, and it complains that the file is corrupted. I manually unpack the cab elsewhere, and recursively diff it against the files which are already halfway installed. Several files differ. This is a very bad sign; it probably means that the disk is failing. At least it's not the boot disk, and only contains some expendable junk; the service pack installer probably chose to use it as a temporary area because it had the most free space.
I go back to the installer and try to cancel. It makes some show of doing various things to back out the changes it has made, and then abruptly stops, says that the "uninstall" failed, and that Windows XP may not work now. Great. I dismiss that message, and before I can decide what to do next, it reboots without asking me!
Now I can't boot. Safe mode doesn't help. I figure I will try to repair with an XP install CD... this requires a floppy drive and matching cable, because my boot drive is SATA, and needs a special driver which I can only load from floppy. (I'm hardly in a position to experiment with making slipstreamed install CDs at this point.) First I have to clean off the top of my computer so I can open it; this includes removing a smaller Linux box stacked on top. The power cable doesn't reach to anywhere else I can put the box down, so I need to halt it cleanly; this becomes a small adventure in itself, because the X server has long since crashed, leaving the console unusable, and I end up using Christina's laptop to ssh in.
Finally the XP installer can see the right drive, but refuses to give me any useful repair options. I poke around a little with Knoppix, and find a batch file created by the service pack installer, which looks like it will undo most of the damage. (It's 425k of DEL and COPY commands on system files and backups.) After disconnecting some hardware so that the drive letters in it are correct, I run it from the recovery console. This gets XP booting again.
I try the service pack again from the boot drive, just because I'm feeling suicidal. It doesn't have any more trouble with data errors in the source files, of course, but it still doesn't run to completion. Sigh.
And now, I notice... at some point the install CD ran a chkdsk on my media disk (a third physical drive, distinct from both mentioned so far, and never involved in the problem at all). I now have exactly 10,000 fragments in \FOUND.000. Many of my directories are now flagged as files instead. Wonderful!
Everything really important is backed up regularly to several disks, one of which is attached to a different host. Still, I had forgotten how easily Windows can amplify a minor hardware failure into hours of frustration and a catastrophic loss of data. I don't really have time for games lately, and soon I won't need Windows for work. I think it's time to revisit Unix on the desktop; maybe something has improved in the five years since I last tried it.
I go back to the installer and try to cancel. It makes some show of doing various things to back out the changes it has made, and then abruptly stops, says that the "uninstall" failed, and that Windows XP may not work now. Great. I dismiss that message, and before I can decide what to do next, it reboots without asking me!
Now I can't boot. Safe mode doesn't help. I figure I will try to repair with an XP install CD... this requires a floppy drive and matching cable, because my boot drive is SATA, and needs a special driver which I can only load from floppy. (I'm hardly in a position to experiment with making slipstreamed install CDs at this point.) First I have to clean off the top of my computer so I can open it; this includes removing a smaller Linux box stacked on top. The power cable doesn't reach to anywhere else I can put the box down, so I need to halt it cleanly; this becomes a small adventure in itself, because the X server has long since crashed, leaving the console unusable, and I end up using Christina's laptop to ssh in.
Finally the XP installer can see the right drive, but refuses to give me any useful repair options. I poke around a little with Knoppix, and find a batch file created by the service pack installer, which looks like it will undo most of the damage. (It's 425k of DEL and COPY commands on system files and backups.) After disconnecting some hardware so that the drive letters in it are correct, I run it from the recovery console. This gets XP booting again.
I try the service pack again from the boot drive, just because I'm feeling suicidal. It doesn't have any more trouble with data errors in the source files, of course, but it still doesn't run to completion. Sigh.
And now, I notice... at some point the install CD ran a chkdsk on my media disk (a third physical drive, distinct from both mentioned so far, and never involved in the problem at all). I now have exactly 10,000 fragments in \FOUND.000. Many of my directories are now flagged as files instead. Wonderful!
Everything really important is backed up regularly to several disks, one of which is attached to a different host. Still, I had forgotten how easily Windows can amplify a minor hardware failure into hours of frustration and a catastrophic loss of data. I don't really have time for games lately, and soon I won't need Windows for work. I think it's time to revisit Unix on the desktop; maybe something has improved in the five years since I last tried it.