system meltdown...

[doof]

I need help getting my desktop working again. If you guys can't help me, please, can somebody just advise me where to start looking for help?

I have a Windows XP SP2 system on a homebuilt desktop that has workeed wondefully for the last two years. Technical info about motherboard is sketchy right now, but I can go fishing for that as necessity dictates. 1 gig ram, AMD Athlon64 3200, two CD/DVD's, 60 gig or so hard drive (WD I think), ATI video card (9700 I think?).

The nature of the problem: I can't start my computer without getting into a perpetual loop of trying to re-install Windows Pro XP.

The genesis of the problem:

I got my brother a laptop on Monday with a WIFI router. I set up the router and plugged my computer into it by USB. It had been plugged directly into the cable modem before that. The router is still doing fine, as are the laptop, or I wouldn't be writing this. I enabled home networking on my desktop and turned off the firewal, Zonalarm Free, so that I could access shared files from the new laptop. That worked fine.

However, I upgraded Zonelarm. THAT messed me up. After installing the newest version of Zonealarm Free (downloaded from Zonelabs), the installer required a reboot. The system never came back from the reboot. In fact everytime I tried to restart, it would just go into a perpeatual loop, sitting on the windows XP pro start screen with the three moving blue dots circling around. I went to Safe Mode to remove Zonealarm, but that did no good. Googling on the Internet revealed that other people were having problems with the latest Zonealarm upgrade and it was necessary to reinstall zonealarm then remove it again. That, however, was impossible, because I could not reboot in normal mode!

So I put in the XP SP2 cd and tried to do a reinstall (not a clean one, just the upgrade). That got stuck in a loop at some point, with "34" minutes left to install, but nothing happening, no activity. Whenever I reboot now, in any mode, it just demands that I put the SP2 CD back in the system so it can "finish" installing, but, again, that leads nowhere.

So it looks like the only remaining solution is to do a clean install. BUT I have stuff on my main C drive that I can't afford to lose.

However, I can't get into the disk anymore -- it just wants to finish installing, and it never finishes, so there is no way to get to safe mode to inspect the files.

Any advice would be appreciated. I may be wrong, but I'm convinced this is a software screw-up, not a hardware screw up, since the only new hardware involved was the usb wifi router, and that is disconnectd.

[Cricket]

What are the complete exact system specs for this computer? List the parts by brand and model including the OS and power supply.

Have you tried zero-filling the hard drive before you try to re-install Windows? Might help. Use this.

Cricket

[doof]

Heh... I have all the brandname info in a text file on my desktop. Actually, I could get it, but it's probably irrelevant at this point.

I think the blame falls on Zonealam, which probably sounds ridiculous at first, so many of us having used it for so long, so flawlessly, but there are other people out there trying to figure out how to do a clean uninstall of the new Zonealarm. Apparently (and this is just my theory, so caveat emptor), it messed up the registry or munched some DLL used during full boot-up.

I managed to make some progress last night through the help of a link I found in another post on here. There is a cool utility called the Ultimate Bootable CD for Windows which lets you get into a Windows system and move things around. I was able to move my most important files from C: to an extended partition where I hope they will be safe during a CLEAN install of WinXP.

Ah, but here is my new question of the day, and I really have to find this out first. Is there a way to do a Clean Install without wiping out data on the extended partitions?

I'm pretty sure there is, but I have to know this for certain before I can go for it. One of the first questions Clean Install asks is how to partition. I had to bail out because I didn't see a "skip this" choice.

Does anybody know this?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by doof Heh... I have all the brandname info in a text file on my desktop. Actually, I could get it, but it's probably irrelevant at this point.

I wouldn't ask for the system specs if I didn't think it was important to know them. Sometimes knowing the specs will help get to the source of the problem.

Originally Posted by doof I think the blame falls on Zonealam, which probably sounds ridiculous at first, so many of us having used it for so long, so flawlessly, but there are other people out there trying to figure out how to do a clean uninstall of the new Zonealarm. Apparently (and this is just my theory, so caveat emptor), it messed up the registry or munched some DLL used during full boot-up.

I stopped using Zone Alarm years ago, right after an earlier version had the same problem of not letting the computer get on-line. Doing a complete uninstall following detailed instructions on the Zone Labs web site was the only way to get rid of Zone Alarm at that time.

Originally Posted by doof I managed to make some progress last night through the help of a link I found in another post on here. There is a cool utility called the Ultimate Bootable CD for Windows which lets you get into a Windows system and move things around. I was able to move my most important files from C: to an extended partition where I hope they will be safe during a CLEAN install of WinXP. Ah, but here is my new question of the day, and I really have to find this out first. Is there a way to do a Clean Install without wiping out data on the extended partitions?

If your data is in a logical drive on the extended partition it'll be safe. The clean install will only affect the C: drive/primary partition.

Originally Posted by doof I'm pretty sure there is, but I have to know this for certain before I can go for it. One of the first questions Clean Install asks is how to partition. I had to bail out because I didn't see a "skip this" choice. Does anybody know this?

During the installation process the installer will ask if you want to install Windows to an existing partition...that's the option you want. Just point the installer to the C: partition.

Cricket

[doof]

Ah.... Now if I can just figure out how to turn my C: partition back into a C: partition!

I did the clean install, and the system reboots just fine! I lost a lot of good stuff, but I'm trying to be cheerful about it.

HOWEVER... My C: drive is now a D: drive. I have a legacy IDE drive on my system with Win98 and some other old junk on it. I never use it, and I could take it out if I wanted to really start opening things up. But it is strange, however, that the drive lettering got mixed up and the legacy drive is now C: and my main drive is D:

I am trying another clean install as we speak, in hopes that I will get some partitioning option to choose the boot device. So far, that hasn't happened.

Any suggestions on how to do this short of getting out the screwdriver? I would rather not even have my system check the legacy disk for a boot.ini -- just go straight to my modern disk (id 0 on bus 0, It's a master, just on a different bus system).

[Cricket]

Disconnect the IDE hard drive before you reinstall Windows again.

Cricket

[KCD]

Hi doof,

Per Cricket's request use the following link which will give you all the info about your computer, including the motherboard, without your having to go physically inside, exception being the brand & model of the psu.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

now click on

>download Belarc Advisor<

Once the motherboard is identified then go to the mfgr's website for more info.

Dave