For those that love an MS Windows challenge...

[slodave]

I have come across this a number of times when Windows 2000/XP becomes corrupt. I am trying to "rebuild" a cousins Win XP OS. They had a nice HDD failure and the corruption took out part of Win XP. I was able to finally able to copy the registry files from their system onto a repaired version of their OS. I can actually run some Office programs - Word, Excel, but Outlook is broken... <- different problem.

The main issue and if I can fix it, I can fix the rest of the OS:

I cannot view web pages at all - via IE or Mozilla FireFox. I can use the browsers to ftp to sites and also access https sites, but normal http (cnn.com, pelicanparts.com, etc.) are found, but do not load. Both wait for a reply, but nothing happens and the browsers timeout.

netstat -n shows a proper connection, but hangs on the reply.

Anyone ever fix this or come across this? Yes, it is easier to format and reinstall, but I really like the challenge and would like to solve this.

Thanks!!!
Dave

P.S. The title should read: For those that love a MS Windows challenge...

[slodave]

OK, turns out that Mcafee was causing the problem. Probably the proxy service it runs. I disabled most of the services at first. Looks like Windows update is working.

.NET framework 1.0 was wiped out when the HDD failed. I copied over the entire directory from my Win XP Pro laptop and seemed to have fixed that problem.

Whew! .NET framework 2.0 just installed correctly from the updates.

Office 2003 is crippled at the moment. Word and Excel work, but Outlook does not. I need to repair the install....

The BSOD that started this (along with the HDD failure) was:
process1_initialization_failed

What a nightmare, but at least this WinXP install is on the road to recovery.

Normally, I would tell the person, that I need to format/reinstall and then dump the data back, but this is family and I like a Microsoft OS challenge .


P.S. It was the Mcafee proxy service that was causing the problem. Disabled, web pages load fine.

[slodave]

It's alive!!! Well, running at about 80%. I was able to resurrect a corrupt Windows OS along with 4 profiles. Fun stuff. Some third party apps need to be reinstalled, but for the most part, the system is fast and stable.

Microsoft would have a cow with how I saved this system. They don't teach this in that MS** classes!

Total cost for my time (so far) = $1500.- Was it worth it??? Not really, but it's family and I am not charging them .

Lesson here: BACKUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Joeaksa]

You are a sick, sick man... course so are we and thats why we all get along!

[slodave]

Update:

Almost fixed. MSOffice 2003 was corrupt as well. I was able to copy certain files from my laptop and replaced missing files in the Windows\system32\Installer folder. That fixed everything in Office except for Outlook. Outlook kept complaining that MAPI32.dll was out of date or corrupt.

I finally found via the event viewer, that two outlook files were missing from Windows\system32 - OUTLPERF.INI and OUTLPERF.H. After I replaced those, Outlook fired right up!

A few misc. things left. Whew!

Dave

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Many of these issues are caused by hardware (hard drive) failures. Get a RAID card and run mirrored drives for secure reliability...

-Wayne

This is true, but most home users won't go to this extreme. I am now over 20 hrs. into this. I could have ghosted their drive and reinstalled on a new HDD. I chose to ghost the corrupt OS and try and rebuild.

I am really surprised that I was able to salvage this. I cannot repair or uninstall(install) Office 2003, but all of the programs are working. The physical HDD damage, took out a lot really important OS specific files.

I am having problems with this update:
Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB936181) fail

I have tried everything, but it won't install.

Dave

P.S. A lot of people realize - after something like this, that they should have had a backup of important files.