Can you use sp2 boot files on sp1

I am going to be working on a dell desktop tonight that is seven years old. The issue is in my below post, "Windows Not Booting Normally". I want to be sure that the boot files that I copied from my version of XP SP2 onto a floppy disk will work if I nneded on the seven year old computer. Please let me know. I also wanted to confirm, if I get to the point where I need to install the three boot files, all I have to do is insert the floppy and boot the PC. If there was an issue with the boot files the system should boot, then I can use XCOPY to copy them to the C: drive.

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Comments

blargoe

I think it won't work because the system file checker would catch it. It's been a long time since I've tried anything like this.

blargoe

You might be able to upgrade it to SP2 which would replace all of your system files with SP2 versions

sthomas

I would boot from a Windows XP CD and copy the files from the CD to the hard drive via the Recovery Console. I don't think it matters if the CD has SP1 or SP2 since it is only the boot files you are trying to copy but I could be wrong since most of the computers I have dealt with latley are Windows XP SP2.

Unless you are getting the "Windows did not boot correctly" screen and you are asked to boot into safe mode or last known good configuration, and when you select boot Windows normally the computer keeps restarting itself. If this is happening and you can't boot into safe mode you may have to do a repair on Windows XP. Boot to the Windows XP CD and select Repair a previous copy of a Windows installation. If this option does not come up but you know Windows XP is already installed there may be something wrong with the drive and you may want to run CHKDSK from the recovery console and then try doing the repair again. This is all assuming the PC already has Windows XP installed. I have ran into this issue a couple of times in the last day or two. I am not sure if this is related to the problem you have to work on or not but it sounds similar.

telecomops101

Here is the problem I am having:

I have a Dell computer running windowns XP (a version from 2002). The problem is that it lost it's power on August 8th when we had a bad rain storm. I turned it back on again and the screen has various instructions that I need to go to highlight. When I highlight (using up and down arrow keys) "Start windows normally", it says it will start in 20 seconds, after 20 seconds winds down it doesn't start. I tried safe mode and it doesn't work. When I move my mouse I don't see the cursor and my printer also is not working.

blargoe

If you haven't successfully logged on since the storm, you can select "Last Known Good Configuration" from that menu you spoke of instead of Start Windows Normally. This will use all of the same registry settings that worked at the last time a successful logon was processed.

When you say safe mode didn't work, what didn't work exactly? How far did it get?

sthomas

telecomops101 wrote:

Here is the problem I am having:

I have a Dell computer running windowns XP (a version from 2002). The problem is that it lost it's power on August 8th when we had a bad rain storm. I turned it back on again and the screen has various instructions that I need to go to highlight. When I highlight (using up and down arrow keys) "Start windows normally", it says it will start in 20 seconds, after 20 seconds winds down it doesn't start. I tried safe mode and it doesn't work. When I move my mouse I don't see the cursor and my printer also is not working.

That is exactly what I was talking about, I had this happen a few times. In my experience usually the way to fix this is to do a repair on Windows XP with the CD. You should not lose any files by doing this, at least I never have yet. The repair will usually fix the problem unless there is some bad hardware like hard drive or RAM.

telecomops101

First, I just wanted to say Thanks for all your responses to my question.

The issue with th Dell PC was a corrupted System32 file. I forgot which one it was, but nether the less that was the issue.

When I first looked at the PC, I went into the BIOS to verfy the boot sequence was correct and then reset the BIOS to it's default settings. I then verified I was unable to boot Normally and also in Safe Mode and Safe Mode with DOS prompt. Each time I went to boot into one of these modes the system would just try to boot, but end up back to the Black Windows Advanced screen. I noticed after about 20 seconds the PC prompted me with the error of "Unable To Boot Because Of SYSTEM32 / / file is missing or corrupt. I then proceded to the Recovery Console where I ran a CHKDSK /P /R. This took forever, but it found and repaired some errors on the hard drive. After rebooting the OS came back up. I procceded to run Adaware, CCleaner, AV program and did a Derfag on the hard drive. I figured since the system was almost 6 years old and she never did any preventative maintenance that this was give the PC a tune up after all it's been through.

Is there a way that i can get a hold of each version of an OS that I can use if the customer dosen't have a recovery CD? With SP1 and SP2 versions of XP, how can I be sure I have all bases covered? I made some bootable floppys, but how can I be sure I have one for SP1 and SP2. Beleive it or not there are some PC's out there with SP1 still running.

Thanks again.