MrsD., when a machine is as far fried as mine was, I look at it as: I have nothing to lose and, possibly, everything to gain by digging in.

VISTA, I will admit, has been the biggest headache in fixing. I had to go back and re-install the platform again (3 times total). Unless VISTA has its software bundled with SP1, and SP1 is one of the first updates installed, it will totally mess up the authentication of VISTA.

Anyone with VISTA who discovers that it has to be reinstalled: Get SP1 (from MS downloads) before doing additional MS updates.


Curious, I picked up a horrible cold - and it's probably related to a lack of sleep, stress, etc., from this. As soon as I am feeling better (and I do plan on resting this weekend), I'll definitely get the mail out to you - along with the how-to info. . PM is yours when its on its way.

I have been doing the install/reinstall go round of XP home since last week - tried to clean up extra partition and been messed up since - trying to get it to work right - and save all my files...

finally bought a disk doctor program so i could recover all my stuff and then copied everything to my spare hard drive.

then totally formatted main drive and did a clean install

so now it's working but I turned off updates part of my problem started when i backed up and cleaned up to do the XP SP3 update/upgrade

Read about it online before doing it - seems it has issues with AMD, ASUS and Dlink - I have all of those

So not getting SP3 again until after the bugs are fixed.

I am planning to pick up another HD to copy this whole HD & set up as a spare back up HD.
I had some stuff saved on a DVD & flash drive but couldn't use it to make any repairs to the main system.

Bobbi what is the program you used?

Jo, wouldn't it be nice (or at least the decent thing) if manufacturers clearly stated the means to problem avoidance when the platform must be (re)installed?

In encountering compabable probs. with VISTA, I read so many help forums (for the O/S), and most had ideas that weren't even accurate. I finally stumbled into the solution: installing SP1 before all else. That tidbit could have saved me several days of frustration, that's for sure.

Some good can come from this... and that is: Maybe what we've learned might help others and spare them the frustrations.


The program that worked as beautifully as can be on my fried drive (and RAM): Spotmau PowerSuite Professional 2008: http://www.spotmau.com/

It's reasonably priced and it's worth more than it's price in gold, in light that it truly did do as it claims.

My prob. was when the drive (etc.) fried I was totally caught off guard - no symptoms or anything and no recovery software on-hand for VISTA. I took a risk, I know, in getting SpotMau, yet it sure performed . (If I'm not mistaken, the program also offers a money-back guarantee; I think it extends 30 days.)

I created the emergency boot disc - using SpotMau's instructions - and also ordered the snail mail CD (hard lesson learned long ago, as well).

To use Spotmau - or similar - just be sure to have external media for saving recovered data.

What are SP1 and SP3?

Today since we have not been online with this desktop, I had a huge---very long update that took me down for over 1/2 hr.

I have auto updates enabled on here, but when we go away for long periods, this unit is OFF..unplugged.

Each time we booted up the laptop up North, I had updates loading. Sometimes I had to interrupt my work. I was only at the laundromat for about an hour to 1.5 hrs, to charge. But even then I had updates on that unit.

I just had my son at Xmas put in a new hard-drive and tranfer this old one to it. It seemed to go very quickly, whatever he did. (duh)...

So please explain these abbreviations to those of us who are less computer savvy. I'd really appreciate it.

I should say...this is XP. Not Vista.

SP1 & SP3 are: Service Pack 1 and, likewise, Service Pack 3.

For XP, the SPs run from SP1 through SP3. I would do as Jo is doing and hold off on updating #3. Opt out of automatic timing set for installation of that Pack as long as it's buggy.

The Service Packs contain program and system patches and/or fixes.

To find the Update settings:

Start Menu
Control Panel
Windows Update

On Vista, I've only encountered the need for SP1; SP2 is related to Office products, that I noticed. And, I've not come across a SP3 for VISTA - yet.

I went to the place you recommended, but could not find if I had already been updated.

What makes SP3 buggy?

I cannot find if I had this update today. It was a biggie
and I don't recall it having an ID. It was major, and if it were SP3 do you know what will happen here?

Sorry to be so dense. I guess I will call my son... he will just LOVE it! NOT.

Within Windows Update, there should be an option to "View update history," which will display everything that's been downloaded and installed via automatic/manual updates.

Jo will probably come along and relay what she knows of the buggy-factor.

I've not run into SP3, yet, on my Desktop w/XP or old laptop... because I've not booted them in a while.