I recently installed SP2 on the g/f's computer and it was running slower than ever...so i figured I would go back to SP1 since it was running fine. During the uninstall of SP2 it froze...for maybe 4 hours...so i didn't know anything else to do but shut it down by hitting the power button. I had a bad feeling that I was missing files needed to run windows right...but I did it anyway. Well when I restart it...it takes a very long time to boot up. Then once windows desktop shows up with icons...I have no bottom taskbar or start button. I have tried windows update site but it won't download from it. I have tried uninstalling the rest of SP2 because its still in my add remove list but it does nothing. If i have to reformat again I'm gonna throw it out the window! I love my custom built computer...hardly ever gives me issues...and this computer she has is a Dell and I know for a fact i would never get another one! Any computer guys out there...please shed some light or I'm gonna totally write zeros to this drive and start over!

 

If you have a XP install CD, do a repair install of windows.

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repa...sting%20Setup:

Also, if your cd doesn't have SP2 slipstreamed, you might wanna read up on how to do that. It's not hard at all. Check out a tool called nLite... slipstreams it for you.

 

Yeh I tried the repair function of the xp cd but it says administrator password invalid....I know what the admin password is.

 

No... follow the steps in the link I posted above. You don't need the administrator password. You're not repairing the current XP installation... you're doing a repair install of XP. Two different things, but confusing nonetheless.

 

Another thing. I've never lost any personal data doing a repair install... but there's a first time for everything. Back up your stuff if you can. You can pull the hard drive out and hook it up to another computer if you have the right adapters. Or you can boot to a "Live CD", and copy your data onto a backup drive or burn it to a CD. That's a little more advanced, though.

Easy way to prevent mistakes... if you ever see the word "Format" anywhere, you're going the wrong direction!