Crash and Burn

After successfully updating several Windows XP machines to Service Pack 3 (sp3), I decided to take the plunge and update my laptop as well.

This decision was a mistake of epic proportions.

I won’t bore you with all the details, mainly because I don’t want to be typing this post for the next hour.

In a nutshell, the install failed with a common error and uninstalled. I applied the standard technique that Microsoft recommends to correct the problem and ran the install again. It failed again. This time though, when it uninstalled it went medieval on my poor Dell laptop and savaged it. It was so bad, Window’s Device Manager saw absolutely nothing.

Attempting to fix Windows only brought on a hellish spiral into the abyss. The update crahed at the same point and wouldn’t let me do much else. Trying to use an external USB drive to save my data, or to install XP onto as a boot drive brought more painful tribulations – driver failures, Partition Magic refusing to start, and more until I actually formatted the drive on my Mac. WD’s Digital Lifeguard software spent an entire night copying mysterious files. My Dell desktop machine balked at using the external drive again and again, probably because the USB on that has always been flaky even at its best.

I went through two XP reinstall CDs and rebooted my laptop what seemed like fifty times. Cables were strung around, CDs stacked up, and alcohol consumed. A painful week passed. I said bad words, and often, to the point where any Microsoft employees within a mile of my house surely must have burst into flames. I only wish I could have seen it happen, and laughed. This is surely how supervillains are born.

Eventually, I saved my data. I don’t have much on the laptop that isn’t irreplaceable anyway, so that helped. Mostly I wanted to avoid a zillion reinstalls and having to configure everything to my preferences all over again. In the end, it was not to be.

At least the laptop is working fine again. In a fit of supreme and antagonistic hubris, I even installed sp3 and it worked just fine this time. Now I just have the installs to deal with…

Mind you, that stack of 28 are just the ones I have on disk. The downloads are another lengthy effort on top of that.

Sigh.