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InPlace repair stuck on initializing


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#1
thead

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I have an older Dell GS270 with XP Pro that has been working great since the day I got it, but in the last few days it had gotten slower and slower connecting the network drives after reboot and today it took over an hour to just load the desktop and I never was able to get to network drives. I've run the XP repair and it went really well with recognizing,deleting and replacing files and took about 45 minutes to complete, but once that finished the "Please wait while setup initializes your Windows XP configuration" came up and it seems like its stuck there. It has now been 3 hours and it is still on the same screen, is this normal or is this another problem that I need to address and if there is can you please help. I ran diagnositics before the repair and that said my L1 cache was unable to be located so I was really hoping for a fix with the repair. The last time the machine actually loaded the desktop, the task manager showed explorer.exe using 98 of the 100 cpu. PLEASE HELP I work from home on this pc and I can't afford the price Dell wants to just look at it much less a pc. I'm desparate and really need to work :)
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#2
Ztruker

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Try forcing a power off by pressing and holding the power button till it turns off. Power on, say a little prayer and hope it comes up okay.

If not, do you have your data backed up so you can do a Clean Install next?
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#3
thead

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I did a forced shut down but when it came back up it was the same as before the repair so I tried starting the repair again and then it said the last one had been aborted and did I want to retry so I did and now its stuck at the same place again :)
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#4
thead

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BTW the only things on there that I'm really concerned about at the secure VPNs and platforms that I use to access the companies I work for. At this point I'm down 10 hours from work so I'm willing to try just about anything. If needed I can have their tech dept reload the software since thankfully its all theirs. Is there something I can do on reboot to make it load XP again?

Edited by thead, 22 July 2011 - 08:44 PM.

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#5
Ztruker

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I would say do the Clean Install then and have the VPN software reloaded as soon after that as possible. This will take the least amount of time and get you back running again the soonest.

You will have to install Service Packs (1 or 2 then 3) which can take awhile to download and install then apply all updates. That's the point at which I would have the VPN software installed.

Other than that, I can't think of any way to recover from a failed Repair Install, though perhaps running chkdsk from the Recovery Console would fix some file system problems then the repair would complete successfully? Worth trying first.

You are going to have to get into BIOS Setup on your computer to set the CD/DVD drive as the first bootable device, so you can then boot your XP CD, unless it provides the ability to press a Fn key at boot time to bring up the boot selection menu. If it does, use that.

How you do this varies with each manufacturer. Normally you press F1, F2, F10 or Del when you see the manufacturers logo. Often there is a clue somewhere on the screen when you boot normally telling you what key to press. Some computers (most newer ones) have a key you can press (often F12) to bring up the Boot Menu from where you can select the CD/DVD drive to boot from.

Boot the XP Install CD and at the first opportunity, enter R to start the Recovery Console.

Next, choose which XP installation you want to login to. Normally this will be 1.
Lastly you will be asked for the Administrator password. Just press the Enter key as the Administrator does not have a password (unless you gave it one, then you would enter it).

From the command prompt, enter: chkdsk /r
Allow it to complete undisturbed. It can take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard drive.

Remove the CD, type exit and the computer will reboot. Do the Repair Install again and see if it will complete this time.
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#6
thead

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OMG!! It just now finally released and rebooted!! I have the preparing to install screen now so I'm praying loudly that this fixed my problem. Is there anything I need to do after its done to make sure all my files are good to go? This is a bit beyond my normal pc abilities but I'm pretty good at following directions and you guys totally rock at giving them!!
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#7
thead

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Well I'm not sure what its doing but its sure is doing it slow. The install is apparently done and its now installing devices, but its been about 50% of that for quite awhile. I'm afraid that my PC is still as slow as it was before :) I've run diagnostics and even had dell on the phone and they had me check my harddrive and told me that was fine and that I had a virus. I then contacted Norton and they told me it was my OS. So now I've almost finished the repair but what do I do if its still as slow as before? What else can it be besides OS or harddrive?

I'm just devastated that the repair is going so slowly....I don't know what I will do if I can't work tomorrow :unsure:

Edited by thead, 22 July 2011 - 10:34 PM.

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#8
Ztruker

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There are some things we can look at once you can boot, even if it's slow.

Primarily we want to look at disk space and what programs are starting when you boot the computer.
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