Ok as my copy of SP2 didn't work, and I suddenly realised that the copy of Home Edition I was using was actually for a HP Business Desktop (which I don't own), I decided I needed to fix things. So I bit the bullet and got a copy of XP Professional. Installed that, and then, tried installing SP2 on it. Now, that didn't work. Same problem as last time, just wouldn't boot up. So grinding my teeth (already sore from biting the bullet ), I formatted (again), installed XP (again), and thought for a minute. Service Pack 1 isn't installed on my PC. That could be the problem. Do I need to have SP1 installed before installing SP2? And if so, where can I get SP1 from? Should be on Microsoft, yeah? Thanks.
you don't need to becuase service packs are cumulative which means they include all the fixes that were in the previous service pack into one single package. not sure what could be causing the problem! do you get any error messages? etc
nope. nothing. What's odd is that my "office" PC, which is a 2.8 celeron "emachines" PC, installed it fine, and my brothers pentium 3 5 year old Pc, also installed it fine. This made me think that may be my hard disk was some how screwed up? It plays all the games out there etc, and has masses of stuff on it, but it will not install SP2. I'm gonna get a hard disk with SP2 installed on it, and see if it boots up properly, in which case I found my problem.
I had a similar problem with a machine at work. Try this: 1.Download the network/normal version of SP2, burn it to disk. (keep this disc for later) 2.Delete your partitions / recreate them then format them. 3.Now install Windows XP Pro (it automatically has SP1 on it) 4.DO NOT INSTALL ANYTHING (or as little as possible to make it work e.t.c) 5.Now put your disc in and install the copy of SP2 6.Make sure whilst doing this that you do not have network connectivity / internet connectivity. (this will prevent against anything downloading and causing problems) - Make sure your Activation Key is correct for SP2 ie legit.
Only XP Corporate is upgraded to SP1, and maybe some newer retail versions of XP I would guess, but that's a maybe. In any case, like Sniper said, Service Packs are cumulative, so no worries.
