Repair Install

Edster said:

Brink said:

Hello Edster,

Thank you. What did it do to you with iTunes still installed?

Hey Brink, basically it just gave an error about iTunes, suggesting to deactivate iTunes account or to uninstall, and it would terminate the repair install.

I did receive more information about this:

Upgrading Windows will affect the following devices and/or programs:

These programs might not work properly after the upgrade. We recommend uninstalling these programs before upgrading. Cancel the upgrade, open Control Panel, and search for "uninstall a program". (Note: Programs marked as * can be safely reinstalled after the upgrade.)
iTunes (Please deauthorize computer prior to upgrade)

Did you have the latest version of itunes. A new version just came out within the past week. I just updated itunes to this version, hopefully it has the fix.

Brink said:

SFwriter,

Do you have the screen at step 5 to select the Go online to get the latest updates for installation option?

Absolutely. It all functions as explained in the guide. Each step completes until it gets to this screen (first attached image) and it stalls a 0% for many seconds then presents the next screen that (second image) sends me back to square one.

So I get the latest updates (there are none, even on a second enquiry) and try it again, and the cycle repeats... with the odd exception of this third screen (3rd attached image).

But the truth is, nothing ever gets changed. It just cycles endlessly.

Oh, and the ONLY resource file I've hacked is imageres.dll so I could change the intro sound when logging in, which I assume should have no effect on the upgrade.

SFwriter said:

This is the answer I was afraid of getting... Losing all my settings and installs. I actually did do the sfc /scannow in an elevated command box and it "repaired" my imageres.dll file before I did this, and it had no effect. I'll do it again just to be sure, but as the Great Psychiatrist once said "Insanity is defined by repeating the same actions over and over again whilst expecting a different result".

So, does any of this help, or do I have to do the complete re-install?

If I remember correctly, scf/ scannow will place a brand new copy of a "corrupted" file in the proper folder, but it doesn't remove the original "corrupted" one... for instance, if you modified your system to run custom start orbs, you'll still have the original imageres.dll.old, plus the one you changed to run custom start orbs imageres.dll.old(2), plus a brand new imageres.dll file from the sfc/ scannow. You may be able to avoid running the complete new install by manually removing the old copies of any files that scf/ scannow replaced. Sometimes the multiple copies of a modified file seem to "confuse" Windows.

(Jeez... that was confusing... I hope you can figure out what I am saying..)

Since coming to the awareness that SFC says it's replacing files every time I run it, that makes me think that not much is really changing... I guess I'm going to have to do the re-install. At least I'll be able to install hardware and software again. (I hope). I'll let you know what happened.

Had to do a complete reinstall, but at least it works now. I can install programmes and hardware once again. And the new web-camera that started it all? I plugged it in and it worked without software, as advertised.