Hey there dudes, im a newbie around here and i kinda need help. This is a big problem i cant fix and i dont want to end up having to pay money for it to be fixed. Im currently running a windows xp pro sp1 computer and recently i wanted to update to sp2, anyways heres what happened:

I wanted to update to sp2, so i downloaded and installed it from the windows update thing. After the installation it needed a reboot, when it finished rebooting the computer would not load normal windows properly and i so i went into safe mode and uninstalled it. After the reboot everything went fine, so i thought i give it another shot of installing sp2 while also installing itunes 7 on the pc, but my friend told me that i didnt really need sp2. So after itunes had been installed, sp2 was still installing so i opened up CAD and ended the process.

Today i turned on the pc again but windows didnt run normally, so i went back to safe mode and uninstalled it. After the reboot it gets to the windows loading screen (the black one with the little bar at the bottom) but it stays there for a very long time, so i rebooted the pc and pressed f8 to go back into safe mode, but this time i couldnt; it tells me to "press esc to cancel loading sptd.sys" and so i did, afterwards the pc gets to the black windows loading screen, then it reboots itself again and it takes me to the selection screen ("we are sorry for your inconvenience..."). I tried the safe mode thing again but this time ignoring the "press ecs..." part, but the pc gets stuck there. I have tried the "Last good config" selection but it gets stuck on the windows loading screen. "Start windows normally" doesnt work either. I tried to boot it from my windows xp cd but it is no use as the pc cannot even get to the welcome screen for it to work.

I need major help, plz reply asap! I cannot live like this!

Holy crap!!! Thats all I have to say.


First never cancel an installation during the middle of a load, especially a software upgrade that deals with the OS.

Your friend should have told you that you do not need Itunes 7, not the opposite.

You need to try to run recovery console and see if that saves you, if not you more then likely need to reload your HDD.

SP2 implements security features, its a recommended upgrade and a necessary one to run certain programs and games.

Yeah, that happened to me when I tried to do my brother a favour. During the installation of SP2, power cut out so there was no way I could do anything but reformatted everything on the boot drive . :/ which sucked.

You need to boot from your WinXP CDROM and perform a repair install.

i cant boot form the cd cuz i dunno why, i needed itunes for the new ipod nano i bought..had some songs to put onto the ipod. How do i reformat my harddrive?

put your windows cd in, run install (do a complete install) (clean install). that formats the hard drive and all.

First i need to boot the xp cd from my hard drive, but right now the drive doesnt read the cd at all, any suggestions?

start the pc with 98 boot disk and cd-rom support option
or as mict said, change the boot sequence. if not, navigate to cd. and go to
i386 directory. type winnt.exe. this will start xp install.
when you're in dos use this commands:
cd i386 this will take you to i38 directory
winnt.exe this will start xp install process

hmm i dunno if the pc is set to boot the cd first, how do i check?

It should be in your CMOS settings.

ok i manage to set the harddrive to boot the disk first, but the thing is when it boots it gets to the screen where i should press a button in order for it to continue, after the pc restarts again. Any suggestions?

So i take it you've gone into BIOS when you boot up (by pressing DEL or F2 or something etc) then to Boot order or Boot selection and set the CD/DVD drive on the top of the list and make sure its got a "tick" on it to say its enabled?

When it does come up with "Press any key to boot the CD..." just press something.. sometimes its very quick so you just gotta hit something fast.

i guess you've probably figured this part out already.

Otherwise, if its still not loading, look at the actual CD first and see if its dirty or scratched etc. If it is, try and clean it up a bit. You can also try using another Windows XP CD or a Linux Live CD like Knoppix or Ubuntu Live and see if it boots off that.

see how you go.