Windows XP SP3 Installation fiasco

So, here I was again, creating a new vm for Windows XP. I have a Windows XP SP3 iso from work I use. This is my work computer and we have a volume license. Anyway, legal all the way.

So I insert the cd, it installs fine and the first thing I do is start Windows Update. It needs to install 85 updates totaling 107 Mb and claims it will take 51 minutes with my connection ... it took about 15 minutes including installation ... although only 82 were installed, the other three were skipped (I guess they needed a reboot).

Anyway, on the reboot, it keeps restarting as soon as it gets to the blue background. Not the BSOD background, the somewhat lighter background before the Welcome page loads.

Safe mode works without an issue, so I somehow suspect graphics driver issues, remember this is a vm - and I enabled 3d. So I try VGA mode, and there I briefly see a bsod. So I disable the automatic restart on error, and the fucker does not allow me to switch to another mode, like VGA.

So, instead of seeing the blue background I see a higher resolution black background with an hour glass. Go figure ... anyway, go back to the startup options and select "Last Known Good", which I did not feel too comfortable with, since I just installed a whack of updates and this is still the first restart after that massive install .... but I get to the desktop, youpie!!!

But the fun is not over, it wants to send an error report, which is fine by me ... and the error report is corrupt!!!!

So, I know it wants to install the other three updates and I shutdown Windows (Start -> Shutdown)... and it installs the updates. After that I get back into the same loop ... I select Last Known Good and it works ... bloody hell, how do people put up with this I do not know ... And this Last Known Good does not sound right to me ... updates have certainly changed the services and drivers ... ohh my ... I am unsure what to do now. I probably should not have installed the vm tools before the updates? Go figure.

I guess I am condemned to select Last Known Good after every software update .... fsck!

Before you ask, I need Windows XP for work ... sometimes ... and my 5 year old vm was getting issues with disk space, so I decided to install a new one from scratch.

I like the irony of "Last Known Good" ... that should uninstall Windows ....


I go back to windows update, and it wants t install another 7 updates, which I install ... after that, I get back into the looping booting fiasco ... Last Known Good ....

"The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed" Installing Windows XP SP2

I was reinstalling Windows XP on a laptop, and the nightmare began ....

The first message I got was that Windows could not find any hard drive. The computer has a SATA drive, so I disabled NATIVE SATA CONTROL in the bios, restarted and it worked.

Next, after the reboot, I got the apparently famous:

"The file 'Asms' on Windows XP Professional CD-ROM is needed" error message when you install Windows XP

Basically, in the first steps of the installation, when windows setup copies the files, it does not do it recursively (before the first reboot). Bug #1. I understand that since nobody has changed this part of the windows installation in ages, I mean it's the same primitive shit you had in NT3.5. I doubt anybody at microsoft would have the balls to change this.

On microsoft.com and many other places on the web, smart guyz tell you to edit the registry ... scary for many, not for me, however, regedit.exe was not there, regedt32.exe was, but never came up. Expanding either from the cdrom drive did not work either (expanding did, but neither came up, I got a weird error for regedit.exe)... Besides, why? yes WHY??!? would you want to stop setup from accessing files it would normally need for the installation? If they are really "optional" why does setup abort with this error in the first place??? Bug #2.

I looked at the other options ...

Why the cdrom was not available to "setup" but to cmd.exe I do not know, looks like bug #3 to me ;-).

To get to the command prompt anywhere in setup after the reboot is easy, Shift + F10.

So, the easiest solution is to do the following on the command line:
xcopy /s :\i386 :\i386

Regarding microsoft.com knowledge base, the instructions are really weird:
check em out here.

1. Regedit was not there for me, see above, and did not want to run. It did for others, really weird, I am using a standard SP2 disc.
2. xcopy IS there, and works on NTFS formatted drives as well!!!!! So FAT / NTFS distinction is useless!!!
So, the correct answer would have been, for all:
2.1 xcopy /s :\i386 :\i386
/e ??? ... why copy empty folders?
3. Have they ever thought that, maybe, "Method 2" will give exactly the same error? Those guys are brilliant, no really!