Calling all computer wizards

My good buddy called me today for some computer assistance. Usually I can answer the call, but this one is out of my league.

He attempted to download and install Service Pack 2, when it was "done" it gave him an error message that it didn't install properly, so he should do it again. System locks, so he tries to reboot, and it won't boot. He decided to use the system restore disk and cut his loses, but he gets a message saying the computer can't locate his hard drive.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

kill bill ...

Was he running a hacked version of windows? I heard that if you download upgrades for the hacked versions then what you described ensues.

hmm didn't happen to me.

have the person check the BIOS to see if a hard drive is even physically seen.

what errors does this person get when they try to boot up? if it says something like "no bootable device found" maybe the master boot record got screwed up on the hard drive.

Maybe this will help:

Your computer stops responding when you restart to complete the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2

I just finished installing SP2 on my Dell XPS w/WinXP Pro; no issues. Try searching the WinXP SP2 Support Center for any additional help.

No hacked XP here. Factory loaded on a Sony Viao P4, so it can't be the BIOS issue suggested in the article you offered Rouser.

I installed on my system at home with no issues too. That's the irony here. My bud has the exact same system I do, which he bought on my recommendation.

I guess I will need to make a house call and check his BIOS settings. Seems like a good bet that's where the pooch got screwed. I just can't imaging how SP2 could have affected the BIOS settings?

Thanks for the ideas guys. Gives me a place to start anyway.

Still open to any suggestions.

won't affect his BIOS settings, but the BIOS will tell you if your hard drive is not seen (dead). just happened to my laptop at work. sometimes they just go.

So far SP2 has been trouble for me. Blue Screen of Death crashes occurred on my laptop as well as one of my developer's big desktops, at login time when we used our own normal ID's. We could login as Administrator just fine. The only cure was to delete our Windows profiles and let XP recreate them (these are domain member machines.)

Then on my home machine SP2 refused to load. It churned for quite some time and then gave an "access denied" message and rolled itself back. At least that worked correctly!

These are all pretty current hardware running legal XP SP1 configs, up to date drivers, etc.

I will wait until the kinks get worked out before updating any other machines.

Some go smoother than others. Not seeing the drive is, as you know, "bad." ...follow Rousers links and see if there's help there too

My saga may/may not give some ideas:
(1) downloaded/installed sp2 - restart-
(2) restarted okay until the friggin' new "security panel" popped up... then stopped responding. hit the reset button.
(3) same as (2), only I can open a command prompt window...use old dos commands to get to spuninst.exe and attem to run... nothing happens and drops back to command prompt.
(4-7) hard restarts to no respnse and further attempts at uninstall...really getting pissed off.
(8) mad as hell, but wait...it restarts...and magically gets past the "security panel" wtf? loads zonealarm...could it be....loads norton av...and --wonder of wonders--now runs fine.

bast*rds. that took 2.5 friggin hours of my time. They're just lucky that the local gun store is closed

guys, you all sound like you've never seen a microsoft OS before ...

here's some wisdom (and i can back it up if you like to hear the whole story!):

Never ever install a servicepack from MS until release #3 !!!

SP3 for XP that would be ...

why? because we know their internal development cycle!
what you get in SP2 is the fixes/addons that came out of evaluating the feedback of the "beta-testers"...
SP3 will be the first one to include fixes from feedback from actual customers and the real first product release!!!
always. i know because i have been to a (very enlightening) internal MS meeting with the head of development.

i might still have my handwritten scribbles somewhere, i could scan them, just for the giggles ...
Andy