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A few days ago i posted about a problem i have with my copy of Win XP Pro SP2 http://www.pchelpforum.com/windows-x...p-problem.html .
I have decided to repair Windows using the repair option on the installation CD (I have checked around everywhere on the CD but the repair option on the inital ''Press 'R' to repair'' seems to be the most appropriate). Since then i have used FIXMBR, but that was unsuccessful in trying to get XP (not Vista) running.
The screen that looks like the one when your originally installing XP appears, and when it says 'approximately 34 minutes left' half way through 'installing devices', nothing else happens at all, it freezes.
So i have decided to try and run Vista to backup my information on the XP installation as it should just appear as a drive. I restarted my computer, but never got the option to try to run Vista in any sort of Windows Boot Manager. I know i should have used Vista to backup earlier but i thought i could solve the problem, but when you do things wrong what can you do!
So i inserted my Vista disc, to try to repair the Vista installation, and It loads up all the bits and pieces it need and just hangs there on an aurora screen with only a cursor and nothing else.
The only other option i could consider now, would be to try to FIXMBR on Vista, and try to fool the system into thinking that this is the primary OS installed. I used the XP disc, went through the options to be able to repair and pressed '2' as the OS i wanted to repair when asked. Then i was asked to type in an administrator password, which i didn't remember setting in the first place. I pressed 'Enter' (as a default) which was wrong, then i went through every password i knew i had used in lowercase, upper cause, using 0's instead of o's and none of them worked (by the way, you get 3 tries, after the third wrong attempt, all you can do is press 'Enter' for it to restart itself, reload everything off of the installation disc even before you can do get to a repair screen it takes 5 minutes each time, and with 20 or so combinations it took ages!!!)

So someone, please help a very frustrated individual!

Hi wayjin...
To be honest I've never had an issue like this before. Only thing I can suggest is completely start from scratch if you haven't already tried that.

Another thing - it could be your memory. perhaps remove some of it to see if it helps with the installation process.