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xp service pack 2

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I have the xp service pack 2 on cd and I am a little leery of installing for fear of breakdown. I have windows xp home edition; pentiom 3 with 256 mg ram. Do I have enough to be adding this. thank you

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Reply To: xp service pack 2

In reply to xp service pack 2

The 2 big things to check before installing SP2 are:

How much free hard drive space do you have?

Do you have any older applications that are not supported under SP2?

You need a bare minimum of 2 GB of free hard drive space. This allows the SP2 installer to create a restore point, and still have hard drive space left to work with.

For the application software that is important to you, check the manufactures web site for SP2 compatibility, or patches.

Before installing SP2, I recommend that you:

1. remove any software you no longer use.

2. clean up old files from your hard drive.

Chas

Reply To: xp service pack 2

In reply to xp service pack 2

I agree with TheChas (he’s good isn’t he). The only thing I would add is if you have any hardware like scanners or digital cameras check the compatibility list to verify that they will work. I have had users who didn’t have any problems with sp1 and when they went to sp2 they had some hardware that did not work.

If you follow the instructions in answer 1 and you find that some hardware no longer works then you should be able to remove it and go back to your prior setup until such time that you choose to update it.

Cheers.

RW

Reply To: xp service pack 2

In reply to xp service pack 2

This process will give you a 99% chance of installing Service Pack 2 successfully. Most of the problems that have been reported seem to reflect on the computer having problems prior to the install of the Service Pack.

1.Turn OFF System Restore. Right Click on My Computer and get Properties. Click on the System Restore Tab and check the box to turn it off.

2.Update your antivirus and do a full system scan.

3.Open a command window. (Start/Run Type cmd and press enter). Once the dos window opens type sfc /scannow and press return. This will scan all protected system files and replace those that are damaged or not correct.

4.Download, Update and run Ad-Aware. http://tinyurl.com/tek5

5.Download, Update and run Spybot. http://tinyurl.com/ziar

6.Download, and Run Stinger. http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger

7.Download and Run CWShredder. http://tinyurl.com/2bzef

8.Install all updates from Microsoft that are available Except Service Pack 2.

9.Download HijackThis. http://mjc.com/mirror/hjt/ This program will scan your computer and provide you with a list of the programs and dll?s that load on startup. Go over this list and anything that is not easy to identify do a google search for the executable or dll. You can remove a questionable line entry by checking the box and clicking on fix.

10.Run the system defragmenter. Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter.

11.Turn on System Restore. See #1.

12.Create a Restore Point. Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore

13.Disable your AntiVirus

14.Install Service Pack 2

15.Reinable your Antivirus

By doing the above you will at least have a decent chance of success.

[Author]

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