Don't! (This is for AMD users running XP)

Okay, so my system is an AMD dual core system, and I guess I had automatic updates turned on, so during the night, SP3 downloaded and installed its self. In the morning, it was running a bit slow, so I restarted it.

WINDOWS CANNOT LOCATE
<system root>/windows/system32/hal.dll

Now, hal.dll is a dll file which has a record of all your hardware, so it's not a file you can copy and paste back into the folder in DOS.

So, I figure I can boot into the recovery console, and go from there. I put in the XP CD, go into the recovery console, and none of the commands are working. It tells me it can't find the windows directory, can't log in, nothing.

I boot up the XP CD again, and go to the screen where you install windows. It tells me

C: - UNPARTITIONED - 131934MB

Two problems. One, where the fuck did my C partition go, and two, why does it say 131GB. My hard drive is a 250gig.

I booted one of my CD's from work, which has a ton of partitioning tools, recovery programs, all based in dos.

With those programs, they could see the C drive, and all the contents. So my files were fine, but none of the partition programs could really do anything about it.

I brought the HDD over to my friends house. Windows saw it fine, and I copied over all my stuff.

Brought it home, tried to fix it a bit more, then just repartitioned it, formatted it, and installed XP back on.

Now, you might say that maybe I installed something wrong, but that's not the case. Three of my teachers had the exact same problem, and 10 of my friends got fucked over the same way.

So, if you're thinking about installing SP3, either don't do it (Assuming you're under an AMD processor) or wait a bit for a fix to come out.

http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archiv...p-sp3.aspx

http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18231

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/05...mp;tid=201