installed WMP 11...then tried uninstalling...now windows will not start

[zworkman]

Hey there,
this is kind of a long story but i wanted to make sure i got all of the facts in there even if im not sure they are relevant

so i am running windows xp pro sp2. recently i was prompted to install windows media player 11 and tried to. when the install wizard came up, it told me i needed to install the windows genuine advantage tool before continuing. I am running a corporate edition and have been afraid to install the genuine advantage tool so I said 'no' figuring i would just stick with wmp 10. thinking i had cancelled the installation of wmp 11, I stopped worrying about it. the next time i opened a movie file (.avi) i was confronted with a message along the lines of "windows media player 11 cannot open the file until you install and run the windows geniune advantage tool." when this happened i was confused because i thought i had cancelled my wmp 11 installation. so again rather that install the win gen adv tool, i decided i would instead 'roll-back' wmp11 to wmp10 by going to control panel and removing it from my programs. once in the control panel, i went to the 'windows update' section and found the update i had installed that day. i uninstalled/removed it and a message came up saying uninstall/removal successful with an ok button to press. when i pressed the ok button however, the three or four applications i was running closed their windows and shutdown. when i restarted th e system, i got to the screen where i am given the options of starting windows in safe mode, last good config, or normal.......at this point i have tried all of these and none of them produce success. when i choose one a list of files streams up the screen and then the computer appears to restart and ends up back at the same screen. at this point i do not have the xp corporate disk. i have all of my files backed up to an external hd except for a couple of important documents i was working on when this happened. my goal is to somehow get those documents and hopefully get my computer running again.

sorry this was so long i just really wanted to get all the facts down. if anyone can help me or give me some options i would really appreciate it.

sincerely ,

zach workman

[Dortz]

I don't know what to tell you about the XP installation. but here is what you can do to get any files you need off of your drive, provided it isn't corrupted.

you need:
a USB thumb drive. however big you need to get the files off of it. if it's not, and the individual files are smaller than the total storage capacity of the drive, that's fine too. you can find a 512 mb thumb drive for less than 20 dollars.
a computer with a cd drive that can burn cd's, and obviously, burning software and a blank cd. i would recommend 'CDBurnerXP pro'. it is free, and will fit the job.
about two hours of your time, depending on the computer you are using's connection.

to start go here: http://linuxcentral.com/catalog/index.php3?prod_code=L000-589

download the knoppix 5.0.1 live CD. it will come in .iso format.
put the blank cd in the drive, and make sure you select to 'burn cd image' or 'burn iso image' from whatever program you are using to burn. this just copying the .iso file over will not work. while you are at it, put the usb drive into the computer, and make sure it is formatted in FAT32, or NTFS format.

after the CD burns successfully, put it into the broken computer, put the usb thumb drive into a free USB slot, and reboot it, holding f12 as it restarts. this will bring up the boot options menu. select 'CD-ROM/IDE Device' and knoppix will boot automatically.

You will be able to use a filesystem manager from this point to copy any files you need from your hard drive to the usb thumb drive, again, provided that the filesystem on the hard drive is not corrupt.

After that, make your decision if you are going to do a full clean install or attempt a repair install.

[kleinbaas]

You need the XP Validation CD from www.discmaster.info
It includes tools to fix the Windows Media Player 11 Validation Problem.
Go to: http://www.diskmaster.info/UK/tools.htm or http://www.discmaster.info/USA/tools.htm
Hope this Helps!