Member Avatar for degarb

I installed a new xp, and many apps. then I swapped out a few drives - adding a hd, a couple memory sticks and permanent usb devices that appear as drive. Then ran a repair of windows xp pro.

The MAJOR problem is now I cannot uninstall or install many applications since many of these installers are saying "what the hell? where is drive e:\?" Seems to be bug in some major installer used by quicktime and wm9encoder et. al. Combing through registry for last few hours.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rneuschul

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As found, a repair/reinstall that changes drive letters can leave many programs pointing at a non‑existent absolute path (E:...), which is why installers/uninstallers for things like QuickTime or WME fail. and are right about the root cause; ’s “one change at a time” point is a good takeaway. Below are practical, low‑risk steps to recover without immediately wiping the system.

  1. Restore an E: volume (fastest, safest)
  • If the original disk is still attachable, open Computer Management -> Disk Management and assign the E: letter back to that volume (do not change the system/boot volume letter).
  • If the original disk is not available, create a temporary E: that looks like the old source and put the installers there. Example:
mkdir C:\InstallSources
subst E: "C:\InstallSources"

Then copy the original installer folders or .msi files into C:\InstallSources and retry the repair/uninstall.

  1. For MSI‑based products
  • Windows caches installers in C:\Windows\Installer. If the cached .msi is gone the installer will ask for the original source. Supplying the original .msi into the expected E:\ path or into C:\Windows\Installer often lets the repair/uninstall proceed.
  • You can inspect HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\<GUID> and the Installer user data keys under ...Installer\UserData\<SID>\Products\<GUID>\InstallProperties to see the UninstallString/InstallSource. Export those keys first before any edits.
  1. If you must edit the registry
  • Export the specific key to a .reg file, edit only plain text string values (do not touch binary values), save and reimport. Back up the registry first. Editing installer product GUID trees is powerful but risky.
  1. Last resorts
  • Use Microsoft’s Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter or a reputable uninstaller to remove broken entries. If cleanup fails, back up data and perform a clean install.

Keep changes incremental and document the original drive layout so a future repair won’t break installers again.

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Member Avatar for degarb

Tried three regcleaners, but none fixed the 3000 entries of e: in registry.

Is there a replace all in registry?

Member Avatar for MidiMagic

You should have uninstalled the apps before you changed the configuration, and then reinstalled them into the new configuration.

What was drive e? Was it your old hard disk, temporarily installed to move files?

Can you put it back the way it was, uninstall the apps, and then set things up again?

Another last ditch possibility is to copy off all data files you need to keep, format the disk, and then install everything from scratch.

Member Avatar for Neon Zeon

Most uninstall routines reference the "installed from" directory for the needed instructions, failing that they ask you. When those dialogs pop up you need to navigate to disk or directory, (folder), you installed the program from originally. If you can't locate that you're stuck with simply deleting all references to it, which, by the way, is a really bad idea. Best idea, start over fresh, chalk it up as a learning experience.

Member Avatar for degarb

I am not sure yet how to avoid this. You got an emergency windows repair and drives get alphabetized differently - bad registry entries = unable to uninstall or repair brain dead programs that rely on abosolute drive referencing (windows media encoder and quicktime).

I guess next time unplug all usb devices during a windows repair. Okay I learned that. Now only fix is http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Utilities/Access_Control_Utilities/Registry_Replacer_Download.html , now a new essential software tool for me.

But this fails to fix e:\windows references in the registry in some keys since they are locked by windows! Thus windows media encoder (which I feel blows divx away for quality and size) won't repair or uninstall. I don't now know how to fix this.

Member Avatar for rneuschul

The lesson is this:

Only ever change one thing at a time, and test thoroughly between changes, be that a change to hardware or software.

That way you will always a] be able to track and detect the effects and b] roll backwards if required.

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