Windows XP Service Pack 2 phobia

Hey, I just wanted to hear some opinions on SP2. I've been avoiding it for quite some time because the first time I tried to update to it, my laptop's hard drive space went from nearly 2GB free, down to 100MB free, and the system had nearly locked up. After a failed abortion of the update, my system refused to boot for a while; Dell was unable to help me since it was a Microsoft problem, and I never got to speak to a tech from Microsoft since they were swarmed with lots of these cases (I was put on hold for 1.5 hours, twice). Basically, an XP installation repair, some curse words, and a week later, and the laptop was fixed, and I vowed to never attempt to install SP2 again unless I absolutely had to.

That was August 2004, and now here we are in June 2005. Currently, my laptop is being bogged down by spyware/adware/viruses, a situation which I am working with chaslang here at MajorGeeks to fix. Once this problem is fixed, I was thinking of attempting to install SP2 again, but I wanted to hear some opinions before I decide what measures to go to to ensure a safe install.

 

Ive had zero problems installing SP2, installed on about 3 dozen pc's a couple of them were laptops, XP Home & XP Pro, custom bulit & off the shelf units.

I also want to add all were fresh installs of XP.

Most problem's Ive seen of others, SP2 was loaded on dirty install's of XP (old windows full of garbage)
Some older programs/apps may need updates to run on SP2 system, so check any programs you plan to run, for updates.
No need to load sp1 first all the stuff from sp1 is in SP2.

http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/products/windows-xp/install-service-pack-2.mspx

I had sp2 phobia & waited for while, but as it turned out, was no big deal.
Good Luck!

 

Good advice ASUS. This will help also, http://support.microsoft.com/xpsp2getinstall

Steve

 

Before installing SP2 I would suggest you delete any unwanted or unnecessary programs,get rid of all adaware, spyware, temp folders, etc.... and defrag your harddrive. Might as well give it every chance of being done right first time!!!!

 

Agree with all that a fresh install is the go. Worked for me, but I have 2 hard drives in my laptop. Also, maybe, you are in need of a larger capacity hard drive. With only around 2 gig free it sounds to me as though more room would help.

These 3, all free, will help get rid of all the crap loaded by internet sessions.

Cleanup! http://www.stevengould.org/
EmpTemp http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=1575
and CrapCleaner aka CCleaner http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4191

Run them all, daily. Bazza

===

 

Hi,

I had some doubt's about installing SP2 however finally bit the bullet and installed it on both our computers without any drama.
I got SP2 on CD as I only have dial-up and would have taken for ever to download, and I download all MS updates and install manually.
I used a checklist to setup for the install, came from the Black Viper site I think.
Basically I swept the system for spyware, Trojans and other garbage and defragged - then disabled my AV and Firewall and System Restore and all other running applications. I didn't un-install any software and I have heaps much of it dating back to Win95 and the install went without any problems, I think the most important aspect is preparing your machine beforehand.
with regard to older software I am using software from Win 3.1, Win95 and Win98 when I updated to XP I dual booted with Win98SE in case I had trouble with older software, I have never needed to use it or run in compatibility mode.

Hope this helps allay some of your fears about the process as I can assure you I am no computer geek, everything technical is approached with fear and trepidation.

Max

 

My laptop's hard drive is only 30GB, which I had mostly used up at that time. Right now I still have about 10GB free instead of 2GB, and I intend to keep it that way as best I can. To upgrade my HD to a 60GB would cost about $215.

 

Aborting an update midway can cause problems sometime.This is not an sp2 issue,it was caused due to an incomplete system file update that left something missing or unregistered.Windows XPsp2 is a much superior OS and must not be avoided.Xp without updates is prone to malware attacks.

 

send away for the SP2 CD, it comes in about 2-3 days time... i had fears about installing SP2 as well, thought it would screw up my OS... but it all went flawlessly... at least with the CD u don't have to worry about being connected to the internet with your firewall and Antivirus disabled...

 

My school provided a free XP SP2 CD when I arrived for my first semester. I will be installing SP2 within the next week.

Thank you all for the encouraging input!

 

take a read thru this before you do:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/sp2_whattoknow.mspx

should answer any questions/concerns you have

 

I just saw this on Microsoft's information page for SP2:

I guess that would explain why my HD's free space went so low that time.

 

Yeah i know what you mean with sp2 trouble. It seems like the first time you install it you have nothing but trouble with it. We installed it to 2 computers and after the install both were haveing trouble running. All i think i did was run a winxp repair and reinstall the updates + sp2 without going through sp1 and it ran without a cinch and worked perfectly fine. (I swear windows is the weirdest operateing system, not very technical, but weird with all the weird problems and security threats) But it seems like windows sp2 doesnt like going in when sp1 is installed.
PS: I heard on the microsoft site that a new internet explorer is expected to be released this summer. Heres the link:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/default.mspx
enjoy! lol

 

Thanks for all the input, this is very helpful. Although now I am concerned about installing SP2 on the machines in question because they are all currently fully updated XP SP1 machines. I hope that this will not cause troubles for me when I try to update them to SP2...

 

Well i would say take only sp1 off. Dont bother with takeing the other ones off all we need to pull is sp1. Then install sp2 and if your have trouble with anything simply update the driver for it and it should be fine.

 

Oh i wasnt sure if you wanna keep sp1 on because i think that if its on that when sp2 is installed all hell will break loose on the operateing system. But it may work though Go ahead and give it a try and see what happens. Write back and tell us if it worked or not. Oh yeah one more thing. If things that worked before dont work with sp2 try updateing the software/drivers that device uses.