Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
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I'm afraid you probably answered your own question. Installing SP1 on top of SP2 should not work. To be honest, I'm surprised that installing SP1 on top of SP2 didn't give you some kind of error message.
But if it succeeded ... well, that's just not good.
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First let's be clear. Service packs are cumulative. If you install SP2 you don't need to install SP1 ... everything in SP1 is already in SP2 (unless of course it was something that needed to be fixed by SP2).
And if you don't already have SP1, you don't need to install it before SP2 ... just install SP2.
As I said, installing SP1 on top of SP2, if it actually succeeds, can only cause problems, in my opinion. I'd certainly suspect it with the symptoms you're seeing on your USB drive.
If you're trying to revert from having installed SP2, you need to use uninstall, if you had SP2 create an uninstall directory when it was installed. If you didn't, you'll need to reinstall Windows XP to revert.
If you're just trying to fix a problem you believe has been caused by SP2, then I'd start by running the system file checker (See What is the System File Checker, and how do I run it?).
But I will warn you. If SP2 caused you problems, there are many possible reasons, most of which are in your control. Making sure you're spyware-free before you install it is perhaps the most important, so if you do start over, make sure your machine is as clean as possible and follow the instructions in my prior article Will SP2 Crash my machine?.
But you don't need to install SP1 if you're going to install SP2.
Article C2318 - March 29, 2005 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
January 13, 2008 4:00 AM
hi sir,
i'm experiencing problem right now with my computer(xp sp2) because it is not getting an ip address from the modem though the modem has an active internet connection when we connect another computer to it. we already change the LAN CARD of the desktop but when we do ipconfig we are not getting any ip address and we're getting an error code 2 when we do "ping loopback" in the command prompt. when we check the status in the network connection it says connected but we're not getting any ip address. a friend told me that maybe i need to uninstall and reinstall the tcp/ip but when i go to the LAN properties window the uninstall option is greyed out when i click on tcp/ip. is it a problem of the computers winsock? pls i need your advise with this. i'm really planning to uninstall and reinstall the OS but i think all the files will be deleted when i;ll do that right? can i save the back up file in a floppy?
August 5, 2008 7:24 PM
I have been trying to do a repair on my dell laptop but has not succeeded. Currently I have XP home edition SP1 CD (laptop is running xp SP2), cannot access the boot menu either after restart, is their a way to repair? I am not even sure I can reinstall since it Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than the version on the CD. Help. Thanks.
November 21, 2008 9:22 PM
I have a system with windows xp pro sp2 on it and i dont have a product key for it. Although i do have a product key for pro sp1. I really need to know how to install windows sp1 on the system. The pro sp2 was installed via an installation disc. I have both installation discs and the code for sp1 and i really dont want to by a liscence or another windows disc, please help. Thanks.
October 9, 2009 3:01 PM
i was running xp with sp1 my computer crashed had new hard drive installed and it had xp3 the problem i ran into is my embroidery software that i was working with is only compatible with xp 1 now i am not able to access this progam is there any way around sp2 & sp3 or back to sp1 please advise thank you
February 14, 2011 6:44 PM
I purchased an Aardvark audio interface card around 2002 - the drivers is stable with service pack one. Is there a way to remove sp2 for xp pro that was pre-installed?
14-Feb-2011