Question : Rollback failed XP Repair install

I have an XP Home SP3 machine that is sick.   I'm pretty adept at unwinding problems, but created a bigger one.

One of my standard steps is to do a repair install from OEM Dell CD for SP1.

Repair Install went fine, however on Setup it hangs on 39 minutes.

I looked in setupapi.log and there are problems with initpki.dll.

I read this board, and many others, thru the night, to no avail.

What I would like to do is a System Restore.  Ive read the at MSFT has purchased the ERD software, and had it available for a time for a 30 day trial.  I have ERD 2002, but it does not have the System Restore function.

Two questions:
- can I rollback the failed Repair install
- is there another way to invoke System Restore

I have uninstalled both iE8 and iE7, as suggested by MSFT.  I've renamed CATROOT2 folder.  I've deleted tmp* files in CATROOT.

Help much appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob

Answer : Rollback failed XP Repair install

There is no way to rollback a failed install.

What I would try, at this point, is two things:

Run a chkdsk /r, to repair any disk errors.

On a separate computer, use nLite to slipstream SP3 into your installation CD, and try again.

With SP3 slipstreamed, it might skip right over that error, and you'll get your repair.