ATT: ALL WINDOWS 98/ME USERS

from Stardock Forums
Okay, we've found a glitch in the Stardock Central Installer that can cause deletion of files that shouldn't be deleted.

So if you're using Win98/ME, hold off on downloading/installing Stardock Central. We'll have this fixed in a few minutes.
2,013 views 65 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Erm... I installed it without any troubles I can see Brad. I'm using Win98SE.

~SDC~
CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Window XP as well. I couldn't boot to WinXP and had to use GoBack to recover my system.

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Okay, thanks for the update. We know what causes it now, but we don't know why it's happening. But in a few minutes we should be set.

So for the next few minutes. hold off on installing SDCentral.

~SDC~
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
You guys are too kind. Really, just feel bad about this weirdness. We are putting up a new build of SDCentral right now that takes care of this problem.



~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Confirmed that XP is a problem as well. Got me as well. I ran it from a /download directory and don't have any other filesystem customization beyond the default XP load.

~SDC~
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
If I hadn't been reading your stuff since that article at IGN 2 years ago I would be cursing and spitting right now ( actually I am cursing and spitting but I will get over it).

Now!!! Here's the story...

WinXP Pro (been running since October 2001)
NTLDR missing
press ctrl-alt-del to restart

Anyone wanna help me out?

I restarted just to verify the claims of others. Well..guess what?...they were correct. SDcentral hosed my OS
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Frogboy - And don't feel to bad about it. Stuff happens. Main thing that bummed me out (aside from reloading the OS) was how eager I'd been to play the game and hated having to wait to rebuild the OS! ;)

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
Do you have a restore disk SlapBone? If not, if you can get access to another xp machine you can copy the ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini files from it and it should work.(I think that those are the files you need to boot)

-Zac
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Zachary - Doh! Forgot the ntdetect.com... I'd gone into console mode and copied over boot.ini and ntldr but still was getting no joy and went ahead and reinstalled. Silly me overlooking the obvious file. Oh well, system needed a reinstall anyway, right? ;)

~SDC~
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
Also the files will be hidden, you will have to goto tools->folder options->view-> and then show hidden, system, and os protected files. :D
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I know my machine needs reinstalling bad anyway... now that I think of it seems like a good time to upgrade to XP... but since I'm still working I think I'll play GalCiv for a few days before I do it LOL
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I know I'd be cursing us out if it happened to me. ;) What a pain.

On the bright side, that's why we're doing this tonight and not on the release day. We can iron this stuff out before the release night.

~SDC~
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Scratch my previous report of no problems... Everything is gone from c:\ >:(
Anyone know of a way to restore them?

~SDC~
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
I can't blow the system away because it will get rid of a lot of stuff I need.

Where are these files exactly?
Reply #18 from Stardock Forums Top
Yeah, after all we ARE beta testers!!!! haha In all seriousness(I can't spell:) though, I've lurked for a while before today and I've seen the way that the development team interacts with the community and it's great, I don't think I've ever seen that before. I know I would have been upset if I didn't think that the developers cared. Kudos, and keep up the good work! :CONGRAT: :CONGRAT:
Reply #19 from Stardock Forums Top
Frogboy - Yeah, that would be a rather unfortunate glitch to go live with on release day. I can just see the press reports now...

~SDC~
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
Okay, a new build of SDCentral is now available.

http://storage.stardock.com/files/stardockcentral099b.exe

I've assigned our technical resources to find ways of helping those who ran into this problem recover.
Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top
Slapbone -- They should be in the root of you're boot drive, usually c:\, they are hidden and system files so you need to make sure that you can see them. Also since I think you said you have a second XP machine, you might want to try and make a restore disk from it(look in help, I don't have XP) and use it with you XP disk on the down machine.
Reply #22 from Stardock Forums Top
I also experienced boot problems after installing SDCentral

OS:
Windows XP, Service Pack 1

It damaged my boot.ini (warns it is not present then complains about HAL.dll), luckily I have a router and another computer (and the ultimate trouble shooter -- the internet). If you boot from your Windows XP disk, you can enter a recovery console. After choosing the hard-drive and entering the admin password, you will be given a DOS prompt. Type:
bootcfg /rebuild
This will scan your harddisk and give you options of which O/S to include in the boot.ini. It will then ask about an ID, enter whatever you want. For O/S options (next question), specify /fastbuild.
That put me back on track, hope if helps others.
Reply #23 from Stardock Forums Top
I will be cursing you out if I can't fix this. :P

~SDC~
Reply #24 from Stardock Forums Top
Brad, just a suggestion. It might make sence to make zip files of these boot files for different OS's for people to download and copy in their C:\ before they restart. People should check to see if they have these files before they restart, because you won't notice the problem until you do. Most people will have windows installed to the same spot, C:\winnt.
Reply #25 from Stardock Forums Top
Agreed. I'm sure they're working on it right now.

~SDC~