Its not my day today I am reinstalling XP pro onto a Dell Optiplex, everything went well with the install, updated with sp3, then had to run another set of updates, then had to run another set of updates but then hit a problem, it refused to install 8 updates. I hit google for some suggestions which I tried but still the same. So I decided to cut my losses and reinstall XP again. (I am on a bit of a tight schedule to have this PC sorted out) Thats when I hit a big problem, using the same Dell recovery CD as I used first time I booted the PC into setup. The CD went through the section of loading 3rd party drivers, then says starting windows, the screen goes black for a couple of seconds and then goes blue again with the following error message. Stop: c0000221 unknown hard error \systemroot\system32\ntdll.dll Thinking this was a problem with the data on the hard disk I used a Linux live CD and deleted the partition that windows was installed on. But even though I have deleted the windows partition I am still get the same error message. Could this be a problem with the Dell Recovery CD. I have googled the error but must references I see about the error is to do with an installed copy of XP not trying to install it. Any suggestions Tim

Boot to the CD and run a Windows Repair. Post back if you still have difficulty installing updates. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Unfortunately I was not able to as the CD boot up never went far enough to get to the repair part of the setup. Once I had removed the windows partiton via Linux that was not an option anyway. As luck would have it I found another Dell recovery CD and it let me install XP so I am guessing there is a problem with the install CD for the Optiplex (the CD I used was for a Dell Dimension). So I have got past my problem but not resolved the error message. Tim

So what error message are you getting? The same as before? Were you able to reinstall Windows? "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown