"Can Not Copy %1 to %2..."

I spent a good part of today trying to fix a friend's machine but never
having used ME before I'm at more than a bit of a loss. After cleaning out a
bit of malware and several mis-installed programs I installed a couple of
dozen critical updates that she hadn't done. Then I set to installing some
new programs but ran into constant problems with those that required a
reboot after the install. For every file that needed to be replaced I
received a message telling me that it was unable to copy %1 to %2. Clearly
not a good situation but for all I know things like this are common on ME.
Can anyone give a suggestion as to what might be wrong here? Clearly a
script is supposed to be replacing old files with new and is not working but
is there any hope of avoiding a reinstall -- I know that she has absolutely
no data backups and at this point I'm not even sure that she can lay hands
on the ME disk (this is a 4-year old Dell and they might not have provided
one).

One other hope is that I might upgrade to XP Home despite the cost but I'm
not sure how well such an upgrade would preserve already installed programs
and most importantly the data.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com

Your "Windows Could Not Upgrade the File %1 from %2 %1: %2" error:

First boot to DOS using a floppy and check whether you have a WININIT.INI
file in your C:\WINDOWS folder. If present rename it to something like
wininit.old and try booting again. It is also probable that you will have to
repeat the last software install or update that you made. See MS KB283069 -
"Error Message: Windows Could Not Upgrade the File %1 from %2 %1: %2
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=283069).

If you can't find a wininit.ini file then I suspect your problem is due to the
C:\_RESTORE\TEMP folder having around 64K files in it which is the limit
(2**16) for the number of files that can be located in a folder using the
FAT32 filing system. This then results in the "Cannot upgrade file %1 from
%2.." message when booting. I suggest you try deleting the _RESTORE folder
with the loss of any system restore checkpoints you might have (not that I
think they are now usable) and see if that solves the problem. Delete the
folder as follows:
a) Boot to DOS using a floppy. Do NOT choose "Minimal Boot" from the menu
when booting from a floppy but rather choose "Start computer with (or without)
CD-ROM support" otherwise the ATTRIB command will not be available.
b) At the DOS A:\ prompt, type:

ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\_RESTORE
and then
REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

c) Remove the floppy
d) Reboot your PC

Another problem though is that the update you were doing was probably never
completed so your system may still be unusable. If however it does manage to
boot then
e) Delete the folder C:\OLDREST
f) Check that an automatic system restore checkpoint was created.
g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder:
System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider
to your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more than adequate
for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to be available
although increasing this to perhaps 400MB for a few days during periods of
large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.
--?
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



John McGaw wrote:

I spent a good part of today trying to fix a friend's machine but never
having used ME before I'm at more than a bit of a loss. After cleaning
out a bit of malware and several mis-installed programs I installed a
couple of dozen critical updates that she hadn't done. Then I set to
installing some new programs but ran into constant problems with those
that required a reboot after the install. For every file that needed to
be replaced I received a message telling me that it was unable to copy %1
to %2. Clearly not a good situation but for all I know things like this
are common on ME. Can anyone give a suggestion as to what might be wrong
here? Clearly a script is supposed to be replacing old files with new and
is not working but is there any hope of avoiding a reinstall -- I know
that she has absolutely no data backups and at this point I'm not even
sure that she can lay hands on the ME disk (this is a 4-year old Dell and
they might not have provided one).

One other hope is that I might upgrade to XP Home despite the cost but I'm
not sure how well such an upgrade would preserve already installed
programs and most importantly the data.

"Mike M" wrote in message
...
Your "Windows Could Not Upgrade the File %1 from %2 %1: %2" error:

First boot to DOS using a floppy and check whether you have a WININIT.INI
file in your C:\WINDOWS folder. If present rename it to something like
wininit.old and try booting again. It is also probable that you will have
to
repeat the last software install or update that you made. See MS
KB283069 -
"Error Message: Windows Could Not Upgrade the File %1 from %2 %1: %2
(http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=283069).
snip...

Thanks so much. I'll have to wait until the weekend, at least, to try this
but it seems to cover the exact situation I got into. No idea why my search
didn't turn it up in the KB but I never did have a lot of luck finding even
things that I knew were there.
--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]

Return address will not work. Please
reply in group or through my website:
http://johnmcgaw.com

I think that you are going to find it most unlikely that your problem is due
to a wininit.ini file (KB283069) and far far more likely to be due to the
second reason I gave, namely a bloated C:\_RESTORE\temp folder due to system
restore being broken - quite possibly due to having Norton malware installed.

Best of luck in fixing your problem.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



John McGaw wrote:

Thanks so much. I'll have to wait until the weekend, at least, to try this
but it seems to cover the exact situation I got into. No idea why my
search didn't turn it up in the KB but I never did have a lot of luck
finding even things that I knew were there.