How to uninstall sp4 for Win2K???? please grovel grovel

[hairygit1]

Help.
The sp4 for win2k has buggered up some of my settings, slowed the computer down, and won't let me use my firewall.

How does one uninstall it?

I will be a happy man after i learn not to tinker with service packs as [i know they work for most people] this is not the first time this has happened

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[drag]

Actually MS service packs often screw things up.

From here

To remove Service Pack 4 by using Add/Remove Programs

Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click Add/Remove Programs, click Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, and then click Change/Remove.
Follow the instructions that appear.
When you have completed this process, click OK to restart the computer.


Kinda sad. MS drops the ball again. Either deal with a buggy OS update, or turn your computer into a potential script kiddie playground. Oh well the uninstall will probably screw more things up then the install, so it would be a uber-good idea to back up the stuff you care about.

 

[Mitzi]

Cross posts are teh suck :|

 

[Muse]

Always a good idea to back up the things you care about. When I went from SP2 to SP3 I Ghosted my OS partition first, then did the install. Now, in installing SP3 and SP4 you are given the option (I think it's the default) to allow yourself a backout if you need it. Since I Ghosted, I opted not to have the backtrack available (I could restore the OS partition to exactly where it was before SP install by restoring my Ghost image). Indeed, SP3 screwed up my system much like you describe (booted unbelievably slow) and some things wouldn't work, so I stuck with SP2 until I reinstalled my OS. Chastened, I didn't even bother messing with SP4 until I reinstalled Windows 2000 from scratch a few weeks ago. Then, of course, I immediately installed SP4 and all the other critical updates and some optional ones. Even so, it was a far from easy process - had a lot of trouble getting my anti virus software working. My impression just from my experience is to install a service pack early on in your OS cycle or don't do it at all, and to always have an image of your OS to fall back on unless maybe your install is totally new.

 

[Nithin]

I installed SP4 without a backup, then had some problems and had to reinstall.
Always make backup.

 

[drag]

That's horrible. Like a bad joke. You'd think they'd warn you or something or at least test the stupid things. After all this is a entire SERVICE PACK, not just a emergency patch.

Maybe MS just want's to give a reason to upgrade... "well my w2k is fubared so I may as well buy XP(home, desktop) or get w2k3 (server)"

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: drag
That's horrible. Like a bad joke. You'd think they'd warn you or something or at least test the stupid things. After all this is a entire SERVICE PACK, not just a emergency patch.

Maybe MS just want's to give a reason to upgrade... "well my w2k is fubared so I may as well buy XP(home, desktop) or get w2k3 (server)"

Thing is it does work on a virgin system but if you've been computing a while with an install of Windows it gets screwed up and your odds of being able to survive a service pack upgrade degrade. There's no other way to regard that situation. I'd use Driveimage or Ghost before the upgrade. I did OK using SP2 for quite a while after SP3 came out because I couldn't upgrade successfully and wasn't about to go through the trouble of installing from scratch. Besides, I used some software for my employer that I was informed didn't work with SP3 - reason enough to use SP2 instead.

 

[mechBgon]

I recently updated about 60 Win2000SP3 systems with SP4 and IE6SP1 at work. They range from P2 350's to AthlonXP 2400+'s, and seem to be doing just fine. Just thought I'd even out the "the sky is falling!" tone of this thread a little

 

[Nithin]

It worked for me too except for VC++ giving internal compiler errors. I tried reinstalling and couldn't find anything on google about how to fix it so just reinstalled it to SP3.

 

[NogginBoink]

You can uninstall it from add/remove programs.

However, I think a better solution would be to identify and fix the root cause of your problems.