MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270): Installing ...

Guidelines for Troubleshooting Setup Failures Using the Windows XP
Setup Logs
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During Setup, Windows XP Professional generates a number of log files containing
installation information that can help you resolve any problems that occur after Setup
is completed. The action log and the error log are especially useful for troubleshooting.
Both are located in the installation folder (C:\Windows by default).
Tip The logs are text documents that you can view in Notepad, WordPad, or Word. Some of
the documents are very large. Consider searching the document for the word fail, which can
help you locate instances in the log files that contain information on failed operations.
Action Log
The action log records the actions that the Setup program performs in chronological
order. It includes actions such as copying files and creating Registry entries. It also contains
entries that are written to the Setup error log. The action log is named Setupact.log.
If an installation fails, you can often pinpoint what was going on (for
example, what file was being copied) when the installation failed. Searching the
Microsoft Knowledge Base using the description of the action as a keyword often
yields solutions to the problem at hand.
Error Log
The error log describes errors (and their severity) that occur during Setup. Because the
contents of this log are also included in the action log, you can think of the error log
as a subset of the action log. The error log is named Setuperr.log. If errors occur, the
log viewer displays the error log at the end of Setup. If no errors occurred during installation,
this file is empty.
See Also For additional information about troubleshooting installations, see Lesson 3,
“Using Startup and Recovery Tools,” in Chapter 4, "Modifying and Troubleshooting the Startup
Process."
Troubleshooting Stop Errors
Lesson 5 Troubleshooting Windows XP Professional Setup
Stop errors, also referred to as blue screen errors, occur when the system detects a
condition from which it cannot recover. The system stops responding and displays a
screen of information on a blue background. The most likely time during installation
that you might experience stop errors is when the text mode stage of setup has finished,
your computer restarts, and the Setup Wizard stage begins. During this transi-