First I'd like to apologize in advance for any mis-explaining and a long post, I'm self-taught with computer stuff and my knowledge is limited.
I'm running XP Pro 32-bit. My computer is about 4 years old, and was built by me. I can provide parts model #s and such if needed but I'm not sure any of the hardware is the issue. Everything was running okay up until a few days ago. I had tried out "Ashampoo Burning Studio" as a free cd burning software, and it wasn't working. So I uninstalled, rebooted and then ran an anti-spyware utility just in case. I remembered having turned off Automatic Updates some time ago so I also went in and started to dl updates. It was taking a while so after the first 10 or so I cancelled and it prompted me to restart to finish the updates I'd downloaded.
Upon rebooting, I can't get back into Windows. Trying to start normally results in a BSOD with 0x0000007E as the leading error code. Other modes hang at "Mup.sys" and then freeze on the XP splash screen indefinitely. Some Google research led me to try a few things - disconnecting all peripherals except my monitor, dusting out the computer (which I do regularly anyway but I figured was worth a try), reseating/checking RAM, and checking other various connections. None of these has worked and I still can't get into Windows. From what I found it seems like other people have experienced this issue after doing something with updating, like switching to a new service pack (I can't remember if I'm on sp2 or 3, I am assuming 3). I also recently moved, and my installation disk seems to have been lost in the shuffle.
The computer I'm posting on also runs on Windows XP, but it's the Media Center edition. I was reading
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000433.htm and it says you should create a boot disk from the same OS. Would it be okay to try a boot disk from this version of XP or will that screw things up? If not, is there anywhere else I can download or install a Windows XP disk for free? I'd rather not have to wipe my hard drive if I can avoid it. Any other suggestions for what I can do to fix this issue are greatly appreciated.
