Solved: XP Repair Install Hanging at Installing Network

A Repair Install is required to get a hard drive with XP to boot after being moved to a new computer. However, it's apparently not uncommon for the Repair Install to hang somewhere in the process.

In my case of moving a hard drive with a retail version of XP installed from one computer to another, the Repair Install hung upon reaching "Installing Network" at about 31 minutes left in the install. To get around this problem, I did the following:

• Hit Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
• Ran taskmgr.exe to bring up the Task Manager.
• Examined the Processes and found spoolsv.exe, the "Print Spooler" service, to be consuming practically all of the CPU time.
• Returned to the command prompt and ran services.msc to get to the Services window.
• Clicked the Standard tab.
• Located Print Spooler and right-clicked on it.
• Selected Stop in the popup menu.

...and the Repair Install resumed immediately after the Print Spooler service was stopped.

The Repair Install hung once again later in the process around 9 minutes left. Task Manager showed that the spoolsv.exe was again hogging all of the CPU time. Repeating the Print Spooler stop again got the Repair Install to immediately resume, and it then continued to completion uninterrupted.

This solution was the result of a lot of searching and followed many unsuccessful attempts involving hardware changes, BIOS configuration changes, and software removal. Kudos to the people who posted the content on the following pages, from which my solution was pieced together:

Changing a Motherboard or Moving a Hard Drive with XP Installed

xp repair reinstall hangs at Installing Network (Microsoft XP)

What is the Windows spoolsv.exe file / process?

Run Command Shortcuts for Administrative Tools