Backing out of a botched W98 -> W2K upgrade

[Steve Nielsen]

We have a user who without know what they were doing and without
consulting us decided to do an upgrade installation of W2K over the top
of W98. Now the ethernet controller (and likely other devices) does not
function, Windows does not seem to recognize it and the user does not
have a driver disk for the device. We know from past experience that
"upgrades" of Windows rarely (if ever) go well, so we just plain never
do it and therefore have no experience in backing out of an upgrade of
W2K like this. I have searched the MS KB and found this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;250456&Product=win2000

However, is there some simpler way? What would happen if they went into
Add/Remove and removed the Windows 2000 as it appears there? I'm looking
for a fast fix, if there is one.

Thanks,
Stee

 

[Danny Sanders]

Don't know of a way other than starting from scratch by formatting and
reinstalling.

This user would be a poster child for not letting users have admin
privileges on a work PC.

hth
DDS W 2k MVP MCSE

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Yeah, it sure looks that way from everything I can find. Oh well...

There is no security in Windows 98. They got ahold of Win2K disc. They
are 28 miles away from my office. The only way to have prevented it is
if they just didn't have a computer at all in the first place.

Thanks for the reply though.

Steve

 

[Gerry Voras]

You could have written a policy in poledit that would have kept the user
from starting any kind of upgrade or accessing add/remove programs.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

I don't see how a policy on the local machine would have prevented the
user from booting the Win2K CD and running setup.

We do have security software we use in our Win9x labs that would have
prevented that with a bootlock on the MBR, we've just never had the need
to restrict staff users in this manner before. Sure, we've had a few
minor problems with staff installing unauthorized software (actually
pretty rare) but never someone attempting to upgrade an OS like that.

Nonetheless, I was incorrect; there are ways it could have been prevented.

Steve