In-Place Upgrade for Win2K Pro

[Guest]

My system has crashed, and will only boot to the white window with the blue bar. At first it would boot all the way up, but would freeze after a few minutes. The BIOS works fine. Using Norton utilities, I have run disk doctor, win doctor, as well as speed disk. Speed disk would not complete, and crashed during the defrag. It has also crashed in safe mode, and now safe mode won't open. When it freezes, I cannot turn the computer off without using the power button on the back of the pc.

I've checked all the attached hardware by eliminating one device at a time. I used powermax to run diagnostics on the hard drive. It checked out ok, however, it has had, at times, a horrible grinding or vibrating noise when it starts to "work". Much louder than the normal sound you usually hear when it starts to "work". I've tried to repair the os with my win2k cd and an emergency repair disk. Neither the R option nor the M option produced any results. When it gets to the screen with the large yellow bar it goes no further. Help

I'm thinking that the problem is the os software. I don't know what else to check. I can't do much without being able to boot up. I'm open to any and all ideas

My main question is, before I do a complete reinstall of the os (and lose everything), is there any way to use my win2k disk to do an "in-place upgrade" ?

Thanks for any help
Lou

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My system has crashed, and will only boot to the white window with

the blue bar. At first it would boot all the way up, but would freeze after
a few minutes. The BIOS works fine. Using Norton utilities, I have run
disk doctor, win doctor, as well as speed disk. Speed disk would not
complete, and crashed during the defrag. It has also crashed in safe mode,
and now safe mode won't open. When it freezes, I cannot turn the computer
off without using the power button on the back of the pc.

I've checked all the attached hardware by eliminating one device at a

time. I used powermax to run diagnostics on the hard drive. It checked out
ok, however, it has had, at times, a horrible grinding or vibrating noise
when it starts to "work". Much louder than the normal sound you usually
hear when it starts to "work". I've tried to repair the os with my win2k cd
and an emergency repair disk. Neither the R option nor the M option produced
any results. When it gets to the screen with the large yellow bar it goes
no further. Help.

I'm thinking that the problem is the os software. I don't know what

else to check. I can't do much without being able to boot up. I'm open to
any and all ideas.

My main question is, before I do a complete reinstall of the os (and

lose everything), is there any way to use my win2k disk to do an "in-place
upgrade" ?

Thanks for any help!
Lou

Seeing that your hard disk makes horrible noises, your first step should be
to download and run the disk diagnostic program that your hard disk
manufacturer makes available on his web site, free of charge.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the input. I have a Maxtor 60G drive. I already have downloaded their diagnostic tool, called PowerMax. I ran three tests, the last one lasting 5-6 hours. The drive passed all three tests, and according to Maxtor is now "certified" as a good drive. Because of the noises, I still don't trust it. Maxtor has already volunteered to send me a new drive to swap. However, there are some things I would like to recover from from my problem hard drive, if at all possible. I know in Win98 I was given a choice to either do a clean install or an "in-place upgrade". If there is a way to do an
"in-place upgrade" in Win2K, it would be a good option for me, since it doesn't wipe out all the data

Thank you for any information you may have for me
Lou

 

[Dan Seur]

Maxtor will send you a replacement drive before you send them the broken
drive; just give them a credit card #, and they'll wait 30 days or so
for you to ship the broken drive to them before charging you anything.

If you do that, you'll have time to mount the old drive as slave and new
drive as master. Then try imaging the current system partition to the
new drive, copying anything else you want from the old to the drive. If
the diagnostic said the old drive's OK these steps may go quite well.

I've done this with several drive mfrs. Also a plus: you get to use the
shipping box they used. Big deal!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Thanks for the input. I have a Maxtor 60G drive. I already have

downloaded their diagnostic tool, called PowerMax. I ran three tests, the
last one lasting 5-6 hours. The drive passed all three tests, and according
to Maxtor is now "certified" as a good drive. Because of the noises, I
still don't trust it. Maxtor has already volunteered to send me a new drive
to swap. However, there are some things I would like to recover from from
my problem hard drive, if at all possible. I know in Win98 I was given a
choice to either do a clean install or an "in-place upgrade". If there is a
way to do an

"in-place upgrade" in Win2K, it would be a good option for me, since it doesn't wipe out all the data.

Thank you for any information you may have for me.
Lou

Yes, you can do an in-place upgrade:
- Boot your machine with your Win2000 CD.
- When prompted, select "Install", not "Repair".
- When prompted again, select "Repair", and
allow the process to go over your existing installation.
- Re-apply the latest Service Pack.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your interest and advice. It's much apprciated ! I'm going to give this a shot and see what happens

Lou

 

[Steve Nielsen]

Yes, you can do an in-place upgrade:
- Boot your machine with your Win2000 CD.
- When prompted, select "Install", not "Repair".
- When prompted again, select "Repair", and

I think you may have meant "Replace" not "Repair" here.

allow the process to go over your existing installation.
- Re-apply the latest Service Pack.

Steve

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I think you may have meant "Replace" not "Repair" here.

It depends. If the OP selects "Repair" then the process will
install Win2000 on top of the existing installation, preserving
what's already there. If this does not work then "Replace"
might be in order, in which case all old settings are lost.

 

[Steve Nielsen]

It depends. If the OP selects "Repair" then the process will
install Win2000 on top of the existing installation, preserving
what's already there. If this does not work then "Replace"
might be in order, in which case all old settings are lost.

My experience: "Repair" checked the disk and scanned system files,
rebooted with no changes made. All settings, etc., including the
problems I was having, remained. "Replace" replaced all files but still
kept my settings, apps and data intact, all I had to do was re-apply SP
and HFs and re-install IE.

Steve

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

My experience: "Repair" checked the disk and scanned system files,
rebooted with no changes made. All settings, etc., including the
problems I was having, remained. "Replace" replaced all files but still
kept my settings, apps and data intact, all I had to do was re-apply SP
and HFs and re-install IE.

Steve

You may well be right - I'll check it out for myself when I have
a free moment.