software and hardware problem

[Colleen]

I am posting this to several newsgroups, as I am not sure which is the
most appropriate one for this problem. I am having major problems with
one of my computers due to what I believe is an impending hard drive
failure. All my important files are backed up, so I am not concerned
about any catastrophic loss of data, but I would like to copy all my
folders containing archived email and other older files.

I managed to re-install Windows 2000 Professional in the hope that would
allow me to copy everything to a zipdrive. However, I was not able to
install some software I needed because something was wrong with the
video drivers. When I tried to access the drivers from the CD that came
with my monitor, I got a message saying that the monitor resolution
would not allow accessing that CD. The display settings in "Control
Panel" only allowed setting to 16-bit color. When I did a cold boot to
see if the correct drivers would load, I got an error message that said
that something was wrong with the video driver and "beginning a dump of
physical memory". (I could not actually fully read the message, because
it was visible only for a second, and then the system rebooted.) I am
able to boot into the pseudo-DOS state that you can get into with
Windows 98, but I am now not able to get Windows 2000 to load. It
starts to load, and then I get the blue screen with the messages about
the video drivers and "beginning dump...".

Can anyone offer me any advice about how to get Windows 2000 to load so
that I can copy files to my zipdrive? I have tried hooking an ethernet
cable to the CPU and the zipdrive, but it does not seem to work in the
Windows 98 pseudo-DOS environment.

I would be grateful for any assistance.
Colleen

 

[Dave Patrick]

Try a boot floppy appending /BASEVIDEO to boot.ini

For the floppy to successfully boot Windows 2000 the disk must contain the
"NT" boot sector. Format a diskette (on a Windows 2000 machine, not a
DOS/Win9x, so the NT boot sector gets written to the floppy), and copy
Windows 2000 versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini to it. Edit the
boot.ini to give it a correct ARC path for the machine you wish to boot.
Below is an example of boot.ini. The default is to start the operating
system located on the first partition of the primary or first
drive (drive0). Then drive0 partition 2 and so on.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT /BASEVIDEO
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Win2000 0,1" /BASEVIDEO
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Win2000 0,2" /BASEVIDEO
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Win2000 1,1" /BASEVIDEO
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="Win2000 1,2" /BASEVIDEO


--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
|I am posting this to several newsgroups, as I am not sure which is the
| most appropriate one for this problem. I am having major problems with
| one of my computers due to what I believe is an impending hard drive
| failure. All my important files are backed up, so I am not concerned
| about any catastrophic loss of data, but I would like to copy all my
| folders containing archived email and other older files.
|
| I managed to re-install Windows 2000 Professional in the hope that would
| allow me to copy everything to a zipdrive. However, I was not able to
| install some software I needed because something was wrong with the
| video drivers. When I tried to access the drivers from the CD that came
| with my monitor, I got a message saying that the monitor resolution
| would not allow accessing that CD. The display settings in "Control
| Panel" only allowed setting to 16-bit color. When I did a cold boot to
| see if the correct drivers would load, I got an error message that said
| that something was wrong with the video driver and "beginning a dump of
| physical memory". (I could not actually fully read the message, because
| it was visible only for a second, and then the system rebooted.) I am
| able to boot into the pseudo-DOS state that you can get into with
| Windows 98, but I am now not able to get Windows 2000 to load. It
| starts to load, and then I get the blue screen with the messages about
| the video drivers and "beginning dump...".
|
| Can anyone offer me any advice about how to get Windows 2000 to load so
| that I can copy files to my zipdrive? I have tried hooking an ethernet
| cable to the CPU and the zipdrive, but it does not seem to work in the
| Windows 98 pseudo-DOS environment.
|
| I would be grateful for any assistance.
| Colleen

 

[Dan G]

Hit F8 and boot into safe mode.

 

[Tony Hwang]

I am posting this to several newsgroups, as I am not sure which is the
most appropriate one for this problem. I am having major problems with
one of my computers due to what I believe is an impending hard drive
failure. All my important files are backed up, so I am not concerned
about any catastrophic loss of data, but I would like to copy all my
folders containing archived email and other older files.

I managed to re-install Windows 2000 Professional in the hope that would
allow me to copy everything to a zipdrive. However, I was not able to
install some software I needed because something was wrong with the
video drivers. When I tried to access the drivers from the CD that came
with my monitor, I got a message saying that the monitor resolution
would not allow accessing that CD. The display settings in "Control
Panel" only allowed setting to 16-bit color. When I did a cold boot to
see if the correct drivers would load, I got an error message that said
that something was wrong with the video driver and "beginning a dump of
physical memory". (I could not actually fully read the message, because
it was visible only for a second, and then the system rebooted.) I am
able to boot into the pseudo-DOS state that you can get into with
Windows 98, but I am now not able to get Windows 2000 to load. It
starts to load, and then I get the blue screen with the messages about
the video drivers and "beginning dump...".

Can anyone offer me any advice about how to get Windows 2000 to load so
that I can copy files to my zipdrive? I have tried hooking an ethernet
cable to the CPU and the zipdrive, but it does not seem to work in the
Windows 98 pseudo-DOS environment.

I would be grateful for any assistance.
Colleen

Hi,
If you think drive is on the way out, how about running a diagnostic
test for drive to cinfirm it.
Tony

 

[Dodo]

Colleen wrote on 20 nov 2005:

I am posting this to several newsgroups, as I am not sure which is the
most appropriate one for this problem. I am having major problems with
one of my computers due to what I believe is an impending hard drive
failure. All my important files are backed up, so I am not concerned
about any catastrophic loss of data, but I would like to copy all my
folders containing archived email and other older files.

If you have another PC available, mount the drive in that PC and make your
software copies there. Drive not bootable does not mean unreadable.
Don't forget the proper master/slave settings (if applicable).

By the way, in case something similar happens again (and that is one of the
few sure things in life), use the following solution.

Install XXClone on your PC.
Install a new drive.
Clone your C:-drive to the new disk as a bootable clone.

This I did when my boot drive started deteriorating (warning through
S.M.A.R.T. from my BIOS upon system boot) and it gave me a perfect boot
drive copy under Win2k.

 

[Colleen]

Of course, that was one of the first things I tried, but I cannot get
the system to boot into safe mode.
Colleen

 

[Colleen]

That was one of the first things I did, and it confirmed an impending
failure.
Colleen

 

[Colleen]

Thank you. Unfortunately, all our other computers are WindowsXP. Will
it work with a floppy formatted on XP? Also, is there anywhere else I
can get copies of the Windows 2000 versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and
boot.ini?
Colleen

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yes it will still work.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Thank you. Unfortunately, all our other computers are WindowsXP. Will
| it work with a floppy formatted on XP? Also, is there anywhere else I
| can get copies of the Windows 2000 versions of ntldr, ntdetect.com, and
| boot.ini?
| Colleen

 

[Dodo]

Colleen wrote on 20 nov 2005:

I am posting this to several newsgroups, as I am not sure which is the
most appropriate one for this problem. I am having major problems with
one of my computers due to what I believe is an impending hard drive
failure. All my important files are backed up, so I am not concerned
about any catastrophic loss of data, but I would like to copy all my
folders containing archived email and other older files.

Is it still just your aim to recover data from that HDD?

Then I donot understand all the continuing fuss.

Just put the HDD in a different PC and copy the data you need to any
storage device that's convenient.

Mount a new HDD in the PC with the trouble and make a fresh install of W2k
and you applications.
Then import the data you recovered from the failing HDD. Ready!

Or is the HDD not accessible at all any more, not even on a different PC?

 

[Colleen]

That's what I did. It just hangs on the "starting Windows" screen.
Colleen