Win2000 Server Repairing Problem

[Martin Lam]

Hi,

To backup the server, I cloned the Win2000 Server's harddrive with Ghost
2003. Putting it on another new machine, it could not boot-up successfully
however, due the difference in hard ware configurations. With the
installation CD, I want "To repair a Windows 2000 installation by using the
recovery console." When it asked me the administrator's password, I gave
it. It always say "The password is not valid."

I am 100% sure the password is correct, since I use it everyday. I think I
am lucky to find the problem in the process of preparing a contingency plan.
Just imagine how it would drive a person crazy when he has no choice but to
fix a Win2000 server which is running for daily operations.

So, how this may happen? Or, if one would lost the administrator password,
it is possible to recover a Win2000 server? Or at least to recover the
user data files.

Any advice? Thanks!

Martin Lam

 

[Jetro]

I guess this is DC but RecoveryConsole asks local Admin password. If you
don't remember it, try http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/.

Actually if you got STOP 0x7B, RecoveryConsole won't help anyway. Perform
in-place upgrade or prepare the original system and all the other W2k and
XPs according to

How to troubleshoot "Stop 0x0000007B" error messages in Windows 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822052#6g
You Receive a Stop 0x0000007B Error After You Move the Windows XP System
Disk to Another Computer
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q314082

If the hardware is absolutely dissimilar, you can try sysprep but not on DC
indeed.

NT/2k/Xp/2k3 system, unlike 9x, cannot replace the chipset drivers
on-the-fly because it doesn't have direct access to the hardware; that's why
that Stop error occurs if the chipsets are different and there is no
appropriate registry keys and the drivers preinstalled. The same Stop could
appear also if the BIOSes are different, i.e. ACPI-awared and non-ACPI, and
this is the HAL compatibility issue (ACPI - Standard). Modern BIOSes are
pretty good ACPI-awared so this case is more rare and obsolete.
XP and W2k3 are tightly bound at setup time to the hardware set of CPU,
chipset, HDD, and video adapter, and you cannot replace that set at once
during upgrade w/o re-activation Windows unless you got a Volume License.
Moreover, IIRC, the activation permits you changing every main hardware
component no more than 3 times w/o re-activation. But all that is an
activation issue only.