2000 Server crashed in a big way

[Bill]

I use a win2000 server on a small network. It has a Soyo
MB with mirrored raid drives (so I wouldnt loose info in
event of a drive failure. It is also used as my
workstation!!!! I backed up ALMOST all the files due to it
becoming flaky and ran Adware, Hijack this, Sophos etc and
it seemed to be ok. Started up a couple of days ago and
the message "Registry cannot load the hive file.
SystemRoot/System32/config/Software@. End result is 2000
server will not start. Go to the emergency disk to find
it missing, I have all of the disks for PCs going back
years, many of them now gone, but no disks for the
server. I cannot get onto the HDDs at all. I have put
another disk into the machine and loaded Win 2000 Pro in
the hope it will see the raid array but to no avail.
There are a couple of important files left on the machine
that did not get backed up and I am now getting a bit
desperate.
Can anyone suggest how I can at least get to read the
disks in the array??

Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

[Bill]

Sorry the message should read "Registry cannot load the
hive file.
SystemRoot/System32/config/Software".

 

[Pegasus]

I use a win2000 server on a small network. It has a Soyo
MB with mirrored raid drives (so I wouldnt loose info in
event of a drive failure. It is also used as my
workstation!!!! I backed up ALMOST all the files due to it
becoming flaky and ran Adware, Hijack this, Sophos etc and
it seemed to be ok. Started up a couple of days ago and
the message "Registry cannot load the hive file.
SystemRoot/System32/config/Software@. End result is 2000
server will not start. Go to the emergency disk to find
it missing, I have all of the disks for PCs going back
years, many of them now gone, but no disks for the
server. I cannot get onto the HDDs at all. I have put
another disk into the machine and loaded Win 2000 Pro in
the hope it will see the raid array but to no avail.
There are a couple of important files left on the machine
that did not get backed up and I am now getting a bit
desperate.
Can anyone suggest how I can at least get to read the
disks in the array??

Thanks in advance.

Bill

If you have a hardware RAID array then an ordinary Win98
boot disk from www.bootdisk.com, with ntfsdos.exe from
www.sysinternals.com will give you read-access to your disk.

 

[Dave Patrick]

If the software hive is corrupt, it may be possible to rename the software
hive found in;
%windir%\system32\config\software
to software.old
then copy the most recent backup found in
%windir%\repair\regback
as
%windir%\system32\config\software

If that fails you can copy/ use the file
%windir%\repair\software
This file is an image of the hive at the time the OS was installed, so you'd
have to reinstall all software. This being the case you might just as well
blow it away and start a new install. (note: this would at least allow you
to start the OS to make any necessary backups prior to wiping the drive.)

To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks.
Press ENTER at the "Setup Notification" screen. Press R to repair a Windows
2000 installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The
Recovery Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do
not have the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer:
%systemroot% and %windir%

--
Regards,

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

:
| Sorry the message should read "Registry cannot load the
| hive file.
| SystemRoot/System32/config/Software".
| >-----Original Message-----
| >I use a win2000 server on a small network. It has a Soyo
| >MB with mirrored raid drives (so I wouldnt loose info in
| >event of a drive failure. It is also used as my
| >workstation!!!! I backed up ALMOST all the files due to
| it
| >becoming flaky and ran Adware, Hijack this, Sophos etc
| and
| >it seemed to be ok. Started up a couple of days ago and
| >the message "Registry cannot load the hive file.
| >SystemRoot/System32/config/Software@. End result is 2000
| >server will not start. Go to the emergency disk to find
| >it missing, I have all of the disks for PCs going back
| >years, many of them now gone, but no disks for the
| >server. I cannot get onto the HDDs at all. I have put
| >another disk into the machine and loaded Win 2000 Pro in
| >the hope it will see the raid array but to no avail.
| >There are a couple of important files left on the machine
| >that did not get backed up and I am now getting a bit
| >desperate.
| >Can anyone suggest how I can at least get to read the
| >disks in the array??
| >
| >Thanks in advance.
| >
| >Bill
| >.
| >

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

I use a win2000 server on a small network. It has a Soyo
MB with mirrored raid drives (so I wouldnt loose info in
event of a drive failure. It is also used as my
workstation!!!! I backed up ALMOST all the files due to it
becoming flaky and ran Adware, Hijack this, Sophos etc and
it seemed to be ok. Started up a couple of days ago and
the message "Registry cannot load the hive file.
SystemRoot/System32/config/Software@. End result is 2000
server will not start.

Hi

Some steps you can try:


=================================================
Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...01-2C68-4DE8-9229-CA494362419C&displaylang=en

<quote>
Overview
Registry Corruption in Windows 2000 can prevent your system from
booting. The Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility is a tool that
can help to recover a Windows 2000 system from registry corruption.
This utility can be downloaded on to floppy disks and then run on
the system with the corrupted registry. Six floppy disks are required
for downloading this utility. The utility will attempt to repair
the corrupted registry and allow your machine to boot again.

Note Depending on the type of registry corruption that has occurred,
running this utility could result in some data loss from the registry.
Also, this utility may be unable to repair some types of registry
corruptions.
</quote>


=================================================
If that doesn't work out, try this:

When you start your computer, press F8 repeatedly. You should boot
into the Windows 2000 Advanced Options menu.

Choose "Last Known Good Configuration"


=================================================
If that doesn't work out, try to rename/replace the registry hive
from the Recovery Console:

Description of the Windows 2000 Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=229716

and
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=#[email protected]

and
How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP
from Starting (relevant for Windows 2000 as well)
support.microsoft.com/?id=307545