Boot problem

[Paul Floyd]

Hi

I'm trying to revive an old PC. It works fine with Solaris, Linux,
FreeBSD and OS/2. However, it won't boot Windows 2000. In the past, it
worked OK with windows.

I've tried safe boot and LKG. After the login screen, I get a blank
desktop for a couple of minutes, then it falls back to the login screen.

Partition Magic 8 finds no errors on the 2 partitions (D: boot, F: data,
on 2 disks). Same thing for chkdsk from the recovery console. And though
I can login to the recovery console, I can't perform a repair or even
reinstall (in both cases, the W2K installation can't be found).

My next line of attack is likely to be to either mount the boot
partition from Linux and try to hunt down a boot log (I'm not too sure
what to look for), or to make a 2nd W2K installation, and see what I can
see in the original installation from there. I suppose that I could also
attempt things like registry repair and so on.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

A bientot
PaulPaul

 

[Dave Patrick]

These articles may help.

Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];249321

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/


--

Regards,

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

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

Hi

I'm trying to revive an old PC. It works fine with Solaris, Linux,
FreeBSD and OS/2. However, it won't boot Windows 2000. In the past, it
worked OK with windows.

I've tried safe boot and LKG. After the login screen, I get a blank
desktop for a couple of minutes, then it falls back to the login screen.

Partition Magic 8 finds no errors on the 2 partitions (D: boot, F: data,
on 2 disks). Same thing for chkdsk from the recovery console. And though
I can login to the recovery console, I can't perform a repair or even
reinstall (in both cases, the W2K installation can't be found).

My next line of attack is likely to be to either mount the boot
partition from Linux and try to hunt down a boot log (I'm not too sure
what to look for), or to make a 2nd W2K installation, and see what I can
see in the original installation from there. I suppose that I could also
attempt things like registry repair and so on.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Are you just using the one operating system (Win2K) for your hard drive?

It sounds like a profile corruption to me. I don't think it's a
boot-up/disk problem. When you first install Win2k, you shouldn't have
to logon, although you will be asked for login details while installing.
It's only when you instruct Windows to force users to logon that you
then have to supply those details just before boot-up completes. Are you
logging in as 'administrator' or under your own username? You have those
2 alternatives when you first install. Try logging on under the former.

 

[Paul Floyd]

It sounds like a profile corruption to me. I don't think it's a
boot-up/disk problem. When you first install Win2k, you shouldn't have
to logon, although you will be asked for login details while installing.
It's only when you instruct Windows to force users to logon that you
then have to supply those details just before boot-up completes. Are you
logging in as 'administrator' or under your own username? You have those
2 alternatives when you first install. Try logging on under the former.

Hi

The installation used to work, and I've always had to log on. I have the
same problem with both Administrator and a normal user.

A bientot
Paul

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi

The installation used to work, and I've always had to log on. I have the
same problem with both Administrator and a normal user.

A bientot
Paul

It is highly likely that your system drive letter has changed. Dave
Patrick gave you the recipe to fix this. You should try the
method described in his link.

 

[Paul Floyd]

These articles may help.

Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];249321

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188/

Hi

This looks fairly promising. I boot with grub. The W2K system partition
is on the 1st primary partition of the 2nd disk. On the 1st disk, there
is a small FAT partition and an HPFS partition. The FAT partition ia hidden
and the HPFS partition not hidden. This means that the W2K NTFS partition
gets assigned d:.

At about the time that it stopped working, I had just added some drivers
to access a Sony digital camera via USB. Then the video card died, and
it was several months until I replaced it. I doubt that either is
related to the problem I'm having logging in.

A bientot
Paul

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

Hi

The installation used to work, and I've always had to log on. I have the
same problem with both Administrator and a normal user.

What did you do beforehand just before the system fouled up? You don't
need OS2/HPFS. Stick to Win2k. It's one of MS's better operating
systems. By the time you spend trying to fix this problem, you'll either
likely make things worse, or could have done a re-install. Have you
backed up your data files. If so, then do a re-format/reinstall on drive
C and be done with it. It doesn't take that long, and then you have a
fresh start.

 

[Paul Floyd]

What did you do beforehand just before the system fouled up? You don't

The last thing that I remember doing was installing some digital camera
drivers, but I don't think that is the cause. I have 3 ghost backups,
and I've tried restoring one that I'm sure predates installing the
drivers, and it also has the same problem. Another change that I made
was switching some Solaris partittion IDs, from 0x82 to 0xbf I think.
AFAIK, both are unrecognised by W2K.

need OS2/HPFS. Stick to Win2k. It's one of MS's better operating

OS/2 still needs it to boot. I can't access that partition from Windows,
and I'm not too bothered by it.

systems. By the time you spend trying to fix this problem, you'll either
likely make things worse, or could have done a re-install. Have you
backed up your data files. If so, then do a re-format/reinstall on drive
C and be done with it. It doesn't take that long, and then you have a
fresh start.

I'm currently doing a reinstall. I'll see how things go from there.

A bientot
Paul

 

[Paul Floyd]

It is highly likely that your system drive letter has changed. Dave
Patrick gave you the recipe to fix this. You should try the
method described in his link.

I don't have a networked Windows computer to allow remote registry
editing. And my various attampts to hide partitions didn't get anywhere.

It'd be a lot easier if I had a console to work with, and/or a detailed
log.

A bientot
Paul

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I don't have a networked Windows computer to allow remote registry
editing. And my various attampts to hide partitions didn't get anywhere.

It'd be a lot easier if I had a console to work with, and/or a detailed
log.

A bientot
Paul

There are other methods to edit the registry if your PC is not
networked. Here are four of them:
a) Install the hard disk as a slave disk in some other Win2000/XP
PC, then use regedit.exe to load the System hive for editing.
b) Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD, then run regedit.exe
as above.
c) Load an auxiliary copy of Windows into a directory other than
c:\WinNT, then run regedit as above.
d) Boot the machine with a Nordahl boot diskette (www.bootdisk.com),
then edit the registry with the inbuilt editor.

Method a) requires another PC.
Method b) requires Bart PE CD. This is a very powerful tool but
it takes some time to make one.
Method c) requires sufficient disk empty disk space.
Method d) is about as intuitive wrestling is for the Pope.

However, all of them let you modify the registry.

 

[Paul Floyd]

There are other methods to edit the registry if your PC is not
networked. Here are four of them:
a) Install the hard disk as a slave disk in some other Win2000/XP
PC, then use regedit.exe to load the System hive for editing.
b) Boot the machine with a Bart PE boot CD, then run regedit.exe
as above.
c) Load an auxiliary copy of Windows into a directory other than
c:\WinNT, then run regedit as above.
d) Boot the machine with a Nordahl boot diskette (www.bootdisk.com),
then edit the registry with the inbuilt editor.

Method a) requires another PC.

I do have 2 working PCs, but neither has Windows 2K/XP.

Method b) requires Bart PE CD. This is a very powerful tool but
it takes some time to make one.
Method c) requires sufficient disk empty disk space.

The d: drive has only about 800Mbytes free. There's plenty of space
elsewhere, so I could make a fresh new bootable primary partition.I
could make a fresh new bootable primary partition.

Method d) is about as intuitive wrestling is for the Pope.

It looks like this is a Linux app. I'll make a note of it, as I have
Linux installed, so I wouldn't need to build a boot floppy/CD.

A bientot
Paul

 

[Frank Booth Snr]

The last thing that I remember doing was installing some digital camera
drivers, but I don't think that is the cause. I have 3 ghost backups,
and I've tried restoring one that I'm sure predates installing the
drivers, and it also has the same problem. Another change that I made
was switching some Solaris partittion IDs, from 0x82 to 0xbf I think.
AFAIK, both are unrecognised by W2K.




OS/2 still needs it to boot. I can't access that partition from Windows,
and I'm not too bothered by it.

Yes. That's the problem. You may get an error at setting up Win2k which
should be done after you install OS/2. Because OS/2 uses its own boot
manager Win2k may try to destroy it on installation. However there
appears to be a fix for this on http://os2site.com/sw/util/disk/boot.

Have a read of this - http://www.felgall.com/os2ins6.htm

 

[Paul Floyd]

Yes. That's the problem. You may get an error at setting up Win2k which
should be done after you install OS/2. Because OS/2 uses its own boot
manager Win2k may try to destroy it on installation. However there
appears to be a fix for this on http://os2site.com/sw/util/disk/boot.

Have a read of this - http://www.felgall.com/os2ins6.htm

Hi

I'm aware of incompatibilities with OS/2 bootmanager. But that can't be
the problem, as I haven't used it for many years. At present, I boot
with grub (on a disk that only has RH9 on it).

A bientot
Paul