corrupt files in W2K system

[Jim Szatkowski]

I'm having issues with a Win2000Pro SP4 installation (workstation). I had
some files corrupt on the hard drive and ended up running a repair - chkdsk
/f and getting the hard drive to read correctly now.

Win2KPro wouldn't boot. The drive is still ok - I'm dual booting into
other OS's just fine. However, it appears the corruption was in/on a
section of the drive that had the 2KPro system files. It starts to boot
into 2K and goes to the black screen with the white boxes across the bottom
and hangs on the second little box. That part appears to be past bootldr
and etc. I tried to do an inplace upgrade-repair of the partition and got a
parallel install into the WINNT directory. The original is in the WINDOWS
directory (since it was an upgrade from Win98SE).

My question is - what file(s) can I copy to replace the bad file in the
WINDOWS directory so that installation of Win2K can boot up? There's a lot
of programs/settings/etc I really want to save and possibly upgrade into
WinXPPro without doing a clean install?


Thanks so much, in advance!
Jim

 

[John John (MVP)]

This is now a fine mess! A parallel installation on the same partition
as another existing Windows is a last resort measure usually only
intended to be done for data recovery, and then only when other data
recovery methods are unavailable. Because of shared directories, like
the Programs Folder, Internet Explorer etc, such an install usually
does, or can do quite a number on the existing installation.

I can only suggest that you make sure that all your personal data is
properly backed up and that you perhaps try again to do an in-place
upgrade of the original installation (point it to the right folder when
asked) and hope for the best. Don't expect miracles, to obtain a
reliable bug free installation you may have to wipe it and install again
from scratch!

This is for NT4 but much of the information there should be informative:

How and Why to Perform a Parallel Installation of Windows NT 4.0
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=259003

John

 

[Jim Szatkowski]

Do you know what specific file is executing during that black screen with
the white
boxes across the bottom is visible?
Thanks!
Jim

 

[John John (MVP)]

No, not really. You can enable boot logging (tap the F8 key when
booting) then look at the ntbtlog.txt file in the %systemroot% folder
and see if you can find anything there.

John

 

[Bob I]

use "/sos" switch in boot.ini
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/833722