How To Copy Windows 2000 SP3 Files to Corrupted Install?

[Will]

I have a Windows 2000 server that is failing in the last stage of booting,
with a 0x6 SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILURE. A quick review online didn't
seem to reveal a single cause for this. I wanted to try to back up the
system32 files and replace these with a clean set of files from the SP4
install. Unfortunately, I cannot boot the machine so I cannot run the SP4
install. Does either:

1) Microsoft make a Windows 2000 install CD that incorporates the SP4 files
or

2) How can I get these files to copy over to the corrupt machine? I
supposed I could do a fresh install in parallel on the same hard drive and
then just over from that, but I would like to find a quicker path.

 

[Dave Patrick]

You can expand and copy files from your Windows 2000 install CD-Rom through
the recovery console.

From a command prompt you can expand the file. An example;

expand E:\I386\smss.ex_ %windir%\system32\smss.exe
would expand a new copy to the \system32 directory.

Also you'll want to use the correct version for the service pack level
you're at. So you may need to extract the file from a service pack.

To extract the service pack files without installing them, execute
J:\W2kSP4\W2KSP4.exe /x
Then when prompted, specify a directory to hold the extracted files.

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. At
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or 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: drive
root, %systemroot% or %windir%

--
Regards,

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

:
|I have a Windows 2000 server that is failing in the last stage of booting,
| with a 0x6 SESSION3_INITIALIZATION_FAILURE. A quick review online
didn't
| seem to reveal a single cause for this. I wanted to try to back up the
| system32 files and replace these with a clean set of files from the SP4
| install. Unfortunately, I cannot boot the machine so I cannot run the
SP4
| install. Does either:
|
| 1) Microsoft make a Windows 2000 install CD that incorporates the SP4
files
| or
|
| 2) How can I get these files to copy over to the corrupt machine? I
| supposed I could do a fresh install in parallel on the same hard drive and
| then just over from that, but I would like to find a quicker path.
|
| --
| Will
| westes AT earthbroadcast.com
|
|

 

[Will]

Does Microsoft make a Windows 2000 Install CD with SP4 pre-integrated, even
if this is just an MSDN product? It would need to be a bootable CD.

I like the idea of trying to do an upgrade in place and let Microsoft
attempt to replace potentially corrupt registry keys to a default state
associated with SP4.

 

[Dave Patrick]

It isn't possible to an in-place upgrade using integrated install media. Not
to mention an in-place upgrade is probably not possible when the operating
system cannot start.

--
Regards,

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

:
| Does Microsoft make a Windows 2000 Install CD with SP4 pre-integrated,
even
| if this is just an MSDN product? It would need to be a bootable CD.
|
| I like the idea of trying to do an upgrade in place and let Microsoft
| attempt to replace potentially corrupt registry keys to a default state
| associated with SP4.
|
| --
| Will
| westes AT earthbroadcast.com
|
|

 

[Will]

I executed /x to extract the SP4 files, but I'm perplexed by what exactly
this is giving me. The resulting file tree has files that are still
compressed in a directory named i386. The system32 directory under this
has just a single file in it, nothing else. Are these compressed files
the ones that correspond to the Windows 2000 root directory? Since it is
the files in system32 that usually load at boot time I want to make sure I
get those back to a default state for SP4 as well.

How should I process the compressed files and file tree that the /x
parameter creates?

 

[Will]

I've seen enough failures of Windows 2000 systems to know the difference
between an install that is so badly corrupted that the bootable CD installer
would not see it and one that is mildy corrupted. This one is booting all
the way to the very last stage and I suspect it could be updated if there
were a bootable SP4 install CD.

Is there a third party web site that tells you how to make such a CD on your
own since Microsoft apparently didn't have the wisdom to do this themselves?

 

[Dave Patrick]

Here are the steps to creating the integrated install.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows200...spdeploy.htm#the_integrated_installation_fmay

--
Regards,

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

:
| I've seen enough failures of Windows 2000 systems to know the difference
| between an install that is so badly corrupted that the bootable CD
installer
| would not see it and one that is mildy corrupted. This one is booting
all
| the way to the very last stage and I suspect it could be updated if there
| were a bootable SP4 install CD.
|
| Is there a third party web site that tells you how to make such a CD on
your
| own since Microsoft apparently didn't have the wisdom to do this
themselves?
|
| --
| Will
| westes AT earthbroadcast.com

 

[Dave Patrick]

Pretty much one file at a time. I doubt that a shotgun scatter-effect
approach would work since many of the files may be built at run time during
text-mode portion of setup.

From a command prompt you can expand the file. An example;

expand E:\I386\smss.ex_ %windir%\system32\smss.exe
would expand a new copy to the \system32 directory.

--
Regards,

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

:
|I executed /x to extract the SP4 files, but I'm perplexed by what exactly
| this is giving me. The resulting file tree has files that are still
| compressed in a directory named i386. The system32 directory under this
| has just a single file in it, nothing else. Are these compressed files
| the ones that correspond to the Windows 2000 root directory? Since it is
| the files in system32 that usually load at boot time I want to make sure I
| get those back to a default state for SP4 as well.
|
| How should I process the compressed files and file tree that the /x
| parameter creates?
|
| --
| Will
| westes AT earthbroadcast.com

 

[Will]

So all I need to do is expand what is in i386 and then copy those to the
system32 directory?

 

[Will]

If you create an integrated install of Windows 2000 SP4 in a shared folder,
per the link below, how do you then turn it into a bootable CD?

 

[Dave Patrick]

http://old.bink.nu/bootcd/

--
Regards,

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

:
| If you create an integrated install of Windows 2000 SP4 in a shared
folder,
| per the link below, how do you then turn it into a bootable CD?
|
| --
| Will
| westes AT earthbroadcast.com

 

[Dave Patrick]

Just to the extent of the files you wish to replace. Also they don't all
necessarily live in \system32 directory.

--
Regards,

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

:
| So all I need to do is expand what is in i386 and then copy those to the
| system32 directory?
|
| --
| Will
| westes AT earthbroadcast.com

 

[Jordan]

Just use Nlite
http://www.nliteos.com/

As long as you are not using and OEM CD as the base you should be all set.
This program will integrate a service pack, add drivers, turn on or off
default services, etc and even give you the option at the end to make an ISO
image which you will then use any CD burning software to make a CD with.

My two cents are, if the hardware you are trying to fix is the same as
another box, try dumping this hard drive into another box just to be sure
you are not having a hardware issue. It only takes one bad bit on a chip.

If you are trying to fix a box that already has a bunch of apps on it, it
may be the app or added service that is the culprit, not Windows. Try
booting into the recovery console and set all non-windows services to manual
to see if that helps (especially AV programs). One final thing is you could
add this drive as a second drive on a working system that has an up today AV
program and SpyWare program scanner and scan the drive. Doing an in-place
upgrade does not remove spyware or viruses.