Installing W2K over another OS - problems

[Dianah]

I have friends ... their pc crashed miserably, but they needed access to
their files.

They didn't get the OS when they purchased the pc (old story, I know).
Anyway, they managed to get W2K installed over Win98.

They did a bunch of installs, but it's all very wonky. They can't copy
anything then paste from the clipboard, hyperlinks in emails don't work for
them ... it's all a mess.

Until they get their files copied over to CD, if there a way to simply
"repair" W2K for the short term. I've already told them that we'll need to
format and start new.

*** I was hoping that maybe inserting the CD from a reboot would initiate
the repair mechanism. Is this true? Is this how it's done? ***

In Add/Remove programs, I was going to have them access Add/Remove Windows
Components, but it's isn't displaying properly, so it isn't an optipn.
Other windows seem to be function ok, from what I can tell over the phone.

They have other issues with copy/paste functions, so there's something
a-miss with the clipboard. I'm hoping it's related to W2K perhaps not
really istalling properly. I've got them copying files, while windows is
still functioning, in preparation for formatting, and doing a clean install.

I hope someone has an answer to the setup/repair question.
Diana

 

[David]

-----Original Message-----
I have friends ... their pc crashed miserably, but they needed access to
their files.

They didn't get the OS when they purchased the pc (old story, I know).
Anyway, they managed to get W2K installed over Win98.

They did a bunch of installs, but it's all very wonky. They can't copy
anything then paste from the clipboard, hyperlinks in emails don't work for
them ... it's all a mess.

Until they get their files copied over to CD, if there a way to simply
"repair" W2K for the short term. I've already told them that we'll need to
format and start new.

*** I was hoping that maybe inserting the CD from a reboot would initiate
the repair mechanism. Is this true? Is this how it's done? ***

In Add/Remove programs, I was going to have them access Add/Remove Windows
Components, but it's isn't displaying properly, so it isn't an optipn.
Other windows seem to be function ok, from what I can tell over the phone.

They have other issues with copy/paste functions, so there's something
a-miss with the clipboard. I'm hoping it's related to W2K perhaps not
really istalling properly. I've got them copying files, while windows is
still functioning, in preparation for formatting, and doing a clean install.

I hope someone has an answer to the setup/repair question.
Diana

Diana, you don't want to do a "repair" of the current
mess, there. That's just putting one more band-aid on top
of the other band-aids.

When they've got their files backed up, you want to get
that system totally fdisked and reformatted using ONLY the
W2K OS CD, that will then be installed.

Clean, clean, clean.

Reason? Computers are absolute idiots at repairing
themselves, even under the best of circumstances.

It's more work, but it's really less work in the long run.

David

 

[RWD]

I would try loading up the latest Windows 2000 service pack. It is a long
shot but occasionally if there are some corrupted or missing system files
they will get replaced by the new service pack files. If this does not work
i believe if you boot from the CD there is a repair option in Windows 2000
setup. It should leave most of your system intact. My recommendation is,
however is to get all of the files you need off the hard drive and start
from scratch.

 

[Dianah]

Thanks ...
I agree with both of you. I was hoping there might be some thoughts out
there different from my own.
You are absolutely right about windows not being able to clean itself. With
WinXP on my own system ... it still doesn't do a good job of cleaning
itself.
I ran a little registry utility on my own system and it really made a big
difference. Too bad Microsoft doesn't provide such a utility.
The people with the problematic pc ended up getting their drive formatted
and the OS installed clean which is what I'd been recommending all along.
Apparently the shop planned to ghost their hard drive so that they could
access their data files. So, I'm hoping that all wasn't lost.
Thanks again.

I would try loading up the latest Windows 2000 service pack. It is a long
shot but occasionally if there are some corrupted or missing system files
they will get replaced by the new service pack files. If this does not work
i believe if you boot from the CD there is a repair option in Windows 2000
setup. It should leave most of your system intact. My recommendation is,
however is to get all of the files you need off the hard drive and start
from scratch.