Login drops back into login prompt

[ashley]

Hi,

I need help with this one. All attempts to login to
Windows 2000 simply return to login prompt after playing
the signature tune. Desktop never appears. Affects all
users and also happens in safe mode. But I can login to
comand prompt in Recovery Console.

I have had this happen to me twice - both times after
issuing fdisk /mbr from Windows 98 to dispose of Lilo after
trying L***x distributions (but it hasn't always happened).
The last time it happened I resolved the problem by
restoring win2k from a Ghost image.

Disk config is:
HDD1
Part. 1 (Primary, Active) FAT32 Win 98SE
Part. 2 (Primary) NTFS Win2k
Part. 3 (extended)
logical 1 NTFS Win2k swap
logical 2 FAT32 data
logical 3 FAT32 data

HDD2
Part.1 (Primary) Linux Ext3
Part. 2 (Extended)
logical Linux swap
logical Linux Ext3
logical NTFS

I suspect that it has to do with drive letter assignments
being changed so that the Windows 2k system drive has a
different drive letter.

All FAT32 and NTFS drives are visible and readable from Linux.

Can anybody offer any suggestions for recovering access to
Win2k?

Thanks,
Ashley

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi,

I need help with this one. All attempts to login to
Windows 2000 simply return to login prompt after playing
the signature tune. Desktop never appears. Affects all
users and also happens in safe mode. But I can login to
comand prompt in Recovery Console.

I have had this happen to me twice - both times after
issuing fdisk /mbr from Windows 98 to dispose of Lilo after
trying L***x distributions (but it hasn't always happened).
The last time it happened I resolved the problem by
restoring win2k from a Ghost image.

Disk config is:
HDD1
Part. 1 (Primary, Active) FAT32 Win 98SE
Part. 2 (Primary) NTFS Win2k
Part. 3 (extended)
logical 1 NTFS Win2k swap
logical 2 FAT32 data
logical 3 FAT32 data

HDD2
Part.1 (Primary) Linux Ext3
Part. 2 (Extended)
logical Linux swap
logical Linux Ext3
logical NTFS

I suspect that it has to do with drive letter assignments
being changed so that the Windows 2k system drive has a
different drive letter.

All FAT32 and NTFS drives are visible and readable from Linux.

Can anybody offer any suggestions for recovering access to
Win2k?

Thanks,
Ashley

Your guess is probably correct: Win2000 expects userinit.exe
somewhere other than where it really is. One way to resolve
the issue is to copy this file to the correct folder on EACH drive,
then to set its location correctly in the registry:
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/Winlogon/Userinit