Login Screen Doesnt show up at boot

[Guest]

Hi, Im having trouble getting to the login screen in my Win2K installation.

Everything boots up fine, but it stops where the 'press Ctrl+Alt+Del' is
supposed to come up. Instead, I just have a solid blue screen with the
mouse. Ive tried all safe modes and still get the same problem.
I don't really like the idea of having to reinstall Windows from scratch, so
is there anything else i can do?

Ive been reading around and suspect it might be something to do with
userinit.exe, the one I have is: 17.3KB, modified 19/06/2003.

The last thing I did was clone the hard drive (my idea of a backup) - Ive
read KB article 249321 about the drive letter, but I dont think this is the
same because the login screen doesnt come up at all. The cloned drive has
the same problem - so much for a backup! (I used Norton Ghost, the version
that came with SystemWorks 2003)
I haven't installed any new updates either and I dont recall installing
anything recently.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated - Im willing to try anything.
Thanks in advance

My spec:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+, Asus K8V SEDX, nVidia Geforce4 MX 440, 1.5GB RAM (if
you need more info, let me know)

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Hi, Im having trouble getting to the login screen in my Win2K
installation.

Everything boots up fine, but it stops where the 'press Ctrl+Alt+Del' is
supposed to come up. Instead, I just have a solid blue screen with the
mouse. Ive tried all safe modes and still get the same problem.
I don't really like the idea of having to reinstall Windows from scratch,
so
is there anything else i can do?

Ive been reading around and suspect it might be something to do with
userinit.exe, the one I have is: 17.3KB, modified 19/06/2003.

The last thing I did was clone the hard drive (my idea of a backup) - Ive
read KB article 249321 about the drive letter, but I dont think this is
the
same because the login screen doesnt come up at all. The cloned drive has
the same problem - so much for a backup! (I used Norton Ghost, the version
that came with SystemWorks 2003)
I haven't installed any new updates either and I dont recall installing
anything recently.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated - Im willing to try anything.
Thanks in advance

My spec:
AMD Athlon 64 3000+, Asus K8V SEDX, nVidia Geforce4 MX 440, 1.5GB RAM (if
you need more info, let me know)

As you observe correctly, the problem with userinit.exe becomes
apparent ***after*** you log in, not before.

Seeing that this problem occurred after you used Norton Ghost
to clone your disk, it appears that Ghost actually caused it.
I recommend you try the Ghost FAQs.

 

[Guest]

Hi

I decided to have a go at disconnecting all of my hard drives except the
backup and found to my amazement that it worked! Therefore, it seems that
this is connected to that problem in KB 249321.

However, this is te oddest thing: I made 2 backups, one of Win2K and the
other of my persona files, which is on a seperate disk. Its THIS partition,
the one with no usage at boot time, which seems to have hung windows at boot
time.

Im going to follow the article above and see if this will fix it and post
here if it does.

Thanks for the help Pegasus

 

[Guest]

Right, well I tried the article and... it didn't help.

In the end, I had to remove the partitions on the backup drive and
repartition it. Then Windows would show the login screen with all drives
attached.

Ive learned from this - Im not cloning that drive ever again (this was my
first time trying it), Ill try synchronising instead!

Cheers

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have cloned countless drives without ever observing
the phenomenon you report. However, I used to use
DriveImage (PQMagic) and now DriveImage (Acronis).

 

[Guest]

Yeah, Ive used this many times for my Win2000 partition without any trouble
like this.

Oh well, at least Im back on windows! It may be an idea to look at the two
you mention.

Cheers