Urgent Upgrade Assistance Needed

[Guest]

We are attempting to upgrade our Windows 98 computer with a Windows 2000 Professional Full Installation CD. Everything looked like it was going fine, but after several hours, we realized that it seems to be stuck in an endless loop, and we cannot get it to stop. It has gotten to the "Performing Final Tasks" portion of Setup, then it reboots, after reboot, it seems to be okay, but then it says something about NTFS, and "Restarting Setup". Then it goes through the whole thing again. It is on it's 7th time going through that process!

How do we get it to stop, and why is it doing this? Is there any way to salvage this installation???

 

[Clint]

Take out the cd before it reboots

-----Original Message-----
We are attempting to upgrade our Windows 98 computer with

a Windows 2000 Professional Full Installation CD.
Everything looked like it was going fine, but after
several hours, we realized that it seems to be stuck in an
endless loop, and we cannot get it to stop. It has gotten
to the "Performing Final Tasks" portion of Setup, then it
reboots, after reboot, it seems to be okay, but then it
says something about NTFS, and "Restarting Setup". Then
it goes through the whole thing again. It is on it's 7th
time going through that process!

How do we get it to stop, and why is it doing this? Is

there any way to salvage this installation???

 

[Guest]

We have tried that, and as soon as you do, it says "Drive is NTFS" with a directory path, and "Restarting Setup". Then you get an error that says that it needs the disk. If you cancel out, you get a system setup log window in C:\windows\setuperr.log.

We cannot find any way to get to a command prompt or anything that will even let us see the hard drive to change anything there to try and stop it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Guest]

I am sorry I can not help you,I had the same thing but
after 2000 loaded,we removed the disk.

-----Original Message-----
We have tried that, and as soon as you do, it says "Drive

is NTFS" with a directory path, and "Restarting Setup".
Then you get an error that says that it needs the disk.
If you cancel out, you get a system setup log window in
C:\windows\setuperr.log.

We cannot find any way to get to a command prompt or

anything that will even let us see the hard drive to
change anything there to try and stop it. Any suggestions
would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Clint]

I just thought of something,I did a clean install of 2000
on the last two pc's.Dell 350 with no problems.

-----Original Message-----
We have tried that, and as soon as you do, it says "Drive

is NTFS" with a directory path, and "Restarting Setup".
Then you get an error that says that it needs the disk.
If you cancel out, you get a system setup log window in
C:\windows\setuperr.log.

We cannot find any way to get to a command prompt or

anything that will even let us see the hard drive to
change anything there to try and stop it. Any suggestions
would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Upgrading from Win98 to Win2000 is possible but not recommended. You inherit
all the problems your Win98 machine had, and you're also stuck with numerous
compromises that are required to "marry" two such dissimilar operating
systems.

Do a clean install and you will get a solid, robust operating system.

We are attempting to upgrade our Windows 98 computer with a Windows 2000

Professional Full Installation CD. Everything looked like it was going
fine, but after several hours, we realized that it seems to be stuck in an
endless loop, and we cannot get it to stop. It has gotten to the
"Performing Final Tasks" portion of Setup, then it reboots, after reboot, it
seems to be okay, but then it says something about NTFS, and "Restarting
Setup". Then it goes through the whole thing again. It is on it's 7th time
going through that process!

How do we get it to stop, and why is it doing this? Is there any way to

salvage this installation???

 

[Guest]

We would be happy to do a clean install, but there are two issues.

1) How do we salvage all of our data that was in Win98 (programs that were installed, and now will be gone if we do not somehow salvage the install?

and

2) How do we even get to a command prompt or anything that will allow us to do a fresh install without going out and getting a new hard drive? We cannot even get to our hard drive right now. It will not boot to anything other than the setup program with no options, and goes straight back into restarting setup...nothing else...

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

We would be happy to do a clean install, but there are two issues.

1) How do we salvage all of our data that was in Win98 (programs that

were installed, and now will be gone if we do not somehow salvage the
install?

and

2) How do we even get to a command prompt or anything that will allow us

to do a fresh install without going out and getting a new hard drive? We
cannot even get to our hard drive right now. It will not boot to anything
other than the setup program with no options, and goes straight back into
restarting setup...nothing else...
===========================
Let me answer your questions in turn.

1. Salvaging your data. There are two groups of PC users: those who back up
their important files regularly, and those who don't. In the long run,
everybody joins the first group. The transition from one group to the other
can be very painful. You obviously belong to the second group, considering
that you're trying to upgrade operating systems without first backing up
your important files. Or perhaps you did not back them up because they are
not important.

Get a second disk (say 40 GBytes - they are cheap!), install it as a slave
disk, then copy the original disk across. You can use the disk copy program
that most disk manufacturers make available free of charge (check their home
site!), or you can use DriveImage or Ghost.

2. Installing Win2000. Set your BIOS so that the CD ROM is your primary boot
device, pop in your Win2000 CD, then boot from that CD. You will
automatically launch the Win2000 setup program. If given a choice, instruct
the installation program to place Win2000 into C:\WinNT.

You will have to re-install all your applications.

 

[Guest]

That does not stop anything. It stops and prompts that it needs the Service Pak 3 which is onthe CD, there is no way other than taking the drive out to get around the cycling of the setup process.

 

[Guest]

Actually we have always belonged to the group that backs up data. All of our files are backed up. We understand that we will have to reinstall the old applications. We were looking for someone here that might have an idea how to get out of a circular setup program. We already figured out that putting in another drive would give us a clean install. That was not that hard to figure out.

Does not look like there is anyone here that knows W2000 at all.

Take care all

 

[Guest]

Let me be more specific..

1) We have backed up all of our data. Yes, we could reinstall it all back to the drive. However, the drive will not allow us to get back to a point where we can do any of that. Yes, we can buy a new drive, but does that mean that this drive is now headed for the trash heap since the only thing that can be done is that it runs circularly through the setup with no option to get to any other commands

2) Since we backed up the data, obviously the data was important enough to us to do so. However, if we are unable to "Upgrade", then we lose use of them, unless we reinstall them all again. Can we do that? Sure! However, it would be nice if we did not have to start from scratch. That is the whole purpose of an "upgrade

So, in summary, we just want to know how it is that we get back to square one. The hard drive will not allow us to do so. We have attempted to find information on a boot disk or any way to boot to the CD, but even when you set it to Primary Boot Device CD it goes right back into Setup

That is what we are attempting to find out right now

Any suggestions? Transferring all the data will continue the cycle. And at this point, the NFTS portion of the Hard Drive is not even viewable when you boot from a 98 Hard Drive. (Which we have also tried.)

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Let me be more specific...

1) We have backed up all of our data. Yes, we could reinstall it all

back to the drive. However, the drive will not allow us to get back to a
point where we can do any of that. Yes, we can buy a new drive, but does
that mean that this drive is now headed for the trash heap since the only
thing that can be done is that it runs circularly through the setup with no
option to get to any other commands?

2) Since we backed up the data, obviously the data was important enough

to us to do so. However, if we are unable to "Upgrade", then we lose use of
them, unless we reinstall them all again. Can we do that? Sure! However,
it would be nice if we did not have to start from scratch. That is the
whole purpose of an "upgrade"

So, in summary, we just want to know how it is that we get back to square

one. The hard drive will not allow us to do so. We have attempted to find
information on a boot disk or any way to boot to the CD, but even when you
set it to Primary Boot Device CD it goes right back into Setup.

That is what we are attempting to find out right now.

Any suggestions? Transferring all the data will continue the cycle. And

at this point, the NFTS portion of the Hard Drive is not even viewable when
you boot from a 98 Hard Drive. (Which we have also tried.)
=========================

I'm glad to hear that you've backed up your data.

Before you suggest that "there is'nt anyone here that knows W2000 at all",
wait until you've seen all the responses. You have barely scratched the
surface!

Let's start at the beginning. Is your system partition in a readable
condition? Is it FAT, FAT32 or NTFS? Have you tried the following:

- Boot with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
- Can you see anything on drive C:? What?
- Run this command:
ntfsdos /L:E
ntfsdos.exe is freely downloadable from www.sysinternals.com.
- Can you see anything on drive E:? What?

Report your results here.

 

[dcdon]

Man, "I think you have it, by jove".
You've caught that disease I have, one of being undaunted in the face of fire.

and to mcnallys; If it can't be fixed here, it can't be fixed. If you hang with 'em and give
the straight facts, I'd bet a weeks wages on Pegasus alone, much less all the other great
care givers in this NG.

And Happy New Year (not being a smart arse either)
don CFII, A&P, GC/LA, RC/LA, RMI, ->(oh, that's enough)
--------

Let me be more specific...

1) We have backed up all of our data. Yes, we could reinstall it all

back to the drive. However, the drive will not allow us to get back to a
point where we can do any of that. Yes, we can buy a new drive, but does
that mean that this drive is now headed for the trash heap since the only
thing that can be done is that it runs circularly through the setup with no
option to get to any other commands?

2) Since we backed up the data, obviously the data was important enough

to us to do so. However, if we are unable to "Upgrade", then we lose use of
them, unless we reinstall them all again. Can we do that? Sure! However,
it would be nice if we did not have to start from scratch. That is the
whole purpose of an "upgrade"

So, in summary, we just want to know how it is that we get back to square

one. The hard drive will not allow us to do so. We have attempted to find
information on a boot disk or any way to boot to the CD, but even when you
set it to Primary Boot Device CD it goes right back into Setup.

That is what we are attempting to find out right now.

Any suggestions? Transferring all the data will continue the cycle. And

at this point, the NFTS portion of the Hard Drive is not even viewable when
you boot from a 98 Hard Drive. (Which we have also tried.)
=========================

I'm glad to hear that you've backed up your data.

Before you suggest that "there is'nt anyone here that knows W2000 at all",
wait until you've seen all the responses. You have barely scratched the
surface!

Let's start at the beginning. Is your system partition in a readable
condition? Is it FAT, FAT32 or NTFS? Have you tried the following:

- Boot with a Win98 boot disk from www.bootdisk.com.
- Can you see anything on drive C:? What?
- Run this command:
ntfsdos /L:E
ntfsdos.exe is freely downloadable from www.sysinternals.com.
- Can you see anything on drive E:? What?

Report your results here.