What does the "Repair" process do?

[Doug]

In the Win2k install/setup process, the very first screen
offers the following three options:
- To set up Windows 2000 now, press ENTER.
- To repair a Windows 2000 installation, press R.
- To quit Setup without installing Windows 2000, press F3.

What *exactly* will the "repair" ("R") option do? Also,
what will it not do?

The reason I ask is because my PC crashes (with an error
screen that says there's a hardware failure) about half-
way through the boot process, but the HDD is not making
any nasty grinding noises, so I am hopeful there is only a
minor (i.e., repairable) problem. Regardless of what's
wrong with the HDD, my main goal is to recover my old data
files (if possible). If I can repair the OS and restore
all previous function that would be great, but that's
secondary to recovering the data. My worry is that my
repair efforts will accidentally make my data files
unavailable, so I want to learn as much as possible about
the "repair" option before I try using it. I know
virtually nothing about repairing Win2k, so I don't want
to get in over my head and cause more damage than has
already occurred.

Thanks.

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Dougg

What does them error message say, *exactly*?

It might not be your hard disk at all.

Is it "Hardware malfunction"?

In that case, see if this MS Knowledge Base article can help you:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=222973

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[Doug]

Thanks for the good article, Bjorn, but I don't think it
will help me.

My PC's hardware malfunction went like this. I was
working on my computer, writing an email I think, when the
hard drive suddenly began to make a loud noise, like it
was repeatedly trying (and failing) to read the same spot
on the disk. It just kept repeating, so, after listening
to this horrible sound for maybe a dozen cycles, I pulled
the power cord and removed the battery. I then replaced
the battery and started the machine. The hard drive
seemed to spin up normally and began to boot, but about
half-way through the boot process the loud noise began
again. This time, I let it cycle until it stopped and
displayed an error message, which said there was a
hardware failure and that I should remove any new hardware
and try again (sorry, I don't remember the exact
language). Well, I had not installed any new hardware, so
I pulled the battery and tried again. Again, the HDD
seemed to spin up normally until about half-way through
the boot process, and the noise and error message
repeated. Based on this behavior, I'm guessing there's a
bad spot on the HDD that has corrupted a system file, but
I'm no expert so if there are other ideas please let me
know. I have not yet done any diagnostics, such as
removing the extra RAM I installed 2 years ago, so I
suppose it could be anything. However, the computer is
about 3 years old and has been in daily, fairly heavy, use
for about 2.5 years, which again seems to me to point to
the HDD.

Thoughts?

Doug

 

[Dan Seur]

Doug - if you are absolutely certain the hard drive is making that
noise, that's usually very bad news. You might download the drive
manufacturer's bootable diagnostic diskette image and see what info it
offers. You might also try a fresh BIOS scan if possible, on the chance
that BIOS will change its mind about whether that drive is functional
(not sure whether that'll change anything; that may be a purely
electronic transaction between BIOS and the drive's own built-in
electronics.) I'd also talk to the drive manu's tech support people
right away; they may be able to offer some useful recovery advice and
most likely will quickly replace the drive - warranties run for years.

I'd make absolutely certain of the noise source, despite the W2k error
msgs.

It's very unlikely that any W2k setting, or RAM anomaly, would cause a
horrible grinding noise. If in fact it's software-caused, it's rogue
software of a seldom seen sort. For example, something causing an
endless loop of highspeed consecutive read-accesses to immediately
adjacent tracks. I don't have any idea what W2k would make of this,
or evem whether it would notice. If you have a bootable DOS diskette
handy you might see if using that also causes the noise.

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Doug

Dan has sound advice. I would like to add that a Windows Repair operation
will not help in this case. If you are lucky, some contents from your hard
disk can be saved by attaching it to another computer (you might need an
adaptor for this) and simply copy over the accessible content to the other
computer.

Best regards

Bjorn

 

[Jack]

Just a thought, -if you haven't tried it already... boot
from a floppy, if you have the w2k boot disks... (you'll
have to do all four) and select Repair and "Console". This
will get you a 'dos prompt' that you can run "CHKDSK"
from, and maybe repair the bad place on yr HDD.

I would get a new HDD installed, format it up, install
W2K, and go at that way- you need a place to put your
recovered data when you get it.

Good Luck-

 

[Doug]

Thanks everyone for your helpful tips!

Based on your suggestions, here's what I propose to do, if
it makes the most sense:
1. Remove the old HDD and replace it with a new one.
2. Install W2k on the new HDD, which should return my PC
to basic operation.
3. My PC (laptop) doesn't have room internally for a 2nd
HDD, so I'll put the old HDD into an external USB drive
enclosure.
4. Plug the external drive enclosure (containing the old
HDD) into a USB port on my PC and try to offload as many
files as I can from the old HDD.

This last step is more questionable:
5. Swap the old HDD back into my PC and try to repair its
boot sequence, with the goal of trying to create a
bootable image of the old HDD that could be loaded onto
the new HDD to save me the ordeal of re-loading all my
programs.

Comments? I included step 5 because I don't know how to
restore the program files if I stop at step 4.

Doug

 

[Bjorn Landemoo]

Doug

Your main plan seems sound. However, I would not expect step 5 to work, if
there are hardware errors on your disk. If you can get to most of your data
files in step 4, this would be a very good outcome.

Applications would most probably need to be reinstalled, they are not only
the files in the application folder, but also registry entries and often
other files spewed all over the system partition.

It isn't the boot sequence that needs a repair, it obviously works until a
hardware problem denies access to system files, but rather a part of your
hard disk where Win2000 system files are stored. This MS Knowledge Base
article describes better what the repair options does:

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=238359

When you go and buy hard disks, buy two, one for the machine and the other
one for performing regular backups in order to avoid to lose data next time
a failure or data loss occurs.

Best regards

Bjorn