WIN2000 SERVER Startup problem

[Guest]

Hey I got a problem with a Windows 2000 SP2 server. Then I try to startup it
hangs at the last phase before the screen changes after the progresion meter
is filled.

The system stoped sometime during the weekend and now it does not boot up
anymore. I have tried restarting with all the diffrent failsafe options and
even then I try the recoveryconsole it wont start up. But during the day it
successfully booted twice of about 40 restarts. I know I might be having a
hardware issue but what I want to know is what the system is trying to do at
the last phase before the GUI is displayed.

It stops loading then the last box of the "meter" is filled and from there
not more activety on the harddrives but the moving grafics over the "meter"
is still rolling.

 

[George Hester]

Usually it is trying to load services. If it is unable to do that you can get this hanging. Have you tried booting into Safe Mode? If you can a few things to look at:

Some services that don't start in Safe mode. Try to set to manual those that are not running when you boot into Safe Mode and then try Normal mode.

You can set in your boot.ini:

Right Click My Computer | Properties | Advanced | Startup and Recovery... | Under Default Operating System you want the entry to end in /bootlog

To do that you manually enter /bootlog to the appropriate place in boot.ini. That is a hidden file on the %SystemDrive%. You need to change the Read Only attribute open it in Notepad add /bootlog like I said above save it and reset the Read Only attribute.

This will give you a boot log called ntbtlog.txt in %SystemRoot% and you might be able to see if it is any drivers which are failing to load. If not then my bet is on a service.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the answer.

I have tried booting in all the Diffrent modes including the installed
recoveryconsole and it does not boot in any of them.

Bootloging leaves no log witch I tracked to that the smss.exe service havnt
started before the startup hangs.

I did succesfully boot once yesterday(after about 20 restarts and then
installed SP4 but the problem still came back once I rebooted.

 

[George Hester]

I would not have uinstalled a Service Pack until I knew the system was running correctly. A Service Pack rarely fixes suck issues. If anyone has a better suggestion than mine please say so. But I think you will need to reformat that system.

 

[Guest]

SP4 included soe patches for problems like hanging during startup due to
extensive fragmentation of system files esc... I manged to get the system up
and running again afer about 20 restarts and im now trying to deploy the
backup to a spareserver.