Win2k continous boot

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kevin Hilton
  • Start date Start date
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Kevin Hilton

Running win2k + sp4 - I believe all up to date via windows
update

Im having a problem now starting windows. It seems that I
get the logo screen, get all the way through the bottom
progress bar, the screen switches and then reboots. I
believe it is a bad boot sector however Im not certain

Ive tried the following to ammend the problem
#1 - I reinstalled win2k from scratch on a 2nd hard disk.
Placing the primary hard drive (the problematic drive) as
slave, I was able to boot to windows using the back up
drive, and am fully able to read the contents of the
corrupt drive.
#2 - I copied the repair folder from the corrupt
winnt\repair to the winnt\repair on the new boot drive
#3 - I created a emergency rescue diskette.
#4 - Disconnecting the back up drive - I tried running the
recovery console from CD and then attempted to repair
windows on the corrupt drive using the newly made
emergency rescue diskette. During the process, it stated
it was checking the configuration for errors, and told me
to reboot.
#5 - Attempting to boot from the corrupt drive, the same
behaivor occurred.

Im kind of at a loss what to do next. Ive done some
reading about how to restore the boot sector from the
following kb article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-
US;121517 but Im not exactly sure where to get the
diskedit.exe program. Also Im not even sure if I have a
corrupt NTFS boot sector.

Can anyone provide advice on how best to proceed???
 
Kevin Hilton said:
Running win2k + sp4 - I believe all up to date via windows
update

Im having a problem now starting windows. It seems that I
get the logo screen, get all the way through the bottom
progress bar, the screen switches and then reboots. I
believe it is a bad boot sector however Im not certain

Ive tried the following to ammend the problem
#1 - I reinstalled win2k from scratch on a 2nd hard disk.
Placing the primary hard drive (the problematic drive) as
slave, I was able to boot to windows using the back up
drive, and am fully able to read the contents of the
corrupt drive.
#2 - I copied the repair folder from the corrupt
winnt\repair to the winnt\repair on the new boot drive
#3 - I created a emergency rescue diskette.
#4 - Disconnecting the back up drive - I tried running the
recovery console from CD and then attempted to repair
windows on the corrupt drive using the newly made
emergency rescue diskette. During the process, it stated
it was checking the configuration for errors, and told me
to reboot.
#5 - Attempting to boot from the corrupt drive, the same
behaivor occurred.

Im kind of at a loss what to do next. Ive done some
reading about how to restore the boot sector from the
following kb article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-
US;121517 but Im not exactly sure where to get the
diskedit.exe program. Also Im not even sure if I have a
corrupt NTFS boot sector.

Can anyone provide advice on how best to proceed???
Click to expand...

I don't think you have a corrupt NTFS boot sector. If you had
then you would not get as far as you do. I suggest you do
this:

1. Establish the physical integrity of your hard disk, by downloading
and running the free diagnostic program that every disk manufacturer
makes available on his site.

2. Boot in Safe Mode.

3. Boot with "Last known configuration".

4. Add the /SOS switch to c:\boot.ini (right after /fastdetect) do see
what loads during the boot process.
 
Hey thanks for your help. Here's what a get to your
suggestions:

#1 - Need to download Maxtor software disk check -- will do

#2 - Attempted booting in safe mode - after scroll at
bottom of screen finishes, the computer will reboot

#3 - Last known good configuration - no difference than
normal boot

#4 - With sos option - I get the data screen - reports
chkdsk is running - reports the volume is clean. After
finishing, this a delay of at most 3 seconds occurs, then
the machine reboots.

Again I will verify the integrity of the disk. Anymore
suggestions
 
Kevin Hilton said:
Hey thanks for your help. Here's what a get to your
suggestions:

#1 - Need to download Maxtor software disk check -- will do

#2 - Attempted booting in safe mode - after scroll at
bottom of screen finishes, the computer will reboot

#3 - Last known good configuration - no difference than
normal boot

#4 - With sos option - I get the data screen - reports
chkdsk is running - reports the volume is clean. After
finishing, this a delay of at most 3 seconds occurs, then
the machine reboots.

Again I will verify the integrity of the disk. Anymore
suggestions
Click to expand...

I have had some luck with renaming the file "system" to
"system.bad", and "system.ald" to "system". On the
other hand I'm not sure if the "Last good configuration"
does not do much the same thing.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, I will try your suggestion when I get home.
Just to let you know, that I reconnected both hard drives and booted
off the back up drive. I did a check disk on the corrupted drive and
everthing came out clean.

Id like to make a log file of the boot sothat it would record the
point where the system goes bad on boot. Is this possible???? or do
you know any program that would do this???
 
Kevin said:
Running win2k + sp4 - I believe all up to date via windows
update

Im having a problem now starting windows. It seems that I
get the logo screen, get all the way through the bottom
progress bar, the screen switches and then reboots. I
believe it is a bad boot sector however Im not certain

Ive tried the following to ammend the problem
#1 - I reinstalled win2k from scratch on a 2nd hard disk.
Placing the primary hard drive (the problematic drive) as
slave, I was able to boot to windows using the back up
drive, and am fully able to read the contents of the
corrupt drive.
#2 - I copied the repair folder from the corrupt
winnt\repair to the winnt\repair on the new boot drive
#3 - I created a emergency rescue diskette.
#4 - Disconnecting the back up drive - I tried running the
recovery console from CD and then attempted to repair
windows on the corrupt drive using the newly made
emergency rescue diskette. During the process, it stated
it was checking the configuration for errors, and told me
to reboot.
#5 - Attempting to boot from the corrupt drive, the same
behaivor occurred.

Im kind of at a loss what to do next. Ive done some
reading about how to restore the boot sector from the
following kb article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-
US;121517 but Im not exactly sure where to get the
diskedit.exe program. Also Im not even sure if I have a
corrupt NTFS boot sector.

Can anyone provide advice on how best to proceed???
Click to expand...

Boy! Have I been there.

I didn't believe it when Norton AV support told me I had a driver timing
problem.

He was right.

In my case, the restart started shortly after NAV launched during
initialization

To prove it,
I started in SAFE mode and disabled NAV autostart.

After you determine that affects it, the hard part begins... determining
what service is still starting when NAV starts.

Carl
 
.
Click to expand...

Can you please be more specific. What file is
named "system". I did an entire disk search for a file
named "system" and nothing came up. Please be more
specific if you can
 
Kevin Hilton said:
Can you please be more specific. What file is
named "system". I did an entire disk search for a file
named "system" and nothing came up. Please be more
specific if you can
Click to expand...

- Navigate to c:\winnt\system32\config
- Rename "System" to "System.bad"
- Rename "System.alt" to "System"
 
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