Win98SE upgrade to W2K

[Mark Huff]

I just performed an upgrade on a system from Win98SE to
W2K. During the initial try of updating, the quickbooks
file qbconv32.dll was crashing the system. I renamed that
file per Microsoft help file info, and continued the
installation. After several more crashes, I had to perform
numberous "Repair" installs of W2K to get the system to
boot up properly.

Once the system restarted, it continued the installation
routine, but at no time did it ask me for passwords,
networking information, etc.

Now when I try to log into the W2K, I get "the domain
server can not be found" error. I have since performed a
second clean install of W2K to assist in getting the pc
back on line. In checking the Documents and Settings
folder, I note that I do not have "Administrator.Windows"
directory which I should have had from the first
installation.

Can anyone assist me in getting this thing back on line?
The HD (which i can recover the data from) does have
important info for the company, but the one necessary
program is also locked with passwords and no one has the
program with which I might reinstall it. (Long story)....

What I am needing to find is how to stop the W2K from
looking for a domain and log into itself as a standalone.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

 

[serverguy]

Well, if you performed a clean install, and that is what you are logging
into, you will not be able to get into that application without reinstalling
it. So you may need to call the software vendor for a copy. Did you
overwrite the previous system installation with the clean install? If so,
you will probably not be able to get back into it as an "upgraded" o/s
because the registry was overwritten.
I would think that if this system had such critical data on it, that you did
a full backup prior to starting this upgrade, yes??
If so, just restore the backup and start over, unjoining the domain first.

If you don't have a backup, I don't know, maybe try reinstalling 98SE?? But
that probably won't help you either if the registry was overwritten.
Good luck.

 

[Mark Huff]

Yes, we do have back up of the data, so no problems
there. The clean installation of W2K was into a new
directory so nothing on the system was over written.

Concerning the Win98SE upgrade, the major concern I have
is with the "domain" issue. Again, it appears that the
user profiles were not re-created during the upgrade (as
shown by the fact I do not have 2 Administrator profiles).
As the upgrade stands, when trying to log into that
version, I get the domain can not be found nor the server
contacted. The fact remains that this system was a stand
alone box, never connected to a network nor part of a
domain. As part of my learning process, I am trying to
find out where in the system registry this system is
trying to pull that information. I have a feeling that
both W2K installs are looking at the ONE Administrator
profile I have, and if that is the case then I can
understand why the system is acting the way it is. It then
becomes an issue of the security of W2K, and that the
Administrator profile was created with the clean install.

Thanks for the info. Anyone else have any ideas?

Mark

 

[serverguy]

Even though there is no "domain" per se, Microsoft tends to think of a
standalone system as it's own little domain from a security standpoint in
W2K. You may need to create a user account if one does not exist and of
course give it a password. Make sure the user is a member of the
administrators group so you have full access to the system.

This will work on the clean install but might not help with the old install.
I think the domain not found error is telling you something is very wrong
and the system cannot even authenticate you. This means maybe even the Net
Logon service isn't starting properly. Without that, you're toast. I know
you've tried repairing the install, but you might keep trying it and see if
there is an option to get into the recovery console. Then you will have
more options.

This article may help:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;823659&Product=w98