Unable to boot into Windows

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Hi,
I can't get a PC to boot into Windows 2000.
The disks are transferred from another machine that failed to work yesterday.

I can get into the C:\ via BART PE.

Ran chkdsk, and done all the options from Win 2k advanced menu..also tried repairing etc, but it just won't start.

The machine is happy with the drives and can see them and the bar goes all the way accross on "starting windows" but then freezes (left it an hour and no change.

Any ideas? We don't have any spare PCs so all pressure on me to get this working asap!!

Cheers,

Leah

 

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It might be that a virus has affected the bootmgr, try command prompt and ran fixboot. What is the exact error message you get on the screen?

 

Does the system allow you to enter 'Safe Mode' with the disc in the drive?

 

Sounds like graphics or chipset driver issues if Windows loads through the 16bit 'Windows is Starting' stage and hangs when it switches to the 32bit stage. Try Safe Mode or boot with VGA display (you can add a switch to the boot.ini. You can also do this from the F8 menu in XP so I guess from Win2000 too).

 

Thank you.
I already tried safe mode and boot to VGA, but had no joy...

 

No ...it looked like it was going to, then stalled!

 

Does it re-start after the stall, or just remain idle to a blank screen?

You can re-start the system and go into the BIOS and boot from disc, while inserting a win 2000 disc if you have one available. See if this works, and see if it comes up with any options to repair any errors. Do you have information you'd like to keep? Might be an idea to just re-install the operating system

 

Cheers. I have done that, but no joy. Tried repair windows etc.
Can get to C:\ via BART PE - and when it boots it's asthough everything is fine, but it forgets to do the very final bit...

Not an option to re-format the disk as there is a lot of important data on there so I will need to recover it all first, back it up, then reformat if it comes to it.

It's just frustrating as it's like 99.9% there...

 

If you only need the data. Why not?

A: put the hd in a caddy?

B: install it in your own machine?

 

Not sure if this works with Win2000, but you could repair the Windows o/s like you would on XP/2003.

Run the Windows disk
Select to install the operating system (don't choose repair at this point)
Select the drive you want to install on but choose to repair rather than do a clean install
Let windows run the setup and it will rebuild the HAL and give the o/s the appropriate drivers for the new hardware.

HTH

 

I remember reading a while ago that windows doesn't mind any hardware changes other then motherboard and the drive its installed on.

To approach this I would put the hdd into my machine (as hippy suggested) as a secondary drive and then copy all of the data of, then reformat windows.

A quicker alternative if it is open to you is to use ghost or something simliar, take an image off the machine, put your standard build on and then just restore the docs.

 

I'd say that the HAL is possibly the wrong type because of the motherboard switch.

Best way out is to archive everything off buy putting the disk in another machine as a slave, returning the drive and doing a clean install.

Trying to persuade Windows to change the HAL is not something I would wish on anybody.

Harry.

 

Lee - first if all, I assume you don't have an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD)? If I remember correctly, an ERD is normally specific to a machine but if the OS on the machine is an image, is it possible to make an ERD from another machine?

Failing that, is it possible that one of the processes loading in at boot is failing or corrupted? If so, there should be a way of identifying the processes and stopping them - can't remember if thats right or not but will check it out

Hmm - first result in my google search came up with this: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1062076.html

That any use?

Edit - or maybe this one - http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5063671.html also, what about creating a boot disk?

 

I've done this twice over the last couple of weeks at work and it's been quite painless. Although it wasn't with Win2K machines so I don't know if the process would work as well in this instance.

 

Thanks for all the help on this one guys.

Unfortunately I had to give up as holding the fort on my own...and another customer had a power cut upon which their UPS...then servers...failed, then someone got a virus, malware doing the rounds...then other unexpected stuff...quite intense when you're new to the company!!

Anyway, ended up getting a new machine (as the other one is a really poor spec for what my colleague needs to do)..this has it's own issues - memory conflicts with the graphics card and devices that are built into the motherboard...but that's another story...

...so, when all calmed down, I will have a play with old machine - re-produce the issue with some old disks etc...as sounds like it will be a useful exercise to do!

Cheers,

Lee