Windows boot issues

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Ok i have a customer who says that thier pc fails to boot to Windows 2k. Apparently it says NTdetect.com not found. They have said that because of this they can not even get into safe mode. Now i thought Safe mode would work even if this files corrupt? Or is this because with no NTdetect it cant determine the OS so wont load anything?

The other thing sis that they are asking me to send that file along with Boot.ini and NTLoader.dll(?) to them so they can copy the files over and boot from that. However, if they cant boot how are they going to copy the files? unless thier booting from a CD, which i have told them to do and run some HDD diagnostic software such as Disk Doctor to see if the disk is faulty, not copy the files.

I dont see that copying these files would work if its that bad??

 

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Those three files make up the core bootloader for NT/2k systems, they take over from the BIOS and pass control over to the NT Kernel

You could check the disk, but im pretty sure it would be easier to get the box booting then just run chkdsk on it or something

 

As far as I know you can't copy the files the customer needs the cd so the emergency repair can be done.

Boot from the CD and after the windows drivers are loaded select recovery console and emergency repair this will reinstall NTdetct.com etc and then after that he should be able to boot. Once done run CHKDSK and Defragment the drive.

 

The classic reason for that message is that there is a floppy in the floppy drive! Seriously.

That should be the first thing to check.

Harry.

 

Wouldn't it say non system boot disk error message first?

 

That thought hadn't even entered my mind! Though to be homest it wouldnt have as we dont fit floppies to those units.

I'm going to try to pull those files from another unit and send the customer, telling him i dont think it will work. I have found NTdectect.chk which is a debug file that might show where the problem lies. But i reckon the HDD is on the way out so they will have to return it anyway. (they may as well as they have a service contract with us whcih means no charge to them!)

 

Note also that boot.ini is usualy specific to a machine. Machines with differing configs can have different boot.ini contents.

Harry.

 

It didn't in the cases I've seen! It may depend on how the floppy was formatted.

Harry.

 

Yeah i thought all 3 files would be hardware or machine specific which is why i dont think it will work. However the customer is always right even when i know thier not!

 

I have always seen non system boot disk, never anything else but then again I have not used windows 2000 or NT 4

 

Try these:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318728
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555304

 

Oh what a suprise the customer says that the HDD is totaly crashed and they will return the unit. All that faffing around trying to setup a disk to pull the files off when i knew i wouldnt work, telling the customer that .... oh teh joys of working in IT repairs!

 

Ditto, but I have used 2k and NT in various flavours.

 

In the vast majority of cases that i have seen these errors, it's because the hard drive has lost clusters. It can sometimes be fixed with a recovery console CHKDSK /R but more often than not, there are numerous other files which have also been currupted and cannot be read by the OS.

So, you may have some luck in getting the PC to boot again but it's just a matter of time before it's going to happen again.

 

You have never used 2000? OMG! You have just made me feel so very old for some odd reason.

 

I agree with blue. The only time I have seen this is when the hdd is on borrow time.

 

Which is why i told the customer to return the unit, but they had to do it thier way first, and one of our other support guys agreed with them. I'd even told them to runa chkdsk or Disk scan of some kind but they havent!
This sort of thing drives me up the wall, not only having the customer disagree with me but also one of our other techs, who is not the repairs guy!

Btw Mitzs, compared to GBL i think most of us are "OLD", I've used all iterrations of Windows except vista from win 1.01 to XP and DR dos to MS Dos 6 (plus a few versions of BAsic in between)

 

Maybe if one is fitted, but as i said before, on these units they are never fitted. Plus as these units run 24/7/365, unless of a problem, its more likley a hdd failure.

 

Smack the other tech in the back of the head hand him an A+ book and just dare him to open his mouth before he finishes it.

I go back to windows 95 and I have done decide that GBL must only be 5 years old not to have ever used 2000.