Error Message Preventing 2K Pro From Booting Properly

[muthabored]

A friend recently gave me a PC that he was hardly using and the PC is running Windows 2000 Professional. I had the PC for over a month now before I decide to boot it up, only to find the following black screen with white letters:

Cannot find the file (null) or one of its components. Make sure the path & filename are correct adn that all required libraries are available:

Procedure entry point?getsetmisc.entry @@ya?av?$cstringt@dy?$strtraitmfc@dv?$chtraitcrt@d@att@@@@@alt@@viz@oAz
Cannot be located in the dynamic link library e60common.dll

Booting into Safe Mode doesn't work BUT the Last Known Good Congif at least got me further than that screen BUT that error is the first thing that I see inside of a grey box that has a red x at the top. I can see the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen (along with my start button, system tray, etc.) but when I choose OK to get rid of the grey box, I only see a blank screen (my mouse moves but that's it). I called him and asked him to try to remember the last thing he did before this occurred (he admits to having seen it and possibly causing it)...he says he made a change in Network and Dial-Up Connections and that was about it. I don't want to have to wipe the PC because there are some things of his that I want to get off of it.

 

[Stoffeldd]

What you can do is plug the HDD in your (other) computer as a slave and then recover the data. Afterwards you can format the HDD and reïnstall the OS. It would spare you a lot of time solving your problem.

 

[PatrickDickey]

If you have a Windows 2000 CD, I would try the repair options first. When you boot up in the CD, and are at the setup page, try "R" and then the ERD option ("R" again, I believe). Choose the windows folder on your computer as the location of the files.
If that doesn't work, then try Hitting Enter at the main setup screen (As if you were going to do a clean install). The next screen should be the Agreement, hit F8. The next screen should show your WINNT (or windows) folder, try Repairing it from there.

One more option to consider is, going to a site like

http://www.driversguide.com

or

http://www.google.com

and searching for the e60common.dll download that to a floppy disk, and Go back to the computer. Do the Windows Setup, and hit "R" and "C" to get you into the Recovery console. Select the profile for your windows folder, log in as the administrator, and then go to the system folder and do a dir e60common.dll If it comes up, rename it to e60common.old and copy the file there.. You may have to look around in the winnt folder for that .dll file.

One final suggestion would be to go to microsofts website, and do a search for Registry Repair Utility. You'll make setup disks for WinXP, and then add the repair utility to Disk 6. When you run it, it will act like it's going to set up XP on the computer.. Hit "R" at the main screen, and that will run the registry repair utility.

These are just suggestions that you can consider and try.
Patrick.

 

[muthabored]

Thanks, Patrick

 

[PatrickDickey]

If you haven't done this yet, I would actually try installing that driver first.. Maybe that's all you need. If it doesn't work, then do the repair ideas. If they don't work, then I agree with Stoffeld about setting the hard drive as a slave, and getting your data.
If, however, one of my suggestions works, the first thing you need to do (after getting your updates) is back up that data. That way, you have it, in case you need to reformat the HDD.
Patrick.