Reinstall/repair Win2K 2

[tbalazs]

Looks as though my HDD is dying. It is partitioned C: Win95 E: Win2K Pro (NTFS) with D: on a separate disk formatted NTFS also.

Win95 boots OK; Win2K now fails to boot reporting no OS found on the blue screen and Repair from the CD also fails for the same reason.

HDD has been making occasional scratching noises; now the error has obviously crept into the system file area.

Data is backed up, so that's OK. My questions are:

1. Will reinstalling Win2K to E: leave Win95 on C: alone?

2. Is there any way of reinstalling just the system files so as to leave program files intact? (So I can make an image of the partition).

3. Is there any chance that reformatting E: will fix the apparently physical error?

Thank you.

T.

 

[jgoodman00]

1. It should do, although it needs certain files to be placed on the primary partition Disk 0, Partition 0 to support both OS. These files will already be present assuming it has worked previously. I would say in an ideal world, you would be better off installing Win2K on the Partition 0, & then installing Win95 on Partition 1.

2. Yes, but it sounds like you have already done this (i.e. the repair option). If you carry out a fresh install these settings etc will be lost.

3. No, assuming the error is indeed a physical error. All that could be done is run scandisk thorough & it will mark damaged sectors so no data is attempted to be written to them in future.

James Goodman

http://www.james-goodman.co.uk

 

[tbalazs]

Thank you James.

Re. question 2, as the repair option failed booting from CD + Full Repair, is it worth trying a Manual repair + ERD (but the ERD would be from another computer)?

Also, would be copying \WINNT files from the CD using recovery console be an option?

THanks again.
Tony.

 

[jgoodman00]

Obviously, all of these are options. However, I have tried them with little success. I also find that once I know something is wrong with a computer I am not truly satisfied that it will be operating at its best without a clean install.

Personally, I would use this as a good reason to swap the partitions around, & make Win2K the primary OS (i.e. disk 0, partition 0), with Win95 the secondary OS, unless you have a good reason not to do this... James Goodman

http://www.james-goodman.co.uk

 

[wolluf]

Are you using win2k's boot menu to dual boot? If so, you presumably installed win95 first then win2k (ie, as per MS instructions). You need win95 on first partition for this set up to work properly - boot sector files for both operating systems are held on C:. With a 3rd party boot manager, you can put operating systems (almost) where you want, but MS's NT menu based one is fairly strict on how you set it up. So, swapping partitions for operating systems would require a 3rd party boot manager. While I prefer these (I use one at

http://www.boot-us.com)

because of the independence of each operating system, there's no obvious gain swapping 95 & 2k partitions.

Also, if your hard drive is failing, best option is to replace it. If you have current backup, now is the time.

PS. If you boot recovery console, can you see the 2k installation?
PPS. Have you tried a 2k 'boot floppy' - formatted floppy with ntldr, ntdetect.com & boot.ini (from root of C copied to it.
PPPS. You could install ntfs98ro from

http://www.sysinternals.com

on win95 which would let you read the 2k partition (if its accessible).

 

[tbalazs]

Thank you wolluf. If I can see the Win2K installation form the recovery console, and i think i can, what do I do then?

 

[wolluf]

1. Try my boot floppy approach (on a number of occasions its booted a win2k install for me when the boot sector on hard disk wouldn't). If this works, you could run the fixboot command from recovery console). Note - the boot.ini file is pointing to the right partition for your 2k? From what you've said its second partition on first disk, so boot.ini should look something like:-

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
C:\="Windows 95"

2. If 1 no good, you could try reinstalling 2k on top of itself. This would leave the data mostly intact (but software would need reinstalling generally). Concerned about status of your drive..

 

[tbalazs]

boot.ini is fine I think as the dual boot was working ok

As I have the 2nd disk in there, could I maybe take everything off that (backups), install Win2K to it and somehow copy just the system files to the messed up Win2K, having tried fixboot first?

And yes, I will try the boot floppy approach.

If the drive is making scratchy seeking noises when trying to boot, does that almost certainly mean a physical error?

 

[jgoodman00]

Is there a specific reason for not wanting to perform a clean install?
There must be some point in time, when it becomes more efficient to implement this method.

If the drive is making abnormal noises, it is probably indicative of a fault, & as wolluf say, your best option is to use this as an opportunity to replace the suspect hardware... James Goodman

http://www.james-goodman.co.uk

 

[wolluf]

The reason I was asking about access from recovery console is to see if the filestore itself was corrupted or not. If the \winnt folder (and its subfolders) are there, you should not be getting a 'missing operating system' message if the boot.ini is pointing to the right place (do check it). With corrupt system files (unless ALL vital ones corrupt) you should get a message pertaining to a corrupt file.

 

[ErikButler]

Something i always do on a dual boot system is load each OS on separate physical disk. This way if one crashes you can still use the other.

Then when you want to boot to the other OS just change the boot order in the BIOS and everything will work great.

This way each harddrive has its own bootsector Thanks
Erik Butler
2000 MCSE
erikbutler@centurytel.net

 

[tbalazs]

Thank you all for your help. I am going to do a clean install on a new drive. Wanted to let you know that I have discovered (one of) the problem(s).

The software hive is inaccessible; if i rename it and copy the original hive the machine will boot, but of course not to its up to date configuration. I can get to all the data though.

But if I try to copy the software hive (in order to then put it back onto an undamaged part of the disk) I get the scratchy noise and the copy fails.

T.