Server boots only with boot disk 2

[StockcarsRus]

I have a Windows 2000 Advanced Server that when you restart it; it will only get to a flashing cursor on the top left of the screen. When I put a boot disk in, it boots up normally. I tried to run a defrag on the C: drive, and it keeps telling me that C: is corrupted and to run chkdisk. I run chkdisk and it finishes and when I run defrag it still says the C: drive is corrupted. Is there a way of fixing this?

Thanks

 

[rtichnor]

Yuck. There are so many things that could be wrong. If you can't fix it yourself, I would hire a consultant.

 

[jimbuddy]

what error messages are you getting on the bsod (blue screen of death) there should be some (ntlrd) error i would expect to see. if it boots fine with the floppy boot then you need to do the following.

1. boot the machine with the floppy to access the system
2. copy the boot.ini file from the floppy to your local c:\


reboot all should be good to this point

on reboot defrag the box

hope this helps

 

[patrichek]

I had a similiar problem and it was due to an external hardrive plugged in via usb port.

I think my system was trying to boot from the external disk.
what kind of machine is it?

 

[StockcarsRus]

Hi, Thanks for the replys. I don't actually get the blue screen of death. It looks like it is going to boot up, but just before it loads windows (black screen) the cursor just sits up at the top left and blinks at me and goes no further. It is an IBM e-server. I will try the boot.ini copy on Monday. Cheers

Debbie

 

[PScottC]

Also... Booting OK from a floppy can indicate a couple of things... 1) boot.ini missing as listed above 2) Failed software mirror (this means that the boot.ini on the floppy is pointing to the second HD in the system)

You can check by looking at the boot.ini on the floppy...

[blue]default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT[/blue]

If you compare to the boot.ini that is on your C: drive and any of the numbers in brackets are different, this would indicate the mirror issue.

If replacing the boot.ini doesn't fix the issue, there is a way to recover the disk's master boot record using the recovery console. I'm not sure that I promote this solution if the floppy is working for you. <HMM...>


PSC

Governments and corporations need people like you and me. We are samurai. The keyboard cowboys. And all those other people out there who have no idea what's going on are the cattle. Mooo! --Mr. The Plague, from the movie "Hackers

 

[StockcarsRus]

Thanks for all of your help everyone. The boot.ini file was the culprit.

Cheers!

 

[StockcarsRus]

I guess I was premature on the fix.. It still not working. I was wondering if I should do the recovery console to try and fix the master boot record. I have never done this. Is there a good link to use for this.

Thanks

 

[PScottC]

Try this: [URL unfurl="true"]http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx[/url]


PSC

Governments and corporations need people like you and me. We are samurai. The keyboard cowboys. And all those other people out there who have no idea what's going on are the cattle. Mooo! --Mr. The Plague, from the movie "Hackers

 

[StockcarsRus]

Thanks PScottC,

How do I get to the Recovery Console. I have tried booting from the Windows CD and can't seem to get there...

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

 

[PScottC]

Here's one way to do it...

Copy the i386 from your install media to a HD on the affected system.

Get the SP source file for the SP that you are running on that server and extract it using the -x switch.

Slipstream the SP into the i386 using the "update -s:<path>" command and switch.

From the I386 folder run "winnt32 /cmdcons" to install the command console.

Copy the updated lines in the c:\boot.ini file to your floppy disk.

Reboot from floppy.

PSC

Governments and corporations need people like you and me. We are samurai. The keyboard cowboys. And all those other people out there who have no idea what's going on are the cattle. Mooo! --Mr. The Plague, from the movie "Hackers

 

[schofs]

You can access the recovery console by Booting from the server cd.
Choose the repair option from the text mode part of the det up routine by pressing r

then select recover console

specify where your instalation is i.e C:\WINNT

from console type

fixboot
fixmbr (If you suspect that the Master boot record is at fault)

regards

Simon

 

[patrichek]

HI,
I Also had the same problem with my IBM eserver 206xx series. i tried all the recovery tools and so forth without any luck.

initially i had a usb hard drive plugged in and i believe it corrupted something, I never was able to get it right so i wiped it clean and reinstalled everything.

It boots fine now, but if i leave the usb hard drive plugged in it won't boot until i disconnect it.

I even had ibm guys out here and they replaced everything but the backplane, finally they had me wipe it out and start over.

sorry to hear of your problems...

one last thing is to check and make sure all the drivers were installed, i found later that the ASF Table hadn't been installed so i did it manually. Its in device manager under system devices. btw, my setup disks from ibm were trash too, i had to download and burn my own.

good luck!