URGENT NT CRASH

[smash81]

Hello,
I have a serious problem.We have an NT 4.01 server that has just crashed.
I was trying to install service pack 4 and I may have not followed the steps right.Now the system boots but stall after detecting the hardware.Thus the OS cannot be loaded.
The system had on it service pack 3 before the incident.
The problem is that i do not have any back up and i fear i may lose all the data that was stored there.
Please help me if there is a way of recovering from this problem without losing the data.
Thank you.

 

[age]

Have you tried the 'last know good' or 'vga mode' options to boot the server into NT??

If this doesn't work, you could try booting your server from the original NT cd or from the 3 install floppy disks and run the repair option - do you have a repair disk? If not, it shouldn't matter as you should be able to repair the installation without one... this will however take the server back to SP1 and you'll probably need to reinstall drivers and reconfigure networking. There is no reason why you should lose any of the data on the server though.

good luck.

Adrian.

 

[smash81]

Thank you mr Adrian,
I have tried all these steps but i am not successful yet.
Is there any other way of doing it.An error in the Winit file is reported.
I do not have a rescue disk.Can I use one created from any other machine?
The exact place where it stops is where we have some memory dump displayed and that is where it stops completely.

 

[tgoodman]

Unfortunately you can't use a rescue disk from another server. The registry settings are different and it won't work. Have you tried creating the 3 install floppy's from another server and boot from them. You could also run the repair option as adrian suggested.

Hope this works out for you.

 

[Mubashir]

Have you tried boot disk?

If you have an identical server, format a floppy from it and copy Ntldr, Ntdetect.com and Boot.ini from the system partition. Also copy Bootsect.dos only if it's a multi-boot and Ntbootdd.sys if the boot partition is on a SCSI disk and the BIOS is not enabled on the SCSI controller.

Keep in mind though, Boot.ini must point to the same partition which contains the OS files, if not, you must edit it before booting the server with the disk.

Make the server boot from floppy drive, use boot disk and see if you're able to reach the blue screen (NTOSKRNL.EXE), the start-point of NT.

This procedure should work if there's something wrong in the pre-boot environment. Ideally one should use ERD to repair this but since you don't have one, go ahead with it.

If there's something wrong with the sys files of NT, I'm afraid you might have to reinstall the OS. But in any case, if its all about data, don't worry too much. If the HD is OK, partition info is there, you data should be fine and recoverable.

Good luck!

Mubashir

 

[smash81]

Thank you very much.
I have tried all these and have finally reached the blue screen which gives me an error as inaccessible_boot_device and some memory dump.
Now, i guess the last option is to reinstall NT.The question is, if i do a complete installation, will it allow me to retain the data that was there before the crash?
Please come to my rescue

 

[age]

You should retain your data as long as you !!!!DONT FORMAT THE HARD DISK!!!! when given the option during the installation ) .... you can install a new installation of NT over the top of the old one. The worrying thing is that, as the blue screen is reporting that it can't access the boot device, your hard disk or the partition on the hard disk might be corrupt! Is it a SCSI hard disk or Raid, or is it just a straight forward IDE hard disk?? If it's IDE, I'd suggest taking it out of the server and putting it in another NT machine as a secondary hard disk, so that you can copy all your data off of it before you go any further. If its a scsi or Raid setup, this won't be so easy.....

 

[smash81]

Thanx
The H/Disk is SCSI.
Is it possible to follow the same procedure for SCSI H/Disks?

 

[age]

If it's just a scsi hard disk and not raid, you could plug it in to the scsi card on any other NT machine.... and then backup all your data on to that 2nd machine or up on to your network, and then put the hard disk back in to the original server and then you can safely re-install NT knowing that you have a copy of all your stuff....

 

[smash81]

Is it okay if i put another hard disk on the machine and make it the primary master,Install NT on it and then using that i connect the problematic H/Disk as a slave and then read the data from there?

 

[age]

That would work great. I'd suggest unplugging the problematic hard disk while you install the new one though, just in case.

Good luck.

Adrian

 

[pbxman]

The symptom you have is a classic example of SP4's Aic78xx.sys Adaptec SCSI controller driver. Without knowing more details - here's the info from MS:


The system will fail to boot and will display the following error:
Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
The system will boot, but some devices will not be recognized on the SCSI bus.

CAUSE
This problem occurs because the Aic78xx.sys driver chosen during the application of Service Pack 4 is not compatible with the computer's Adaptec SCSI controller.

RESOLUTION
This problem can be corrected by replacing the existing Aic78xx.sys driver, located in the %systemroot%\Winnt\System32\Drivers folder, with the Aic78xx.sys driver from the i386 directory within Service Pack 4.

Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 contains the following Aic78xx drivers:


Aic78xx.sys 26,704 bytes
Aic78xx.001 56,272 bytes

To determine which Aic78xx.sys driver is in use, and to copy the correct driver, depends upon the file system on the Windows NT boot partition (where %SystemRoot%\Winnt resides).

If Windows NT resides on an NTFS formatted partition, perform the following steps:


Either boot to a parallel installation of Windows NT or create a parallel installation of Windows NT. To create a parallel copy of Windows NT, perform a fresh installation of Windows NT to a different folder.


From the parallel installation, look in the %systemroot%\Winnt\System32\Drivers of the failing copy of Windows NT.


Compare the size of AIC78xx.sys with the table above.


Replace the existing AIC78xx.sys file in %systemroot%\Winnt\System32\Drivers with the other AIC78xx file in the i386 directory within Serivce Pack 4.


If AIC78xx.001 is copied, be sure to rename it AIC78xx.sys.

MORE INFORMATION
There are two different versions of the AIC78XX driver for the Adaptec 2940 and 7800 family of SCSI controllers included in Service Pack 4. The Aic78xx.sys file in Service Pack 4 is the same file that is in Service Pack 3. The Aic78xx.001 file of Service Pack 4 is only placed on the computer if %systemroot%\Winnt\System32\Drivers\AIC78xx.sys has a revision between x.x.1382.x and x.x.1420.x.

 

[smash81]

I have tried to do parallel installation and it asks me to create a fresh partition.My fear is that, doing this may cause the data to get lost.Will this cause the data to get lost?I dont know what to do once i get here.
I tried installing on the existing partition but it does not accept.

 

[pbxman]

Have you specified a different folder other than \Winnt ?
The install will fail without specifying a different name. I use \Winnt2

Let me know if that does it. There should definitely NOT be any data damage that would prevent you from doing this..

 

[smash81]

This is great if it allows me to install on the existing partitions.However, the current partitions are not being accepted and it is asking me to delete the partitions.What do i do now?I am afraid, if i delete the partition, it may cause some more harm.

 

[pbxman]

Something doesn't make sense here..
The only thing that could prevent you doing this is if there is a hardware failure, or your original hard disk partition is full. What error is it giving you exactly?

This just does not sound like regular NT setup behavior...
Sorry - i know you're in a hurry, but we need more info..

 

[smash81]

I'm sorry, it is because of the tension that i may not be able to express the problem in the right way.I shall try
The problem is something like this.
I tried to install the service pack 4.After installing it and rebooting, the system reached the blue screen and then i got some error message Inaccessible_boot_device and some memory dump.I just cannot go beyond this screen.
I tried to use the last known good option but it didnt work.
The only optoion left was that was to run the setup from the CD.
I did this and it takes me to the screen where i have a display of all the partitions where i may be able to install NT.
When i select the partition it refuses to install on that and asks me to delete the partition.Here is where the problem is what do i do now.If i delete the partition will it be dangerous?

 

[pbxman]

YES! DO NOT DELETE THE PARTITION!
You will lose all your data if you do that. Im still convinced that is your SCSI driver causing the blue-screen as it tries to load the OS. Somehow - you have to get another installation of NT working..and make that drive readable again so you can copy a file into it. If you absolutely cannot re-install NT on that disk - you'll have to use another hard drive with NT on it.
How much free-space/available is showing when you start NT setup before it asks you to delete the partition?

I just cant believe setup wont let you install NT in a different folder on c:, or even on a different partition without deleting them first. Does it recognize your SCSI controllers? There's an option to specify additional SCSI adapters before you reach that point. Do your drives spin/make noise as it starts to load the OS normally before Blue-screen?