Win2K Will Not Boot - Damaged MBR?

[ElijahBaley]

Hi

I have a Win2k pro machin that I really need to be able to boot in order to get some files off and transfered across a network.

The machine attempts to boot, the white steps go all the way across the black start up screen and then the system re-starts.

I suspect that the boot files may be missing or damaged as this is a restoration of a ghost image which was taken from a damaged drive.

I really need to repair the boot sector on this new drive but do not know how.

Thanks for your help,

G
"r tape loading error"

 

[Jackmetickler]

Have you tried booting from the WIN2K CD and choosing the repair option. If the repair option does not work then try the re-install option and choose repair once WIN2K has located your original WIN2K files.

This worked for me

Good Luck
Jackmetickler

 

[ElijahBaley]

I tried the repair option but it did not work - all the files that I want to preserve are in the user's my documents folder, I think that these will get overwritten if I attempt to re-install over the top?

G
"r tape loading error"

 

[wolluf]

Boot from Win2k CD choose repair then recovery console (you'll need administrator password). Takes you to something like a command prompt. Type Fixboot - this will fix your boot sector (if that's the problem). Type exit to reboot (type help for list of available commands). If this doesn't do it, then try the 'normal' repair option as per Jack's message (if the process can find your installation as I presume you have no Emergency Recovery Disk - sometimes does/sometimes doesn't). If this no good, just reinstall win2k on top of itself - ie, without formatting(this will leave most of current installation intact, programs would need reinstalling - but if you just want some data files... although I've heard some user data in Documents and Settings can be lost in this process).
PS. From recovery console, you can copy files (eg, to floppy)

 

[raindude]

Most new hard drives need to be update. It all depends on the speed of the hard drive and how your bios picks it up. It had to do with the geometry. Bios sometimes picks it up as UDMA 33. If the hard drive posses a higher speed you will need a utility for your hard to help your Bios detect it as UDMA66 or UDMA100 depending on the speed.

good luck. Each manufaturer has their own hard drive utility.