Windows 2000 logon problem 2

[pentagon]

Hi all
I have a problem getting into my Windows 2000 pc.
I had to re-ghost my pc with an image I knew to be good. When I rebooted and just before getting to the logon screen an error would come up telling me that Windows could not fine the file "awgina.dll". I trauled through MS Technet and managed to fix this problem, only to then to re-boot and get to the same point in boot process and the error message told me that it could not find "msgina.dll". Once again I trauled trauled through MS Technet and fixed this one, but now I do get to the logon (ctrl+alt+del), input my logon details, it says "loading personal preferences" briefly, only then to bomb me out to the logon screen again.
I can try and logon over and over and it just keeps bombing me out repeatedly to the same point. HELP

 

[m1ckey]

Dont waste any more time try a fresh rebuild not a ghosted image and see what happens. Sounds like the image is a bit dodgy

Dan

 

[pentagon]

Oh please!!!
I know that I can rebuild it, but where is the challenge in that, apart from having to reload all my programs and peripherals. I really would like to try and trouble shoot this one and fix it if possible. anybody els got any ideas......

 

[m1ckey]

Did you run sysprep before you ghosted it ??

 

[wapowell]

Also, have you tried safe mode or the recovery console?
If you are seeing the screen that says loading personal settings, then you have authenticated properly (or so it seems).
Is this ghost image being imaged back down to the original machine from which it was ghosted?

 

[m1ckey]

pentagon,

Any luck please let us know. This in turn helps other people.

Dan

 

[computermike]

try booting from the setup CD and start to do an install, then when it finds an installed copy select R to repair. This is not the same repair option that you can encounter earier in the startup. This is a repair function that re-installs several hundred files but keeps all your programs and settings.

 

[pentagon]

Thanx for your relplies guys. I'll answer the q's one by one:-
m1ckey: What is sysprep and when would one use it?

wapowell: Funny enough I hadn't tried safe mode or the recovery console. Actually, my knowledge of 2000 being quite limited in comparison to NT, how would I run the recovery console and how would I use it. The image I am using is going back on to the original machine, but strangely enough I tried it on a different machine yesterday, and after several reboots due to detection of all the new h/ware it went in perfectly - bizarre, why does it work on another machine and not the original???

computermike: Thanks also for your input. I will try your tip too

 

[m1ckey]

Sysprep is a microsoft utility that you need to use when you are producing multiple clones, as you probably now each NT & 2000 has individual SID etc.....

Run sysprep at the end of the install, the machine will then shut itself down. At this point you should boot to dos for ghosting and ghost the PC. when the pc boots again you will see a mini setup wizard running this changes all the system bits that need to be unique to every NT & 2000 sofware installation. If you create multiple clones of the same PC without running this you will run into all sorts of trouble.

Dan

 

[pentagon]

m1ckey, thanx for your continued input. I am still somewhat confused as to where and how I run sysprep. Is it similar to ghostwalker as that changes the sid etc too.
Please also bare in mind that I am not using this pc on a domain but as part of a workgroup....

 

[a073235]

What were the fixes you found in the MS KB - were the files actually missing..? If so and you didn't get the missing GINA files before the image was created you have corruption to the image or your disk, or perhaps a virus. Make sure although Ghost allows it, you didn't expand or shrink the partition from its original size, as NTFS v5 could be corrupted by doing so (the MS Q number escapes me); it should be done by the "ExtendOEMPartition" key in SysPrep. Also, although SysPrep is required for Domain machine security, it wouldn't affect one in a workgroup or mess with these files.

Unless you're looking for job security rebuild like Dan first suggested; this isn't the kind of troubleshooting that adds much knowledge or value
Heath
Principal Systems Engineer
Desktop and Mobile Platforms

 

[pentagon]

a073235:
The fixes in Technet were all to do with either renaming or replacing the GINA, or going into the registry and deleting / repoiting the winlogon key to point to where the GINA is. This is of course after installing a parallel copy of 2k so that I could launch regedt32 and load the hive from the previous installation, make the changes, upload the hive and reboot back to the previous install.
As you mentioned, I did resize my H/drive (expand) and I do understand that it could be a virus, that what you are saying could be true, but that doesn't explain why the image worked on another machine with completly different h/ware.
Your input is never-the-less very valuable.

 

[a073235]

I agree - this is a truely bizarre one - sorry ! Heath
Principal Systems Engineer
Desktop and Mobile Platforms

 

[pentagon]

Hi guys. Thought I'd add to this little teeser.
More strange things have happened over night. Yesterday I took an image of the other machine I put my image onto. This is the other machine that booted fine with my image after detecting new hardware. I pushed the image up onto my ghost server and pulled it down to my portable h/drive and took it home, copied it from my portable h/drive to the 'd' drive of my pc, which is where I normally keep the ghost files and images I produce.
I put the image on, booted up, and guess what?......same error as originaly - wierd
Couldn't even boot in safe mode! - all that happens is that it gets to the logon screen, I enter my logon details, it gives the next sreen where it's loading personal preferences, thinks about it for a while, and then bombs me out to the logon screen again.
None of the other safe mode recovery options appear to work either.
Anyway, so I thought I'd have a look at it acroos my peer to peer network at home to see if I could see anything.
What is even more bizarre now is that I found my paging file on my 'd' drive - I didn't put it there. Not only that, but I appear to have a mirrored copy of 2k on the 'd' drive as well????????????
So I thought I'd try disconnecting the 'd' drive and see what happens. This time it doesn't boot as it cannot find the paging file. Now I'm really scatching my head!!!!
Any more clues.........??

 

[a073235]

Couldn't even begin to respond at this point Heath
Principal Systems Engineer
Desktop and Mobile Platforms

 

[pentagon]

Well, here's the final gen on this one guys.
I suddenly thought, "what if I use a different h/drive?"
I installed it and ghosted the image on to it to see what would happen and guess what....... it worked.
How'd you explain that????
there does not appear to be any technical reasoning to it.
AND get this. I put my original h/disk (the one with the problems) into another machine and booted up. After detection of all the new h/ware, it booted up and logged in a treat.
DOH !!!!!!!!

 

[Guest_imported]

The problem you describe above can be caused installing another harddrive into an existing system. If you let W2K do a full boot with the second hard drive installed it may change the drive letter of your original drive. When the drive is removed and the system is restarted it can cause all of the issues you have mentioned. They all have to do with the path of key system files like c:\winnt\system32\awgina.dll and the userinit file. What you can do is install a parallel w2k installation and change the registry settings back to no path. Once you are in your will then have to change the mounted drives as per KB article Q223188

 

[Guest_imported]

The problem you describe above can be caused by installing another harddrive into an existing system. If you let W2K do a full boot with the second hard drive installed it may change the drive letter of your original drive. When the drive is removed and the system is restarted it can cause all of the issues you have mentioned. They all have to do with the path of key system files like c:\winnt\system32\awgina.dll and the userinit file. What you can do is install a parallel w2k installation and change the registry settings back to no path. Once you are in your will then have to change the mounted drives as per KB article Q223188

 

[edmoncan]

The problem you describe above can be caused by installing another harddrive into an existing system. If you let W2K do a full boot with the second hard drive installed it may change the drive letter of your original drive. When the drive is removed and the system is restarted it can cause all of the issues you have mentioned. They all have to do with the path of key system files like c:\winnt\system32\awgina.dll and the userinit file. What you can do is install a parallel w2k installation and change the registry settings back to no path. Once you are in your will then have to change the mounted drives as per KB article Q223188 back to the original drive letter.

 

[edmoncan]

Sorry about the duplicate messages, I decided to join the forum and then post the response properly.