Help with Win 2000

[SezMe]

I turned on my Win2000 system Thursday morning and it wouldn't boot. Happy Thanksgiving, you turkey.

Anyway, for those of you familiar with Win2K, after it gets about 3/4 of the way through the progress bar on the graphics screen, it dumps into dos mode and puts up a message for less than half a second, then starts the reboot process from the beginning. All I can read of the error message is that it is something about a registry file error.

I cannot boot in Safe Mode.

I can boot off the System CD and in recovery mode see all my files. It also recognizes the two CD drives but it does not see my flash drive in the USB port. It also does not recognize the network.

This system is almost 10 years old so I am going buy a new one but I REALLY want to get some files off the disk before I donate it to charity. Can you think of any way to copy the files off the disk to ??? while in DOS mode?

TIA

[Zep]

Take the USB drive out and try again? USB support on W2K was...thin.

[Yalius]

Download an Ubuntu or Knoppix CD on another computer, boot from that, and copy the needed files onto the USB stick.

[SezMe]

Download an Ubuntu or Knoppix CD on another computer, boot from that, and copy the needed files onto the USB stick.
I fancy myself as somewhat knowledgeable on PCs but that went way over my head. Could I ask you to put it into English? Thanks.

FYI, I have a laptop running (barely) Win2K and a router that can connect the two systems if they both recognize the network. Both have USB ports, of course. It is the laptop that I am using now to access JREF.

[Zep]

Upgrade time... :scarper:

More seriously, without seeing it boot, it's hard to say what the problem is and thus how to address it. My guesstimate is one of the device drivers has been glitched. And since it seems to be quite early in the boot sequence and common to Safe Boot, it's a vital one like the HDD driver.

There's quite a few ways to recover from this and still not lose your files (or at least those not borked by now). Depends on how much work you want to do to recover, what software and tools you have, what risks you want to take, and how much you want those files back. :)

[SezMe]

Take the USB drive out and try again? USB support on W2K was...thin.
Tried that a couple of times. No luck.

Yeah, USB was not well established during the W2K development cyle so support is thin at best. It is certainly not supported as part of the W2K boot process. *sigh*

[Zep]

The solution Yalius suggests is based on booting your PC without using the HDD, i,e, off a CD. To do that you need a bootable CD which can then support USB and read the HDD. Ubuntu and Knoppix are such systems - freeware Linux. Once started, you simply copy the required files you want to a USB stick. You can then blow the PC away with a fresh install, or whatever.

If you are more comfortable with a Windows interface, BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) is a Windows equivalent to these products.

[a_unique_person]

I have seen something similar on some servers. The registry is not corrupt, it just gets so big the loader can't handle it, and gives up. The file system is probably OK, all you need to do is get the files off using the suggested means, or other means.

You can

* remove the HD and connect it to another computer.
* boot up on a bootable Linux and read the files that way, and save them to a USB device.
* use something like bart to boot up and transfer the files to a USB device.
* reinstall windows, but DON'T format the HD when you reinstall it. Reinstall windows to a different directory.

PS. If something is really worth that much trouble, it should be backed up anyway. :)

With today's technology, it's pretty cheap and simple to do.

[ohms]

Can you not boot into safe mode with network support?

[SezMe]

If you are more comfortable with a Windows interface, BartPE (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) is a Windows equivalent to these products.
The BartPE website does not include Win2K as a supported OS but there are links to other products that do claim to meet my needs. I'll give them a try. Thanks for the link, Zep.

[SezMe]

I cannot boot in Safe Mode.

Can you not boot into safe mode with network support?
See the OP.

[a_unique_person]

The BartPE website does not include Win2K as a supported OS but there are links to other products that do claim to meet my needs. I'll give them a try. Thanks for the link, Zep.

All you need is a bootable bart disk, and it will read any windows file system on a disk.

[ohms]

See the OP.

Fair enough. I take it 'Last Known Good Configuration' also doesn't work?

[SezMe]

Fair enough. I take it 'Last Known Good Configuration' also doesn't work?

Alas, no. I think the problem is so early in the boot process that it can't even get to any alternative.

[Zep]

All you need is a bootable bart disk, and it will read any windows file system on a disk....including all NT-based file systems, FAT disks, floppies and CDs. It is Windows, just very limited functionality so it boots off a CD.

[Leftus]

It's been a while, but can you run SFC.exe off the recovery disk?

[SezMe]

It's been a while, but can you run SFC.exe off the recovery disk?
No because no OS has been loaded.

[a_unique_person]

You can boot of the install CD? Just re-install Windows, making sure you DONT format the drive. You will then be able to boot up and access a USB drive, network, whatever. All the files will be sitting there waiting for you to copy them off.

[SezMe]

AUP, the only thing on the c drive that is really important is my Outlook file. Are you sure that file won't be overwritten if I follow your advice?

[elgarak]

AUP, the only thing on the c drive that is really important is my Outlook file. Are you sure that file won't be overwritten if I follow your advice?
I should not.

However, I would always try to make a backup first (or have one before the HD craps out. Yes, I had a HD fail without backup. I also had one fail WITH backup. Guess which one I preferred). With a boot CD with Linux or bart, as others have suggested.

[a_unique_person]

AUP, the only thing on the c drive that is really important is my Outlook file. Are you sure that file won't be overwritten if I follow your advice?

I have done the same exercise before, for the same reasons. Installing windows will wipe out the registry, program settings, and all the rest. It leaves the files system intact, if you don't format the drive. The user files will be kept in a user id under "c:\Documents and Settings". What user id did you use?

[SezMe]

Alas, your idea, AUP, which was an excellent one, did not pan out. I realized that my question was a dumb one and preceeded to trying to reinstall windows. Early in the process, the system asked for my WinNT CD because I have an upgrade CD of Win2K. Unfortunately, I gave that CD the heave-ho a LONG time ago.

So I'll go back to the bootable CD idea. Stand by ......

[a_unique_person]

Alas, your idea, AUP, which was an excellent one, did not pan out. I realized that my question was a dumb one and preceeded to trying to reinstall windows. Early in the process, the system asked for my WinNT CD because I have an upgrade CD of Win2K. Unfortunately, I gave that CD the heave-ho a LONG time ago.

So I'll go back to the bootable CD idea. Stand by ......

I've fallen for that one too. I've got XP, which is an upgrade of '98. So I have to keep my old Windows 98 CD when I need to re-install it.

[CFLarsen]

I miss DOS.

Talk about an open system!

[Ocelot]

Simply remove the HDD from your old PC and insert it in the new one when you get it. You can then access all your old files.

[SezMe]

Well, the saga comes to an ignomineous close. My mate could not find her XP system disk and the time I was spending trying to find another one grew large. So I gave up on the bootable CD idea and gave up in general and took the damn disk to a local PC shop to have the files extracted to a DVD.

Ocelot, you're correct that I could use your scheme. But by now I've spent way too much time screwing around with this mess already, much less the time I'm going to have to spend setting up my new PC. Much less all my work I'm not getting done. All in all, it's time to move on.

[a_unique_person]

Ocelot, you're correct that I could use your scheme. But by now I've spent way too much time screwing around with this mess already, much less the time I'm going to have to spend setting up my new PC. Much less all my work I'm not getting done. All in all, it's time to move on.

A said and sorry tale, and all too common. Don't get me started on my sob stories.

[Zep]

Heh! I spend my spare time resurrecting old computers. PCs are the easiest, and you would be surprised what people leave lying around on them! :eek:

[CORed]

Install the hard drive in your new system as a second hard drive. Win 2000 uses the same file system as XP and Vista, so you should have no problem copying from the old drive to the new, assuming that your boot problems are not happening because the drive is broken.

another option would be to install the drive into a USB enclosure, which would make it function as an external USB drive.

[CORed]

DOS had no security problem s because it had no security. OTOH, very few DOS systems were ever on the internet, so as long as you controlled physical access to the machine (a necessity for any semblance of security anyway), you had nothing to worry about.

I always liked DOS for the interesting things it would do in response to programming errors, like display a Microsoft copyright notice followed by screen after screen of garbage. Never a core dump or a "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" dialog, just bizarre output, a hang or both, after which you pressed control/alt/delete, or pushed the reset button (anybody remember those?) and tried to figure out where the error was in your code.

[Lensman]

You can also buy inexpensive USB to IDE adaptors (or is it IDE to USB adaptors), that you can use to connect any IDE device to a USB port - I've salvaged a lot of files off old HDDs with mine.