Windows 2000 won't boot

Graham81 · 18 May 2006

My PC running Windows 2000 boots to just before displaying the log-on box then just hangs, never displaying the box.

Safe mode does not work, recovery does not work, I've unplugged all unnecessary USB and other devies but no joy. I have even swapped out the RAM but still same result.

Its as if the boot/log-on script is damaged or something. Can anyone think of what my next port of call is?

Regards

Doc Lenny · 18 May 2006

When you say

Safe mode does not work, recovery does not work

do you mean that:

It does not boot up in safe mode at all?

You can't boot from the recovery disk?

Need more info on this one.

Do you have the windows 2000 CD or just an a recovery CD.

Any changes to software /hardware recently?

Graham81 · 18 May 2006

It will only boot to just before log-on, on both normal mode and safe mode and disk boot. I have not changed any hardware. I have full Win 2k disk, but have tried recovery and repair but it does not change anything.

Any ideas???

Doc Lenny · 18 May 2006

Can you get the Recovery Console working.

Boot from your CD. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10, or press R to repair, and then press C

You will need the Administrator password.

Try running a chkdsk to check errors on your hard drive.

Some info here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q229716/

Use with extreme caution.

If in doubt plenty of info on the Microsoft website.

Did it run through the whole repair process when you tried to repair?

Did you have good virus protection?

Softus · 18 May 2006

Personally, I wouldn't waste any time sodding around with this.

If already backed up, then skip the next step, else stick the disk in another machine (or in a caddy attached to another machine), back up what you need, then format the drive and perform an install the from W2K setup CD.

However, two things worth doing first:

1. Thoroughly test the RAM.
2. Run a surface scan of the disk.

gcol · 18 May 2006

Softus said:
If already backed up, then skip the next step, else stick the disk in another machine (or in a caddy attached to another machine), back up what you need, then format the drive and perform an install the from W2K setup CD.

Ditto

JohnD · 18 May 2006

Softus said:
...If already backed up..

And, if not, buy a new hard drive, install on that, see if you can recover data from the old one later

And write one thousand times:

I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data
I must back up my data

Graham81 · 19 May 2006

Right. I have installed another boot of 2k on the same HDD and it boots fine. However the previous boot still gives me the hanging. Now I can get into the PC is there anything I can check ie boot files etc to try and cure it???

Regards

JohnD · 19 May 2006

Wouldn't hurt to run your Antivirus scan.

blu3tang · 25 May 2006

Graham81 said:
Now I can get into the PC is there anything I can check ie boot files etc to try and cure it???

Regards

Did you run chkdsk ?

Boot up into windows using the other hd, then go to dos prompt and type in chkdsk [DRIVE LETTER OF OLD HD] /f /r

Windows 2000 won't boot

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