re-installing win2k... questions

[Jack_McBastard]

I need to re-install win2k pro, but before I do it, I have a couple questions.

Is re-installing 2k like reinstalling 9x? Every time I\'ve re-installed 9x, I didn\'t have to bother re-installing all my software. Will I have to re-install everything all over again?

I have no way of backing up all my favourites, and documents. I have alot of mp3s that took me a long time to download. Will they be gone?

Also, the last time I installed 2k (fresh install, first time ever), it took FOREVER. The guy I got it from told me there was a way to have it install faster. How do I do this?

Thanks.

[Josetann]

Yes, you can install Win2k over itself and it\'ll save all the settings for you (as long as you choose the upgrade option).  Also like Win9x, you can do a clean install and it won\'t affect anything other than the Winnt directory (it even leaves your old personal user settings alone and makes a new directory instead).

If it took forever, as in over an hour, you probably booted with a DOS floppy and ran setup from there.  That takes forever.  If you boot from the CD or start setup from within Windows (Win9x or WinNT, doesn\'t matter) it goes much quicker for the first pat.

[Anonymous]

Can I re-install over the old win2k installation from within Windows 98 (not 98SE)

I\'ve tried making the Win2k boot disks several times, but something always seems to get corrupted. First it was BIOSINFO.INF on disk 1, and now it\'s one of the CD-ROM drivers on disk 4.

[Josetann]

Kinda...it\'d have to be a clean install though.  What problems are you having?  If you just can\'t boot to Win2k anymore, it could be something you can fix pretty easy, like by running the recovery console.  I assume you have a modern PC so it\'ll boot from the CD no problem, no need to make the boot disks.  Basically it\'ll start setup, but will give you the option to either repair an existing installation, or to run setup.  Choose the repair option and go from there.

[Anonymous]

Hi, it\'s McBastard... I don\'t really feel like logging in, \'cause my connection to this site is REALLY slow tonite... Anyways...

I don\'t know what the problem is. I\'m using System Commander, and when I select win2k at start up, everything looks fine at first. That black screen with the grey progress bar at the bottom shows up, but my system halts after it gets to about 10%. Any by halt, I mean it completely halts. Not even ctrl+alt+del will work. I need to press the reset button.

I\'m able to press F8 and get to the advanced options menu before it freezes, but none of the options will work at all. None. I\'ve tried every safe mode, debugging mode, etc. It\'s like the partition has become totally inaccessible.

Also, I can\'t seem to boot from the CD. I think I might need to adjust something in my BIOS, but do you know how to boot from a CD using system commander?

Any new suggestions?

Thanks.

[Josetann]

Well, System Commander should only come up if you\'re booting from the hard drive.  So in the bios you should only have to specify to boot from the cd-rom first.  Will any other PC boot from the Win2k cd?  Is this a \"backup\" copy?  If it\'s a backup that isn\'t bootable, you can use my instructions on how to make a Win2k bootable cd assuming you have a COMPLETE backup (i.e. not just the files in the i386 directory, but the whole thing).

[Anonymous]

Okay, it must be something in my BIOS, because my system is fairly new (Asus P3V4X), and I have booted from a CD with this system before.

Yes, it is a backup copy , and I\'m pretty sure it\'s a complete back up, because it does have more than the i386 directory, and it will autorun in windows just fine. In the root directory of the CD, I can see...

Bootdisk
Discover
i386
Setuptxt
Support
Valueadd
Setup.exe

Does this look right?

Also, I know this isn\'t likely, but I had my celeron 466 overclocked to 560. Could this have something to do with it? I doubt it, but I have heard about people\'s hard drives frying on them after overclocking.

[Josetann]

I know you have to have more than that, else autorun wouldn\'t work

Here\'s a complete list of all the file that should be in the root directory:

BOOTDISK
DISCOVER
I386
SETUPTXT
SUPPORT
VALUEADD
AUTORUN.INF
CDROM_IP.5
CDROM_NT.5
READ1ST.TXT
README.DOC
SETUP.EXE

As long as all those are in place, you can use my instructions to make the cd bootable.  If not...then ya gotta get them some way.

[Anonymous]

hmmm...

Well, I only have the directories that I mentioned, and autorun works fine.

I just checked, and autorun.inf is in the root directory, too. I think I forgot to mention it, because I listed everything earlier in a browse window, and it only displayed the executables.

[Anonymous]

I just checked again, and I have everything you mentioned.

[Josetann]

It sounds like your win2k cd isn\'t bootable.  If you have a burner and CDRWIN, just make a new copy that\'s bootable (instructions here).  Then you don\'t have to worry about a bad set of floppies.

Once you get that done and can boot from the CD, enter the recovery console.  From there you can run programs such as checkdsk, fixmbr, etc.  Just make sure you run them on the right drive/partition (it won\'t hurt if you run them on the wrong one, but you\'d just be wasting your time).

If that fails, you can start the win2k install from inside Win98.  Make sure you select the \"clean install\" option, then the advanced setup option, and tell it to let you specify the partition to install to during setup.  Once it reboots and starts the actual setup, it\'ll ask you what partition, make sure you choose the ntfs partition.

It\'ll be a clean install of win2k, but all your old data will still be intact.  You can even copy over the old user preferences if you want to.

[Josetann]

Forgot to reply to the first message...you won\'t get an email notification otherwise.  Anyways, if you\'re still having problems, I can also try to help you out in chat if I\'m still up.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the late reply, but I haven\'t been able to connect to your forum.

Anyways, I\'m finally able to reach the repair console, but I don\'t know where to go from there.

I have a feeling it might be the registry. Is there any way to repair it? Is there anything I can do at all? I\'m totally lost. I\'ve only been using 2k for about a month now.

I\'ll refresh your memory... I can\'t get past that black screen with the grey progress bar when 2k starts loading. Incase I mentioned it already, I was getting a message saying \"BIOSINFO.INF is missing\", but that was just a problem with the boot disk.

Other than that, the partition is fully intact. I looked around in the repair console, and everything is still there.

Thanks.

[Josetann]

Ok, once you\'re at the recovery console, change to the win2k drive.  Type \"help\" to see a list of commands.  The most common ones I use are:

chckdsk
fixmbr
fixboot

The first one checks and repairs your drive.  Now each time I\'ve run it, it\'ll exit right back out saying the partition appears fine, but gives you the command to force it to actually check it.  Then I run that command, and it finds and fixes errors.  The second one will fix any problems with your mbr, and the last one will kinda do the same thing (I won\'t go into detail here).  I\'ve always run all three commands in that order, and it always brings my win2k install back to life.

If all goes well, you\'ll be back up in no time.

[Anonymous]

Oh, thank you! Hallelujah, praise the Lord!

Everything\'s working fine now, and to be honest, I can\'t believe I didn\'t think of doing that.

Thanks for all the help.

By the way, didn\'t you used to hang out in the MaximumPC forum? I tried getting help there, but they didn\'t do any good.

[Josetann]

Glad I could help.

Yeah, actually I still hang out there some.  I spend most of my time here though, especially in the chat.