Fix Install of Win2k while Preserving Files (With corrupt HDD)-- Solved!
Problem solved, solution at bottom of last of my posts! Thanks Zephyr_Pure and Richohealey!
I am borrowing a friend's laptop to try and fix it, if I can. He uses it at work configuring modems, etc., but we have a big problem: It will try to boot Windows 2000 Pro and will go all the way through the splash screen and loading bar until it prompts for a disk check. If you let it run the check, the system hangs, but if you cancel it, it loads a blue screen with this on it:
STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE or its log or alternate. It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.
Beginning dump of physical memory.
That goes away after about half a second; I got it by taking a photo of the screen. I am thinking that the registry is just corrupt; I've read about this a little but can't find any way of checking anything out, as it is very unwilling to completely boot. However, it WILL BOOT OCCASIONALLY, although it sometimes takes up to 4 hours of repeatedly attempting to boot it before it will go all the way through.
I cannot boot into safe mode, or recovery mode and, although it prompts to boot from CD (I'm using Xubuntu and DSL LiveCDs), it will not boot from CD either.
I really don't know much about this problem; the c0000218 is a memory address, right? How can I find out what it's trying to read to/from? Is this even what I should do? I would think there might be a reference to this in the registry, but as I can't log in… I can't just reformat right now, either… It's a pentium 450MHz box and I don't know that it can handle even a lightweight XP crack that I have, and I don't have a 2000 install disk, though I'm sure I could get an ISO…
However, he has not backed up the files on the laptop, so I can't do much until I manage to log on and copy everything to an external drive. I'm going to keep trying to boot for a little while, I'll back up everything then if I can get it; in the mean time, please, if you know anything about this that might be of any help at all, let me know! I might not be able to get back to this tonight, as my dad has to use the computer, but I'll be here tomorrow. I would really like to fix this for him, but I've never encountered anything like it before.
OK, after a while it has finally not crashed at disk check startup. It is currently at low 70s, it'll probably be done within an hour… It's going at about 1% every few minutes. It listed a lot of bad sectors that it replaced, many in system32/ including SOFTWARE, so maybe that was part of the problem. I'll update with any further info.
[edit] It got done with the disk check and tried to boot up… ending in that same BSOD yet again. I have no idea what to do now; while I was at my friend's house, we managed to get it to boot one time. It has not booted since then. [/edit]
[edit again] I'm downloading Win2K to make a boot disk and maybe recover from that, it seems I need to replace some of the files in system32/ and the install disk should have those. I'll update if anything happens, though I won't be able to try this until tomorrow. [/edit]
ThorsDecree wrote: If you let it run the check, the system hangs, but if you cancel it, it loads a blue screen with this on it:
Sounds like the disk has bad sectors.
I cannot boot into safe mode, or recovery mode and, although it prompts to boot from CD (I'm using Xubuntu and DSL LiveCDs), it will not boot from CD either.
Well, yes, of course you can't boot into either of those modes… the bad sectors seem to have occurred in critical system files. Safe mode only boots the system with the minimal necessary drivers… it does not remove the system file requirements. Similarly, problems with system files could prevent recovery mode from functioning.
It "prompts to boot from CD"? As in, one of those messages saying "Press any key to boot from CD…"? Or some other type of message?
Try this: Put your Linux LiveCD in the CD Drive. Get into the BIOS on the laptop (Try Delete, F2, or F1). Make sure that the boot order has the CD drive listed first. If the laptop allows booting from the network interface, then set the network interface higher in the boot order than the HDD; if not, don't worry about it. Save the BIOS settings (if you made changes), reboot the laptop, and press F10 and ESC alternating… those are the two main buttons I know of for choosing a boot device at startup. If that works, choose the CD drive; if not, don't worry about it. What happens when you try this to boot from the CD? Be as detailed as possible. Is the CD drive functioning? Does the light on the front blink when the system is powered on?
I can boot into a WinXP install disk but I can't boot a Linux CD… not yet anyway. I'll keep trying when I get home (@ school now) and I don't knwo what's up with that… I'll edit this when I have a chance to try, and I'm going to try a recovery from the Win2k disc I downloaded.
When it ran disk check in the boot process it said it fixed a bunch of bad sectors… still won't boot, so of course something's corrupted. I just want to make sure that whatever I do won't hurt the files on the HD. It's not much important stuff but I'd like to recover and not reformat if I can help it
ThorsDecree wrote: I can boot into a WinXP install disk but I can't boot a Linux CD… not yet anyway.
Ehh? :whoa:
Okay, run over to gentoo.org, download the minimal install CD (54MB), and boot to that. I use it all the time for troubleshooting. Just make sure you're somewhat familiar with fdisk, mount, and cp in Linux, and you'll be fine. That's all I have until you try again.
can't boot xubuntu or dsl, i'm downloading gentoo now. WinXP and 2k boot disks work alright tho… any particular reason you know of?
and I can't reformat cuz I want to be back up his stuff first. I tried making a new partition and installing Win on that but his whole disk (6G in total, too) is the Win partition. I'll edit this if gentoo works… or if it doesn't hehe
…..EDIT1:
Gentoo booted, and it is a very good one for this kind of thing. Thanks zephyr!
Working on backing up his files now…
….EDIT2:
This is if you want to laugh at me… After about 20 minutes of trying to figure out why
markupcp /mnt/hda1 /mnt/sda1/backup didn't work, I realized I needed the -r flag… haha
Anyway, I think I'm gonna have this done soon. It's copying everything now… pentim III, bah! and after that I think I'll just reinstall… maybe set him up for dual-boot or something, eh?
ok im back… i can't do that, it will fail as soon as it gets to a damaged cluster. Is there any way I can copy ONLY intact files, from the box running the Gentoo LiveCD to my external drive? A command or argument that will let it not fail when it gets to damaged files? I feel like I'm getting closer to just reformatting…
First, I'm glad that the Gentoo LiveCD worked for you… I've found that, when it doesn't boot, it gives very accurate information as to WHY it didn't boot.
Okay, so you're still encountering problems with the bad sectors. One thing you could try would be the cp command with the -f (or –force) option, which should tell it to just plow on through the process.
A better option would be to boot to your Win2K install CD and get into Recovery Console. From there, you can run the chkdsk command, which will attempt to locate and repair bad sectors, as well as recover any files.
Finally, if none of this works for you, you have one last option prior to formatting. The Linux dd command makes a bitstream copy of a partition / volume; using that command, you could "ghost" the Windows 2000 partition to your external drive and re-install on the laptop. Then, you have all of the original installation on the external drive, so you can attempt different things to recover it.
For more information on the W2K Recovery Console: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/229716
And, as always, Google and man pages are your friend for Linux commands, as are the switches "-?" or "-h". :)
The install/recovery disk (Win2k) asked for me to insert the Win2k install disk, wdf? It's already in… ok so no use there, it also said that it could not verify the existence of an OS on the laptop.
As to -f, I did not know that went through corrupted files… I just thought it did not ask for overwrite. Guess I learned something.
And I kind of wondered what dd was, I saw it in /bin or somewhere. I'll try that if all else fails.
Thanks zephyr, Google time!
ThorsDecree wrote: As to -f, I did not know that went through corrupted files… I just thought it did not ask for overwrite. Guess I learned something.
And I kind of wondered what dd was, I saw it in /bin or somewhere. I'll try that if all else fails.
Thanks zephyr, Google time!
Hold on… I didn't say that cp -f went through corrupted files. It was only speculation… I figured that the force option would suppress / ignore errors and keep going. As always, verify the files that you've copied before you hose the original HDD.
Good luck and, as always, post what your final solution was just in case others end up having the same problem.
lol I check what I've got in sda every 5 minutes or so, I'm paranoid! And as I'm at school now, I'll not be able to get back to you until later, but I will post if something works. Thanks for all the help, maybe richo cna help me some more if he's online tonight… Wish I had a Linux textbook or something O.O
A helpful link for Linux commands:
http://www.perpetualpc.net/srtd_commands_rev.html
Other than that, just work with Linux more… it's the best way to learn it.
Alright so here's what I did:
Boot from Gentoo minimal LiveCD (sda is external hard drive) (hda is laptop hard drive (corrupted) )
dd– basically like Ghosting, makes a bit-for-bit backup
dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/sda
That just copied hda to sda
Now run fdisk and reformat hda as FAT32. Install Win2k
Restore any wanted noncorrupted files to hda in Windows. Return laptop to cable guy. Collect pay (actually it was a free service :p )
Thanks zephyr and richo!