Problem installing new HD - Win2000 doesn't boot

[Muse]

Trying to install new Western Digital 80 GB WD800JB HD, replacing IBM 60 GB 60GXP. Windows 2000 SP2 won't boot now. Tried Safe Mode and it won't boot properly into that either. It says Safe Mode in the corners but I get a black screen - no Desktop. When I try to boot regularly, it gets to the point where it has a little screen saying Loading Personal Settings, but that keeps flashing and disappearing and flashing and disappearing, several times a second indefinitely. I have to hit the reset button - nothing else stops it.

Here's how I tried to swap disks: I used Norton Ghost 2001 to make a Disk to Disk copy of the old disk to the new one, keeping the sizes of my partitions the same except for my Windows 2000 applications partition (See below, G: NTFS, increased from 10 GB to 15 GB) and my data partition (H:, FAT32, got the rest of the extra 20 GB extra disk space).

Here are some possibly relevant facts about my system configuration:

Partitions on the main HD:
C: FAT16 1 GB Boot drive with no OS. It has a paging file of 850 MB that each of my OSs use (Win2000, Win98SE, WinNT4)
D: FAT16 2 GB Has data I want viewable by all 3 OSs.
E: FAT32 1.6 GB Win98SE
F: NTFS 3 GB Windows NT4 SP6a
G: NTFS 10 GB Windows 2000 Pro SP2
H: NTFS 15 GB (was 10 GB) Applications used by Windows 2000
I: FAT32 46 GB Data partition

I'm booted to my Windows 98SE right now. It hung the first time, but after booting in Safe Mode, it seems OK.

My 2 HDs are on a Promise Ultra100 TX2 controller card, primary master and secondary master. The system is Rigzilla, link below.

Thanks for any help.

 

[techfuzz]

Hey Muse, pop your Windows 2000 CD in and boot to the CD. Choose repair. That should fix things!

techfuzz

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: techfuzz
Hey Muse, pop your Windows 2000 CD in and boot to the CD. Choose repair. That should fix things!

techfuzz

Very cool. I had to go back to my IBM HD yesterday so I'll have to Ghost disk --> disk again and will try that. Thanks!!

 

[techfuzz]

No problem, if that doesn't work let me know, I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. I've been using ghost in the corporate environment for almost 3 years now and I've seen various problems crop up.

techfuzz

 

[Muse]

It didn't work. I'm in Win98SE right now and Win98SE looks OK, but I'm getting the same problem in Win2000. It cycles from Loading Personal Settings to Saving Personal Settings to some other similar small message about Personal Settings and it seems to do it several times a second and you have to hit the power button or reset button to stop it. Maybe if I had an emergency repair disk? I never made one. When I use the Repair option after booting to the Win2000 CD, it asks me if I want to use an ERD, but I don't have one so I use the alternative. I tried most of the options but it didn't seem to have any effect on the problem. Maybe you have some ideas of how to make this strategy work. Again, when I go into Safe mode, all I see is Safe Mode in the corners and some blurb on top, all in white against a black background and nothing works. There is a mouse cursor, but nothing to click! Thanks for the help. I can always install my other HD and create an Emergency Repair Disk to use with the new HD. Is that a good idea? I've never created an ERD. How do you do it?

I have a hunch the problem might not have cropped up if I had not changed the size for the Win2000 partition offered by Ghost. The 10 GB partition was going to be resized to around 13 GB and I changed it back to the same (996 MB). This is just a wild hunch, but I don't know what else to try right now. Actually, I don't need to install the 80 Gb drive and could live with the IBM 60 GB, but I hate to quit on it.

Another thing I could try is to use the installation utility that Western Digital included with the drive on a floppy. I used Ghost only because I'm pretty familiar with it. Have used it for over a year with generally very good success.

 

[techfuzz]

Muse,
I'm almost positive this is your problem. Check out this M$ KB article.

It says in the article that this can be directly caused by disk cloning software, ie. Ghost.

Let me know how things turn out for you.

techfuzz

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: techfuzz
Muse,
I'm almost positive this is your problem. Check out <a class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q249321&" target=blank>this M$ KB article</A>.

It says in the article that this can be directly caused by disk cloning software, ie. Ghost.

Let me know how things turn out for you.

techfuzz

Thanks. I'll look right now. I bet your right. If the article doesn't point me in the right direction (I'm on W98 again) I'll reinstall my IBM drive cause I gotta do something. Then, assuming I want to use the WD drive, I'll have to clone again. Maybe WD's cloning software will have better luck. I'm going to the link now... bye! ... Yeah yeah yeah! That's it! I should have noticed. It said H: was the Win2k boot drive, but Win2k was on I:. So, I'll see if I can fix that. I think it wants me to edit the registry. Well, I'll have a real good look at the article and decide if it's worth it. Like I said, it's not a giant hassle to keep using the IBM drive. Back to Q249321....

 

[Muse]

Originally posted by: techfuzz
Muse,
I'm almost positive this is your problem. Check out [KB article]http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q249321[/l].
It says in the article that this can be directly caused by disk cloning software, ie. Ghost.

Let me know how things turn out for you.

techfuzz

I didn't get too far into it but it looks pretty hairy, techfuzz. How would I even get into the Win2k registry when I can't boot into it? I can boot to NT4 or Win98. Can I edit the Win2k registry from there?? I tried something that didn't work. I don't know why my Windows 2000 has its own partition as I:, but I reasoned that it would boot OK if I changed that drive letter to H:, since that's (I think) where Windows 2000 is looking for itself. However, it wouldn't let me change the drive lettering of it's own partition. I changed my E: to S: and my F: to T:, hoping I could then reset the Win2k drive letter. Nope. I don't remember how I got my drive mappings in Windows 2000. Anyway, there's no real reason I can't keep using my IBM as my boot drive. I have loads of HD space, so it's not an issue. I figure I'll be wanting to start from scratch before too long just to freshen things up. My current installs date from around March 2002, so maybe by next march or April. When I do that, I'll go to the WD drive. Do you think I can do it now?

 

[techfuzz]

Your logic seems good. I see no reason why you couldn't go ahead and start from scratch with the new drive and just copy any data off the IBM you need. Use the IBM as a good backup until you're content with the new WD Win 2K install. I'd say go for it!

techfuzz

 

[KGB]

Try this:

1. Boot from your IBM drive, backup your registry, and make the MSKB registry changes.
2. Create an ERD.
3. Shut down.
4. Ghost to your WD drive.

Try it before a clean install.