Question - For Win2k Guru's Only

[johndwango]

I have an existing win2k pro setup on a scsi dell machine. I recently built a new amd 1ghz machine and I wanted to transfer the image from the dell machine to the AMD machine. I tried by imaging the harddrive and restoring it on the harddrive on the amd machine. The restore process went fine.. however on booting from that drive win2k crashes during the bootscreen.

Anyideas or how I can go ahead..
Right now Im trying to install new win2k over the old win2k and see if I can restore my settings by importing the registry keys from the dell machine..

What do you guys think?

 

[Elledan]

Win2k hates it to be transferred from one PC to another one. Replacing the motherboard in the PC is already reason enough to do a clean install.

Win9x will work sometimes when you mirror the installation from one PC to another, but it's not a good idea to do so.

 

[armypants]

maybe it didnt copy the bootsector(the thing that tells the comp what to do after its done loading bios)

 

[johndwango]

Im pretty sure it did copy the boot sector - cos if it didnt then it wouldnt even show the boot screen for win2k..
Any ideas on how I can make this work??

 

[IamDavid]

Can ya boot to safe mode or does it crash before it? If ya can, go into device manager and delete everything and restart. Worked for me when switching Mobos.

 

[lilnnjaboy]

Uhhh....ok....if you have it running on a SCSI system....and you transfer the files to a system with a different controller....how is it gonna boot up from the new system? You can't boot from a new system because it thinks it needs to boot from the SCSI controller, so when NT or 2000 is trying to find your SCSI card it's going to crash. If you updated your controller card, it's trying to find the new drivers, and it's not there so it crashes.

Install the drivers for whatever controller card you are using first, then ghost or make an image of the drive....and then you should be able to boot up fine

 

[lilnnjaboy]

oh one more thing.....heard there was some issues with Win2k and AMD's....there might be and update....but I don't know if these rumors are true....this is what I heard through the grapevine

 

[johndwango]

lilninja boy,
Im not using any specific controller card. Im using onboard ide controller.. how do I add drivers for the onboard ide controller?
I cant boot to safe mode either

 

[johndwango]

any other ideas guys.. i really need to make this work

 

[Rogue]

You will probably have to edit your boot.ini file to point to the IDE drive rather than a SCSI device. If I remember correctly, the boot.ini file specifies whether the drive is on an IDE or SCSI channel. Since you can't boot to Win2k, you'll have to boot to the Recovery Console to edit your boot.ini file accordingly. I assume since you're posting to the forum, you can get on the 'net. Check out Microsoft Support for more detailed information on the entire topic at hand.

 

[Marqui]

<< lilninja boy,
Im not using any specific controller card. Im using onboard ide controller.. how do I add drivers for the onboard ide controller?
I cant boot to safe mode either >>



This is only going to work if both computers have the same HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer). Which I doubt they do. What I suggest doing is doing a complete system backup. Do a fresh install of Windows on your AMD system. From there restore the files and/or apps (some of the applications may not restore properly) from your backup onto your AMD system.

 

[johneetrash]

<< oh one more thing.....heard there was some issues with Win2k and AMD's....there might be and update....but I don't know if these rumors are true....this is what I heard through the grapevine >>



no problem with my amd + win2k

 

[Raincity]

Marqui is dead right on this issue. I would not even of dream of trying to tranfer a image of Win2k from a existing instalation on another machine. your just doomed for failure even if your lucky enough to get the machine to boot.

Rain

 

[Zach]

I too second the well informed Marqui. If I weren't transferring a Win2K install between very very similer systems I'd try it out but plan on installing fresh..

You could try reinstalling though...... and have you tried booting from the Win2K CD and doing the auto repair? Might as well give it a whirl.

 

[potz]

Your only hope is to somehow get the SCSI drivers installed. But the best way is ALWAYS to format and reinstall. It gets rid of any problems caused by drivers and old apps clogging your system32 folder and registry.

 

[aUt0eXebat]

you would be much much better off by doing a clean install, and back up the files you need. never image a HD of a tottaly different setup to another machine.....

 

[johndwango]

No im not getting on the net with this computer
Im using another one lol
With this one I cant even get past the boot screen...
Even in safe mode it crashes..
Have tried the repair feature from the CD. Still no go..
Maybe I will try the boot.ini tomorrow and see if I can do anything..
Thanks for all your help guys!!!
If you think of something.. let me know

 

[PELarson]

<< No im not getting on the net with this computer
Im using another one lol
With this one I cant even get past the boot screen...
Even in safe mode it crashes..
Have tried the repair feature from the CD. Still no go..
Maybe I will try the boot.ini tomorrow and see if I can do anything..
Thanks for all your help guys!!!
If you think of something.. let me know >>



Reinstalling the OS will be the easiest and quickest. You could go the sysprep route and with enough time and effort setup a sysprep.inf that would make the neccassary changes for moving between two different PC's.

 

[bignick]

If you know how to use sysprep (it comes with win2k) then you can transfer your image from one machine type to another. The sysprep.inf is where you can specify which mass storage (hard drive controllers) drivers to use. Where I used to work we had a similiar problem with computers not booting when we would copy our win2k image to them. Turns out that half of the machines were intel bx chipset, and the other half were via apollo. What we did is use the repair feature on the win2k cd. The computers were running fine last I know about it. Make sure you reapply your service pack(s) if you do go for the repair option. I would also advise reapply the via 4-in-1 drivers, if you use them.

 

[johndwango]

any ideas on how to run sysprep?
I tried just executing it and it says that changes will be made and then the computer will be shutdown. However it still fails to boot.. it hangs up during the 'starting win2k' part. ( ie the first load up screen'
Also I dont know what drivers to specify.. Im not using any special controller on the destination computer. Im using the onboard ide controllers.

reinstalling the os works really well.. but alas its not really an option.. as there are so many small settings that I have made on the computer that its going to be difficult to recreate them all...

 

[johndwango]

can anyone tell me if this will work.
1. I make an image of the hard drive and the restore on destination HD.
2. I reinstall win2k on the destination hd over the winnt folder
3. I back the the registry from the source computer and restore it on the destination computer.

Will this restore all my application settings? Assuming all the settings are in the registry?

Also how do I back up the registry without backing up the hardware info?

 

[Marqui]

<< can anyone tell me if this will work.
1. I make an image of the hard drive and the restore on destination HD.
2. I reinstall win2k on the destination hd over the winnt folder
3. I back the the registry from the source computer and restore it on the destination computer.

Will this restore all my application settings? Assuming all the settings are in the registry?

Also how do I back up the registry without backing up the hardware info? >>



I don't think it will work, the registry settings contain alot of information regarding your hardware configuration and also software configuration. You can always try it. If you want to back up just the registry and system settings, you can use the backup tool in windows 2000 and just back up the 'System State'. There is an option to choose this. What exactly are you afraid of losing. You said settings, but what type of settings?

 

[Zach]

Cut the hardware info from the backup registry. Then it would work...

 

[johndwango]

Ok.. here is the background info. What Im doing right now is not for my machine but for my professor. He has a lot of programs installed and in each of these programs he has special setting that are stored in the registry. For example he has a program call matlab and that prog has certain test protocols that are stored in the registry.
How do I backup the registry and exclude the hardware part?

 

[johndwango]

I found a program- www.registrytool.com that restores all entries except hardware.. it costs 150$.. Anyone know any alternatives?