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Win 2k re-install advice

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  • 07-05-2004 8:00pm
    #1
    Dooom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,808 ✭✭✭


    Right, can someone give me some advice on this? I need to re-install Windows 2000 Pro, because somethings gone a bit wrong on the HDD. Can I just put in the Windows cd and boot it up? Will that work no matter what (at the moment, I can't get past the "Starting Windows" screen)? And aswell, can I just re-install it without formatting the HDD?
    Thanks in advance.


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    #2
    Tivoli
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,008 ✭✭✭Tivoli


    hi spike, whats gone wrong with your old win2k install, try booting in safe mode


    yeah booting from the cd should do it, it will give you the option to format the partition doing this will delete everything


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    #3
    leeroybrown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,563 ✭✭✭leeroybrown


    Before you go and reinstall try to boot into "safe mode" as suggested or use your Win2k CD to boot up and either let it attempt an automated recovery or use the recovery console to try to fix the problem.


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    #4
    Dooom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,808 ✭✭✭Dooom


    Well the entire problem is in a post on the tech forum under "Urgent Help Needed." I can't boot into Safe Mode, it just won't go further than the "Starting Windows" screen. Now it's extremely awkward for me to back-up all the stuff on the HDD (there's 80gb of things). So what I would like to do is just keep everything that's on the HDD (both partitions) and just re-install Windows. Oh and by the way, I'll have to but Windows 2000, because I don't have the cd, when the guy put my pc together, he put Windows 2000 pro on it, but neglected ( I also, neglected to get the disk off him) to give me the cd.


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    #5
    leeroybrown
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,563 ✭✭✭leeroybrown


    It is possible to make a Win2k boot floppy which would give you access to the recovery console. That said you probably have neither the PC nor the internet connection required to download the boot disk and write the four floppies required.

    If you do then http://www.bootdisk.com/ should have the necessary download linked off it somewhere. Before writing the bootdisk do a full format (not quick) on all the floppies.

    As for re-installing, the Win2k installer will give you the option to reinstall onto the existing filesystem replacing the current install. I've never seen the Win2K installer damage an existing filesystem but if you've got anything important/irreplacable I'd still advise backing at least that up (even if only to the second partition).

    Having had a quick read of your post on Tech, I'd say that one of your drivers or other system files got corupted when your PC hung. Obviously you've been unlucky and windows can't boot without it. I'd definitely say that the recovery console (I think you'd have needed to have made a recovery disk for your install to use the automatic recovery option) option is worth a shout.


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    #6
    Dooom
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,808 ✭✭✭Dooom


    All right, thanks for the info. I'll give bootdisk.com a shot, as I have a laptop I can use ( I can use a different computer to make the disks can't I?). However, if that doesn't work, I'll try for a re-install of Windows. There's nothing mega-important on it, just about 10gbs of music and some other stuff that I really don't want to lose as I'm on a 56k, so it'd take me some 3 years to get it all back.
    Thanks again.

    Ps: I think there might be a copy of Windows XP around here somewhere, if I were to install XP over 2000, there wouldn't be any horrible clashes of problems would there?


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