Comments on: Windows 2K PRO

By: mks3rd

mks3rd — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 08:42:19 +0000

I used to run a small LAN lab at a University and we would swap our drives to several different machines using W2k. Get it to boot in safe mode. Reinstall all of the drivers for your new hardware and rename your hardware configuration. That way when you boot you can select that hardware profile. steps:
Right click on My Comptuer
Hardware Tab
Hardware Profiles
You can also make it default by modifying the boot.ini file.
Good luck

By: 2stroke

2stroke — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:21:30 +0000

Well…I am now up and running…apparently without any problems. After reviewing everyones replies (BTW..thanks everyone) I performed a repair/install from the CD again and was able to boot normally like before. This time I scheduled a fixmbr to run on the next restart and biff boom bam it is now working like it was in the previous tower prior to failure.

By: mraslan

mraslan — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 07:02:43 +0000

Totally agree with sonotsky, from my expeince with Windows, you can’t just take your hard drive from one system and plug it to another system even if from the same manufacturer.

Windows stores the various hardware configuration such as motherboard resources and DMA channels and the order of devices in the registry, changing from one machine to another completely needs rebuilding the hardware inventory in the registry which mighe be easy when changing devices like audio cards or VGA cards, but not base resources as the motherboard.

You can try to miss around in safe mode, one thing that might help you is to go to device manager and delete ALL devices there, and then restart, Windows will try to re-detect them BUT even if this works, know its never 100% safe

By: petermac

petermac — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 07:01:09 +0000

I agree with some of your previous replies. Problem is typical of ghosting onto different hardware, or simply swapping drive as you have done. Problem is that windows detects the new hardware, and installs drivers for it, but it does not forget about the original hardware, and will still try to load drivers for this too. Means you end up with two sets of competing drivers for all your internal devices, some of which will only work partially, or not at all on the new hardware. I have been able to get around this on some occassions using process detailed below, but be WARNED I have also ended up with a totaly useless system trying this.

Save everything you can first onto external media.
Boot into safe mode
Go to device manager in SYSTEM
Remove ALL devices – everything including the system devices !!
Boot from install CD, and run repair

NB: I only reccomend this drastic action if you have something not recoverable by some other means on the hard drive.
TRY ALL OTHER SUGGESTIONS FIRST THEY CAN WORK IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES

By: poppaman

poppaman — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:32:30 +0000

I too have experienced what Howard2nd describes, and agree that the most efficient course (as far as time and effort expended are concerned) would be to strip the HDD and re-install, if that is indeed what is required.

There are three other suggestions I make, all of which will sound odd/crazy/???, but here goes:

1. Replace the HDD cable(s). They’re cheap, easily damaged, and will cause or mimic all sorts of issues, ranging from mysterious “STOP:” errors to total hardware failure. Make sure you use the 80 line/40 pin cables for ATA drives, or reputable SATA or SCSI cables (try Adaptec or LSI or Cables to Go), as applicable…

2. Re-seat the RAM, BUT Before re-seating the RAM…

3. Take the DIMM’s and LIGHTLY run a plastic eraser over the contacts, using an electrostaticly shielded vacuum or canned air to remove the shreds of eraser. NOTE: the eraser I suggest should be one of the CLEAR PLASTIC or SOFT GREY OR WHITE types, as found in an artist supply house. DO NOT use the type of eraser that you knead to activate – too much destructive residue left on the contacts. DO NOT use a standard pencil type eraser, as they are far too abrasive, and most likely will damage the RAM pins/contacts.

Sorry about the shouting (CAPS), and please don’t flame me too hard for the suggestions, but I have used them successfully in the past. If they do not work, of course, proceed with any of the other suggestions previously posted…. Good luck.

By: howard2nd

howard2nd — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 08:26:45 +0000

ACPI – The information that controls hibernations/standby is also involved with setup of the HAL (hardware abstraction layer). This is why moving a harddrive from one machine to a different machine hardly ever works.
The ‘FIX’ is time consuming.
1 – Start the machine in safe mode and change the ACPI setting to ‘Standard’. This causes a re-enumeration of the hardware. Will require the install CD and repatching.
2 – test, backup data, bring all the drivers up to date and backup to cd.
3 – Change back to ACPI and you should have a stable system.
You can search for walk-throughs if you need step by step instructions.

I run a small network and have machines that appear the same outside (model and make) but production changed the motherboard in mid run and ‘ghosts’ stop working. Given a choice it is a lot esier to do a clean install on a new drive and then transfer data. (not possible for you as you need the apps)

By: sonotsky

sonotsky — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 07:55:23 +0000

It’s been my experience that you CANNOT take a drive with any version of Windows installed, and pop it into another machine that is not hardware-identical. Yes, Windows is *supposed* to see that there are different hardware devices detected, but for some reason, it won’t completely adapt to the new system.

Many moons ago, before I had a CD-ROM drive per PC, I only had one to share across 4 systems. I got the bright idea that I would set up Windows on the CD-equipped PC, and then swap the HDD out to the other systems. I ran into many, many, many problems after three attempts, so I gave it up.

Best suggestion: If your new workstation has a CD/DVD burner that you can write to, or if your network card is active and you can connect to a remote share, back up your important data, wipe the drive clean with FDISK, and reinstall from scratch. I’d be willing to bet a small sum of money that you would find to problems after doing so.

Good luck!

By: paulieeddie

paulieeddie — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 12:50:45 +0000

If the system boots into safe modem, a hardware error doesn’t seem particularly likely. A driver problem or a hard drive corruption issue may be at fault. You had mentioned a paging error, which could be related to a problem with disk corruption. Start the system in safe mode and run a CHKDSK /R C: from the command prompt. You will be prompted to schedule the chkdsk for next reboot. Reboot the machine normally and see if that resolves the issue.

By: stanclem

stanclem — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:42:51 +0000

Two questions that come to mind first:
Have you checked Microsoft’s Win 2000 Pro Hardware Compatibility List to verify that the memory and systemboard are listed?
Also, have you tried replacing the memory?
Good luck,
Stan
PS Successfully booting to safe mode would tend to indicate a driver or program may be causing the problem. What are you doing with regard to virus/spyware/trojan horses?