asked on

Windows 2000 Pro loaded in error

I've got an older Presario for repair that an enterprising young man attempted to install Windows 2000 Pro on it from an older CR-ROM he found.
Now, the PC boots to 2000 and asks for the User Name and Password which, obviously, the boy didn't know how to set up.
Can I get this thing to boot back to the original 98SE or does this require a format and reinstall?

Pete

Casca1

It depends. at the boot menu, do you see an option to the old OS, or just the entry for Windows 2000?
You could also try booting to a a floppy disk, and seeing if you can browse your C drive.
If the kid installed 2K and let it setup to dual boot, the OS will load itself into WINNT, and therefore the Windows folder will still be there.
However, I wouldn't count on it. If the kid chose to format the drive for use with NTFS, which is like the default options, then you won't be able to read the C drive from the floppy, and even if he did a clean install, preserving the old OS, only Windows 2000, NT and XP can natively read the NTFS.
And during the install, it stops asking for the password, and will NOT advance until given one. The boy may not understand what happened, but he gave one.
The account it forced the creation of the password is for the administrator.
He should be able to give you that. If not, and you need to put the OS back to 98, just use a 98 boot disk, fdisk, and remove the partition.
Hope this helps.
Good Luck!

cfourkays

ASKER

It boots directly to 2000.
Looking at "fdisk", I see C: Drive as
"Partition 1, PRI DOS , FAT 32".
"Partition 2 EXT DOS,"
It than shows a Logical DOS Drive:
"D: SYSTEM_SAV FAT 32"

Would the "2000" have loaded on the Logical Partition?
Can I just delete that?
Will that save the 98SE data?

Or chuck the whole mess, fdisk back to one partition and format and install 98. I'm just trying to save the data, not the OS!
Pete

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Casca1

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cfourkays

ASKER

Casca, All I've got is the 2000.
It's fdisk, format and install.
Thanks for the help. The 250 is yours.
(I never gave you any points on "911" or Q & A!")
Pete

Casca1

Thanks very much. Good luck, and if you need any help, give a holler! 8-)

spooner27

I know this is a little late, but this has been very helpful to me

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

dl the disk and change the administrator passoword from vmlinux

Thanks,

Steve