Nasturtiumman
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Limited Virtual Memory
Got myself into a right old fix ... I bought a (Dell) windows 2000 system preloaded with lots of large-scale scanning software. My idea was to back up the HD. I used Norton Ghost to back it up onto DVDs, then I restored the Ghost images onto a new HD. The new HD wont boot (strangely it is missing a small partition).
I didnt change anything on the original drive. I used partition manager to examine it only. Now when I try to boot from the original drive I get the Limited Virtual Memory error - no matter what I do, even in safe mode it just defaults to the same error message "Your system is running without a correctly sized paging file". Apparently somehow the drive allocations in the registry may have been changed. is this so? and how can I fix it. thank you!
I didnt change anything on the original drive. I used partition manager to examine it only. Now when I try to boot from the original drive I get the Limited Virtual Memory error - no matter what I do, even in safe mode it just defaults to the same error message "Your system is running without a correctly sized paging file". Apparently somehow the drive allocations in the registry may have been changed. is this so? and how can I fix it. thank you!
ASKER
thanks r-k I have already done that, but it didnt suggest a chkdsk. It is a registry issue, because in the last few minutes I have renamed the system32/config/system file system.old, and copied the repair/system file. Now it boots okay, but its like a virgin system. is there any way to manually alter keys in the registry. can i boot it up with the virgin registry file and edit the backup system.old somehow? Yours sounds like a very elegant solution, but there was no chkdsk ....
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Thanks. yes I have the original disc which i can set up as slave on another system, and interrogate the files. maybe I could borrow the registry from the backup discs. Will report back. thanks
Just recreate the paging file by using the options under My Computer, Properties.
Microsoft recommends that this should be around 1.5x the amount of RAM that you have.
To adjust this, right click on My Computer, Select Properties and go to the Advanced Tab.
Under Performance select SETTINGS and then the Advanced Tab again.
Under Virtual memory click CHANGE
Either select 'System Managed Size' or enter values in the initial and maximum sizes boxes. It is slightly more efficient if both of these values are the same. If you have 1Gb or RAM I would enter 1500 in both boxes. (Or perhaps 1000 initial size and 1500 Max)
Press SET to confirm
Microsoft recommends that this should be around 1.5x the amount of RAM that you have.
To adjust this, right click on My Computer, Select Properties and go to the Advanced Tab.
Under Performance select SETTINGS and then the Advanced Tab again.
Under Virtual memory click CHANGE
Either select 'System Managed Size' or enter values in the initial and maximum sizes boxes. It is slightly more efficient if both of these values are the same. If you have 1Gb or RAM I would enter 1500 in both boxes. (Or perhaps 1000 initial size and 1500 Max)
Press SET to confirm
ASKER
This is really frustrating. I just spent an hour re-installing on the spare drive from the ghost backups. I replicated the drive as it was originally (3 partitions) and the backup seemed to be going fine, but on boot I get "strike f1 for retry f2 for setup utility. Bet its because its a DELL!
ASKER
KCTS Its not possible to do this because i cant get past the login, either in safe mode or in normal boot.
ASKER
I have fixed the drive! I copied the sytem file from the backup DVDs to another PC desktop. I set the original drive as a slave on the same PC. renamed it and copied it to config, then renamed it as a new system file. That did it. I am still puzzled as to why the registry got changed, but I`ll sleep better tonight. Thanks for your help.
ASKER
Postscript: Tried to backup this drive again but with acronis. Installed acronis, with two drives attached, removed slave drive after deciding to back up onto DVDs, re-boot - get the Limited Virtual Memory error! Replaced the slave drive, the system boots! Go figure
Connect your 2000 drive as a slave drive on the XP system. Be careful to set the jumpers etc. correctly so the 2000 drive is the slave drive. Then boot the system. During the boot process it will ask to run chkdsk on the 2000 disk and let it fix any errors. Let it do that. It will take several minutes to finish.
When done, you should be able to boot the original system with 2000 again.