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Andrej PirmanFlag for Slovenia

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Repair old Windows 2000 boot

Hi,

I am a bit out of those old machines and my mind is not clear lately, but tomorrow morning I need to repair customer's CNC machine, which has OEM built in Windows 2000 workstation to manipulate with CNC machine.

A "smart" guy at machinery shop thought, he could upgrade this CNC machine from Windows 2000 to Windows XP so he ran XP side-by-side install and broke everything. Neither it boots now to Win 2000, nor to Windows XP.

They called me today and I tried to help him by issuing some commands via phone:
- he inserted Windows 2000 install CD and went to Recovery Console
- then I told him to select proper partition to repair
- and issue "fixmbr" command
- as this did not help, I told him to try also with "fixboot d:" command (as Win 2000 partition is on D: partition)....but no help either

I'll bring some old repair CDs tomorrow, but I'd like to get some ideas before, so to have a bunch of different approaches handy just in case, my methods wouldn't work.

DIsk 0
- MBR partition 0 with Windows XP install, C:
- Extended partition 1, with Logical Volume and partition 3 is Windows 2000, D:

How to make Windows 2000 partition BOOTABLE?
Avatar of Curt Petricca
Curt Petricca
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Geez... That's quite a nightmare... I would reach out to manufacturer and see if it's possible to get a image disk. If not then do a reinstall of 2000 so just the windows system files are overwritten and pray it works, Good Luck!!
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Kimputer

Wow that's been quite a while for me since I touched a Win2000 machine.
Anyway, it's still better to describe exactly what you see when the system boots. Do you still get the boot menu (with an option to start with WinXP or Win2000)? If so, what happens after choosing either one? Error screen?  BSOD?
Avatar of Andrej Pirman

ASKER

Well, by default only "System disk not found" or something simmilar was displayed.
When we messed up with DOS editor to edit "boot.ini" file (via phone) and added options for partition (0), (1) and (2), still the same result, whatever they select.

Regarding OEM manufacturer...this is 4-axial CNC machine, worth 100.000+ and is long over the maintenance contract. Manufacturer does not support it anymore, instead they provide upgrade for a couple of 10k EUR.... :)
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Curt Petricca
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My memory did serve me correctly:  This Microsoft TID discusses recovering from registry backups.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/307545 - (Applies to XP)

This article discusses 2000/2003:

http://www.davidjnice.com/registry_restoring_a_non_booting_server.html

-saige-
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The difficulty as others pointed out desks with knowing exactly what the person did? If memory serves, you would need to have all requisite drivers during the repair install attempt..

Missing boot could mean during the attempted install, the existing partitions were deleted..

Windows 2000 I think still used the winnt as the Windows root folder

Once on site as others pointed out, what you see will guide you.

As David' boot.ini shows, the difficulty based your comments suggests the XP install attempt corrupted the boot setup.
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Woah, how many replies! Thank you, guyz!

What I found on site was surprisingly messay, and on the other hand pleasant:
- Both partitions (examined with Tiny XP) held \WINDOWS folder, so I could not distingush between them at first sight
- Seems like user did in-place upgrade of C:\ partition, while there was a stale/not used install also on D:\ partition

So after trying to REPAIR with ALL here mentioned methods, spending few hours, I quit.
Rather than restoring original system, I begun collecting info about apps which were installed for this CNC milling machine. Got a contact of (very nice) guy who installed it a decade ago, he's willing to help in form of providing install and reissue registering code, so we're now in the middle of FRESH install. At the end, I think that will be the best possible option.



But what bothers me most, is the actual employee who did all those mess. What I found out on field he's a really nice guy, willing to help and he's struggling with bureaucracy all the time. They have brand NEW CNC milling machine right there, 10-times faster and better, but they delay due to some paper works. He was trying to do the best when dedicated link between DESIGNER's machine and CNC machine failed, and the production acutally stopped because they could not load files.
So he decided to TRY installing dual-boot Windows XP there, so it would recognize USB disk drive, so they would be able to transfer files to start working.
But his attempt failed and now the company holds him responsible - he will be probably fired, and he will need to pay ALL MY EXPENSES. I saw him leaving home with 15 years old junk of the car. He's broke, I can see that....so how can I charge anything at all, knowing that he will probably bankrupt with my bill?... :/
Tough decision at the end :(
Woah, how many replies! Thank you, guyz!

What I found on site was surprisingly messay, and on the other hand pleasant:
- Both partitions (examined with Tiny XP) held \WINDOWS folder, so I could not distingush between them at first sight
- Seems like user did in-place upgrade of C:\ partition, while there was a stale/not used install also on D:\ partition

So after trying to REPAIR with ALL here mentioned methods, spending few hours, I quit.
Rather than restoring original system, I begun collecting info about apps which were installed for this CNC milling machine. Got a contact of (very nice) guy who installed it a decade ago, he's willing to help in form of providing install and reissue registering code, so we're now in the middle of FRESH install. At the end, I think that will be the best possible option.



But what bothers me most, is the actual employee who did all those mess. What I found out on field he's a really nice guy, willing to help and he's struggling with bureaucracy all the time. They have brand NEW CNC milling machine right there, 10-times faster and better, but they delay due to some paper works. He was trying to do the best when dedicated link between DESIGNER's machine and CNC machine failed, and the production acutally stopped because they could not load files.
So he decided to TRY installing dual-boot Windows XP there, so it would recognize USB disk drive, so they would be able to transfer files to start working.
But his attempt failed and now the company holds him responsible - he will be probably fired, and he will need to pay ALL MY EXPENSES. I saw him leaving home with 15 years old junk of the car. He's broke, I can see that....so how can I charge anything at all, knowing that he will probably bankrupt with my bill?... :/
Tough decision at the end :(
who hired you? Your interpretation of who might be held responsible might not come to fruition?
Issue your bill as expected.
If you are still concerned that it will come out of the hide of the employee, you could check.

I doubt the person on its own decided to do this.

Did you install XP or 2000 or a newer OS?
Why didn't here take backup first? I take backup even before I do a clean install on private users request. Because it is already a tradition that when you erased everything - they make big eyes and tell you - Oh my God!!! I forgot to copy out the most important file of my life!!!! Any way to restore it now? And if not - you are responsible for everything.

Back to the topic. Have you tried to set the right partition active and use Rescue Kit as I suggested? If the Windows is there - it would definitely boot with the help of Rescue Kit.
Hi,

After much ado I figured out the old disk controller is dying, which was obviously the reason for failure in first place. Actually the enthusiastic guy at facility was quite right about installing Windows XP, but was too confident that using the free/unused partition for Windows XP cannot harm the whole system behaviour.
I put Windows XP now on the NEW disk and is running fine, despite of machine being from 1999. It's obvious the mainboard is industrial-grade, because I tried to inspect electrolytic capacitors, but found none. Seems only high-quality tantalum or other long-life capacitors are used, so the disk is actually the weakest point.

Thank you all for help!