the password is recognised, yet login stops

  • Thread starter Thread starter aa
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aa

In my subject "degradation in speed" someone suggexted that 3Gb of free
space on w2k drive might not be sufficient, so I increased this partition
using Partition Magic (which is installed on XP which is instralled as a
double boot OS in another partition on the same computer.

The partition resizing went OK except at the end a message popped up that it
could not to create a key (God knows what key they meant).

Whether this key causes s problem or not, but as a result I still can boot
into XP, but cannot boot into w2k. It starts OK and proceeds to entering the
password. When the PW in entered it plays that characteristic WINDOWS tune
which is usually plaid when PW was accepted, and thinks for sometime and
then offeres to enter the PW again. I am sure it recognises PW, because when
I deliberately enter a wrong PW the reaction is different - no music is
played, no thinking and the request to re-enter PS pops up immediately.

what might be a problem and how to get round it?
 
aa said:
In my subject "degradation in speed" someone suggexted that 3Gb of free
space on w2k drive might not be sufficient, so I increased this partition
using Partition Magic (which is installed on XP which is instralled as a
double boot OS in another partition on the same computer.

The partition resizing went OK except at the end a message popped up that
it
could not to create a key (God knows what key they meant).

Whether this key causes s problem or not, but as a result I still can boot
into XP, but cannot boot into w2k. It starts OK and proceeds to entering
the
password. When the PW in entered it plays that characteristic WINDOWS tune
which is usually plaid when PW was accepted, and thinks for sometime and
then offeres to enter the PW again. I am sure it recognises PW, because
when
I deliberately enter a wrong PW the reaction is different - no music is
played, no thinking and the request to re-enter PS pops up immediately.

what might be a problem and how to get round it?
Click to expand...

This is an old and well-known problem: Windows is unable to locate
userinit.exe because your system drive letter has changed. The cure is
fairly simple if you have a networked machine and know the password for the
Win2000 Admin account, and a little less simple if you need to work from
your WinXP installation. Which one is it?
 
Thank u, Pegasus, for a glimpse of hope
Please will let me know a less simple solution for my dual-boot XP
 
OK, here we go:
1. Launch WinXP.
2. Make sure your Win2000 partition is visible and accessible. Let's assume
it's on drive X:.
3. Launch Regedit.
4. Open the registry hive X:\WinNT\System32\config\system.
5. Navigate to HKLM\System\MountedDevices\DosDevices\
6. You will see at least one drive letter, e.g. E:. Rename it to C:.
7. Close the System hive on C:.
8. Boot into Win2000.

Steps 4 and 7 are somewhat involved if you're not experienced with regedit.
Post again if you need more detailed instructions.

In Step 6 you may see several drive letters. One of them *must* be drive C:
You may have to find out by trial and error which one it is.

These instructions assume that your Win2000 system drive letter used to be
C:. If it was a different drive letter then you need to adjust the
instructions accordingly.

As I said - having a networked machine would have simplified the matter
considerably.
 
Pegasus, I'm curious because I ran into a similar problem a while back
and I do have a network, what is the procedure in that case?
 
Sid Elbow said:
Pegasus, I'm curious because I ran into a similar problem a while back and
I do have a network, what is the procedure in that case?
Click to expand...

I'm glad you asked! Here we go:
1. Start up the problem machine.
2. Run this command on a networked machine:
psexec \\ProblemPC cmd
You can get psexec.exe from www.sysinternals.com.
3. Make a note of the drive letter you see. This is the incorrect system
drive letter. Let's assume it's X:.
4. Run regedit.exe on the networked machine.
5. Open the registry of the problem machine via the "File" pull-down menu.
6. Navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\
7. On the right half of the screen, rename \DosDevices\X: to \DosDevices\C:
with a right-click of your mouse. If C: is taken, rename it to some other
drive letter to free up C:.
8. Run shutdown.exe on the networked machine in order to reboot the problem
machine.

By doing this you have restored the original system drive letter, thus
enabling the logon process to locate userinit.exe and complete the logon
process. If you get the rename wrong then you can try again with the same
method, using a different drive letter.
 
3. Launch Regedit.
4. Open the registry hive X:\WinNT\System32\config\system.
Click to expand...
My regedit shows only MyComputer and 5 HKEY entries to XP register
There is Import option there which allows me to navigate my X drive - by
OPEN do u mean that I need to import it first?

Also navigating to X:\WinNT\System32\config\system is a problem: folder
X:\WinNT\System32\config\ is empty, no system shows up there.
I assume this might be because WindowsExplorer is set no to show hidden
files - is this a case? Problem is that I cannot reset it otherwise. I go to
the folder options, untick and tick relevant boxes and radiobuttins, apply,
save, it pretends that it saves, but it does not save the settings. (if this
is relevant I am logged in the admin account)
This is preinstalled XP which came with the new computer and the number of
small annoyances like this forced me to install w2k on this machine as the
second OS. Applying for help to the computer maker and to MS help was waste
of time.
How can I get round this?
 
I gave you a fairly detailed answer some 7 hours ago. If you cannot find
it,
consider using Outlook Express as your newsgroup reader, or else check here:
http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.general/browse_thr
ead/thread/6071a3e0826d26a9/6ef7e862af6bd4fe?lnk=raot.
Click to expand...
I am already using OE actually.
If you mean the 8-step instruction, then I read it - thank you - and replied
that I tried but could not get past step 4 (I repeat my message here):
*************************
My regedit shows only MyComputer and 5 HKEY entries to XP register
There is Import option there which allows me to navigate my X drive - by
OPEN do u mean that I need to import it first?

Also navigating to X:\WinNT\System32\config\system is a problem: folder
X:\WinNT\System32\config\ is empty, no system shows up there.
I assume this might be because WindowsExplorer is set no to show hidden
files - is this a case? Problem is that I cannot reset it otherwise. I go to
the folder options, untick and tick relevant boxes and radiobuttins, apply,
save, it pretends that it saves, but it does not save the settings. (if this
is relevant I am logged in the admin account)
************************************

If you mean that u already answered this problem, then please will you copy
it here once again because neither OE not your URL above shows it
 
*** See below.

aa said:
I am already using OE actually.
If you mean the 8-step instruction, then I read it - thank you - and
replied
that I tried but could not get past step 4 (I repeat my message here):
Click to expand...
*** Sorry, your reply must have disappeared into a black hole.
My regedit shows only MyComputer and 5 HKEY entries to XP register
There is Import option there which allows me to navigate my X drive - by
OPEN do u mean that I need to import it first?
Click to expand...
*** No, I meant "Load Hive".
Also navigating to X:\WinNT\System32\config\system is a problem: folder
X:\WinNT\System32\config\ is empty, no system shows up there.
I assume this might be because WindowsExplorer is set no to show hidden
files - is this a case?
Click to expand...
*** Sorry, can't tell without seeing it.
Problem is that I cannot reset it otherwise. I go to
the folder options, untick and tick relevant boxes and radiobuttins,
apply,
save, it pretends that it saves, but it does not save the settings. (if
this
is relevant I am logged in the admin account)
Click to expand...
*** Sorry, can't tell without seeing it.
If you mean that u already answered this problem, then please will you
copy
it here once again because neither OE not your URL above shows it
Click to expand...

*** No, I did not respond to this particular note before.
***
*** Your questions suggest that you have limited experience when it
*** comes to in-depth Windows maintenance. There is no shame in
*** this - your have strong skills in other areas - but it makes it doubtful
*** that we'll succeed with this method. Instead there is a substantial
*** risk that we do irreversible damage to the Win2000 registry.
***
*** I can see these options for you, listed in order of preference:
*** a) You ask a computer-savvy friend to assist you.
*** b) You ask a computer workshop to fix the problem.
*** c) You reload Win2000.
*** e) You open up your machine for me to fix the problem.
*** If you're interested in considering option e), please send a note to
*** pegasus_fnlATyahooDOTcom so that I can explain the process.
 
Pegasus said:
There is something weird going on in this thread: All messages are
visible here:
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...ad/6071a3e0826d26a9/6ef7e862af6bd4fe?lnk=raot
but some of your messages and some of mine will not show up in Outlook
Express. Read my latest response under the above link.
Click to expand...

The link you posted and my OE both show 15 messages in this thread.
Maybe your OE read option for limiting the number of headers being read
accidently got checked.

-Paul Randall
 
The link you posted and my OE both show 15 messages in this thread.
Maybe your OE read option for limiting the number of headers being read
accidently got checked.
Click to expand...

Reading this through Agent 1.9 and the eternal-september news server,
I show 16 messages now, but I presume your post added one to the 15
you saw.

But afaik, no server shows all posts. The ones that amalgamate
several servers may do so, or may almost never fail to get one, but no
simple server does.
 
Paul Randall said:
The link you posted and my OE both show 15 messages in this thread.
Maybe your OE read option for limiting the number of headers being read
accidently got checked.

-Paul Randall
Click to expand...

I'm afraid not. The above message from you shows both in my OE and under
Google groups. One of the OE's responses and one of my own is visible in
Google Groups but on on my OE. It is as if my OE intermittently intercepts
and ditches some messages.
 
Pegasus said:
I'm afraid not. The above message from you shows both in my OE and under
Google groups. One of the OE's responses and one of my own is visible in
Google Groups but on on my OE. It is as if my OE intermittently intercepts
and ditches some messages.
Click to expand...

This reminds me of a couple of years ago when I was rude to you, thinking
you had something to do with some of my posts not showing up in OE.
http://groups.google.com/g/cfd7fef5/t/16b89b7be8dc7a46/d/5b4c57fdf645c0a0
-Paul Randall
 
Pegasus said:
I'm afraid not. The above message from you shows both in my OE and under
Google groups. One of the OE's responses and one of my own is visible in
Google Groups but on on my OE. It is as if my OE intermittently intercepts
and ditches some messages.
Click to expand...

I don't know OE, but in my client, when messages go missing, it's
usually a filter acting in an unanticipated fashion.
 
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