Windows 2000 new install hangs... why?

  • Thread starter Thread starter captmikey
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captmikey

I'm in the process of rebuilding my desktop pc and I had some issues
with the old drive and W2K install... some dlls were missing and the
drive was getting flaky. I had too much junk on the drive and I
started deleting programs and must've deleted some necessary files by
mistake. In the interim, I bought a fresh new 40 gig (root) drive and
proceeded to start over, thinking once I get it running, I'll pull any
usefull files off the old 40 gig drive and then reformat that as a
slave along with my 120 gig main slave.

So, the problem is, the system is hanging in the install, telling me
to wait while "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration..." and
it never gets past that point.

I formatted the HDD with a W98 boot floppy, did the fdisk, then
formatted the HDD but did not install system files. The machine
boots, recognizes the fact that there's a HDD, CDROM, and Floppy, and
asks me if I want to boot from the CD. Wouldn't that be the logical
choice? So I hit Enter and then I get the message noted above. Tried
this numerous times, even left it alone for 3 hours... no change,
black screen with that silly message.

So I'm wondering... should my boot sequence be Floppy, then HDD-0,
then CD? And I'm also wondering if I should try leaving the boot
floppy in the A: drive and maybe there's a way to either boot the CD
from the floppy or possibly copy some key startup files from the CD to
the root drive. Note that my old HDD drive isn't connected, and for
kicks, I tried it only to get the error on the dlls again.

The motherboard is a Soyo Dragon Plus! and the CPU is AMD 1800+, the
memory is a 512 stick, the video card is an ATI Radeon 8500DV... and
all of this stuff was working fine until I screwed up on the program
removal, so I don't think its a hardware issue.

Its been so long since I did a freshin install of W2K that I may be
missing something obvious, so I'd appreciate a nudge in the right
direction. Even a shove :). Thanks in advance for any/all help!

Mike
 
To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

When you get to the point, delete the existing NTFS and or other partitions
found. After you delete the partition(s) abort the install, then again
restart the pc booting the CD-Rom or setup disks to avoid unexpected drive
letter assignments with your new install.

You didn't mention the drive controller (possibly SCSI, or ultra DMA, or
ATA100, or raid, or serial ATA), but you may need to boot the Windows 2000
setup disks or CD-Rom and *F6* very early and very important (at setup is
inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive controller detection,
and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later you'll be prompted to
insert the manufacturer supplied Windows 2000 driver for your drive's
controller in drive "A"

If you wait and then S to specify additional drivers, then it may be too
late as Windows 2000 Setup at this point may have already assigned the
resources your drive's controller is wanting to use.

Be sure to apply these to your new install before connecting to any network.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

| I'm in the process of rebuilding my desktop pc and I had some issues
| with the old drive and W2K install... some dlls were missing and the
| drive was getting flaky. I had too much junk on the drive and I
| started deleting programs and must've deleted some necessary files by
| mistake. In the interim, I bought a fresh new 40 gig (root) drive and
| proceeded to start over, thinking once I get it running, I'll pull any
| usefull files off the old 40 gig drive and then reformat that as a
| slave along with my 120 gig main slave.
|
| So, the problem is, the system is hanging in the install, telling me
| to wait while "Setup is inspecting your hardware configuration..." and
| it never gets past that point.
|
| I formatted the HDD with a W98 boot floppy, did the fdisk, then
| formatted the HDD but did not install system files. The machine
| boots, recognizes the fact that there's a HDD, CDROM, and Floppy, and
| asks me if I want to boot from the CD. Wouldn't that be the logical
| choice? So I hit Enter and then I get the message noted above. Tried
| this numerous times, even left it alone for 3 hours... no change,
| black screen with that silly message.
|
| So I'm wondering... should my boot sequence be Floppy, then HDD-0,
| then CD? And I'm also wondering if I should try leaving the boot
| floppy in the A: drive and maybe there's a way to either boot the CD
| from the floppy or possibly copy some key startup files from the CD to
| the root drive. Note that my old HDD drive isn't connected, and for
| kicks, I tried it only to get the error on the dlls again.
|
| The motherboard is a Soyo Dragon Plus! and the CPU is AMD 1800+, the
| memory is a 512 stick, the video card is an ATI Radeon 8500DV... and
| all of this stuff was working fine until I screwed up on the program
| removal, so I don't think its a hardware issue.
|
| Its been so long since I did a freshin install of W2K that I may be
| missing something obvious, so I'd appreciate a nudge in the right
| direction. Even a shove :). Thanks in advance for any/all help!
|
| Mike
 
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