No Repair disk, can't find Win2k install dir

[mthaler 0]

I am trying to fix a machine, it seems to start to boot fine, but then flashes a blue screen so quickly, you can't read it and it reboots.

I boot with a WIN2K boot disk, it can't find the installation directory so repair fails. I don't have a repair disk.

The machine was originally a Win98 machine upgraded to Windows2000 which ran very stable for about a year.

 

Why is Win2k so dumb about finding the install directory.

I booted off of a ERD2000 CD and it finds the c:\windows directory but it does not identify the OS.

 

So, is there anything to do but clean install the OS and then all the apps (groan)?

 

Thanks for suggestions.

[DS3Circuit 0]

Did you make an Emergency Recovery Disk from NTBACKUP? This disk is non bootable.

 

Did you boot off the CD and try the emergency repair process? the recovery console commands including FIXBOOT and FIXMBR.

 

If the drive is still fat32, have you ran a dos SCANDISK?

 

I would also run hardware diagnostics on the HD.

 

You may also do a parallel installation of Win2k to move all your data, from the corrupt installation to the new one.

 

These are just some of the possibilities that may fix your situation.

 

G'Luck

[mthaler 0]

NO Emergency Recovery Disk.

I did run FIXMBR & FIXBOOT.

No, it's NTFS.

I ran CHKDSK and it found some problems & fixed them. The hard drive seems fine.

As I said in my original message, I know I can do a re-install, but that means I have to re-install ALL the apps, and I am trying to avoid that. Just thought maybe there is a way to re-create the ERD with some other app or through the console.

 

Thanks.

[mthaler 0]

Just wanted to post my solution:

I booted from a ERD2002 boot cd, found the c:\windows\repair directory and moved the software file to c:\windows\system32\config.

 

This let the machine reboot.