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Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Win 2k Repair – what it does, consequences


Easy
07-03-2002, 02:57 PM
I’m sorry this is long. If anyone has the time and patience to read it - and can answer the queries, I’d really appreciate it

Recently had to run repair on Win 2k, after failure to boot. I did CD boot to Repair options – used Emergency Recovery Disk – ran chkdisk, Repair made changes; rebooted back to Repair options, Repair checked files, listed 2 files which were corrupted: ntldr and ntdetect.com; replaced these.
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1st questions: These 2 files are on C:\ which is my boot drive, FAT 16 (Win2k is on F:\NTFS; dual boot with Win98 on D:\). Does it make sense to back these 2 files up onto floppy so if I got another boot failure, I could just copy from floppy to C:\, without having to go through whole repair process – would that work? Do these files remain same (unless corrupted of course!) or change at each boot up..?
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Repair then listed a lot of files which were “different to the original installation” (or something like that...) I have Service Pack 2 installed. I chose to have Repair restore all changed files. I’d assumed having an up to date ERD, there would be backup data on the ERD which would tell Repair that the file versions installed were Service Pack 2...

Since running the Repair, System Info tells me I’ve got Service Pack 2 installed, but Event Log is throwing up Application Errors which MS Knowledge Base says are resolved by Service Pack 2.

I wondered if registry is reporting Serv Pack 2 installed, but some of the SP2 files have been overwritten in the repair process and I therefore have to re-install Serv Pack 2 - seems daft, but I don’t know… So, I looked for one of the files associated with this Event Log error – perfctrs.dll. Seems I have 4 copies of this file, all in Winnt folder, in following sub-directories:

2 dated 07/12/1999 - 1 in system32, one in $NTServicePackUninstall$
2 dated 04/05/2001 (the SP2 ones) – 1 in system32\dllcache; 1 in Winnt\Service Pack Files\i386

Looks to me like I might be right - Repair has overwritten SP2 copy of this file in certain places. Which, I think, means Repair may have overwritten numerous other files as well...

2nd questions Is there a way round this, or do you always have to reinstall Service Pack 2 if you run a repair on Win2k?
I guess if I’d not chosen all files, it wouldn’t have overwritten the SP2 ones… but how would I know which of the files Repair lists (as having changed) to have Repair restore to original and which ones to leave alone (‘cos they’re SP2, and that’s why they’ve changed…!)

And… why isn’t Repair intelligent enough to use info on ERD to know the difference – or am I missing something important here, and got this completely wrong?

Repair also takes out Outlook Explorer 6, so I have to reinstall IE6 too. Right clicking msoe50.inf and selecting install doesn’t work - reports missing files

Does Repair also take the system back in other ways, eg overwrite DirectX files, VIA drivers, other drivers, etc...?

Easy

BipolarBill
07-05-2002, 06:58 PM
Win2K will require reinstallation of SP2 after repairs. It remains to be seen if XP will.

I would always replace files on repair and then run SP2 immediately.

Backing up the boot files to floppy is an excellent idea, but should not be necessary. In an ideal world, backup would not be necessary either. Go ahead and back them up, but be aware that floppies today don't least long in humid environs.

Easy
07-05-2002, 07:23 PM
Thanks for this, Bill - that answers the questions in my other post http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110355

I also had to reinstall IE6 and Direct X 8.1 so far, haven't checked re VIA drivers: do you know whether everything after original 2k install has to be re-installed? ... what a Microsoft PITA...!!!

Best wishes,

Easy

BipolarBill
07-05-2002, 08:28 PM
Programs - no. Just MS system utlitities and IE.

Easy
07-06-2002, 09:45 AM
ok - thanks again Bill

Easy