FEEDBACK
EarthWeb sites
Crossnodes
Datamation
Developer.com
DICE
EarthWeb.com
EarthWeb Direct
EarthWeb Events
ERP Hub
Gamelan
GoCertify.com
HTMLGoodies
Intranet Journal
IT Knowledge
IT Library
JavaGoodies
JARS
JavaScripts.com
open source IT
Perl Journal
RoadCoders
SysOpt.com
Y2K Info
|
|
Chapter 3
System Startup And Shutdown
- • Changing The System Selection List Display Time
- • Setting The Default Operating System
- • System Hangs During System Startup
- • Creating And Using A Hardware Profile
- • Setting System Service For Hardware Profiles
- • Starting And Stopping System Services
- • Setting System Services To Start Automatically
- • Adding The Shutdown Button
- • Removing The Shutdown User Right
- • Shutting Down Windows NT
Administrator’s Notes...
The system startup of Windows NT is a potential problem area for the Windows NT administrator. This chapter concentrates on the actual startup procedure, the files involved, and recovery techniques. When combined with the information in Chapter 9, which is the troubleshooting chapter, these techniques will help you diagnose and resolve startup problems. It should be noted that the specific startup process depends on the processor architecture on which the computer is based.
System Startup
When an Intel x86-based system is started, the Windows NT startup sequence is as follows:
- 1. Power-on self tests are run.
- 2. The boot device is located, and the master boot record is executed.
- 3. The master boot record locates the system partition and loads the boot sector from it.
- 4. The Windows NT boot loader, NTLDR, is loaded into memory and executed.
- 5. The processor is switched into 32-bit mode. The relevant minifile system is now started, supporting either FAT or NTFS volumes.
- 6. The BOOT.INI file is read, and the available operating system selections are displayed. The selections will appear for the length of time specified in the display list configuration line in BOOT.INI.
- 7. NTLDR runs NTDETECT.COM, which will detect the currently installed hardware and prepare a list. The list is passed back to NTLDR.
- 8. NTLDR then inquires if you want to invoke the Hardware Profile/Last Known Good. Pressing the spacebar while this message is displayed will invoke the relevant menu.
- 9. NTLDR then loads the Windows NT kernel, NTOSKRNL.EXE, and passes to it the hardware information gathered by NTDETECT.COM. At this point, the relevant device drivers are loaded but not initialized.
- 10. The kernel initializes and turns the screen blue when it has successfully taken control.
- 11. The device drivers that were loaded during the kernel load are now initialized. In addition, a second group of drivers is loaded and initialized by the kernel.
- 12. The high-level operating subsystems and services are now initiated by the session manager, SMSS.EXE.
- 13. An automatic boot time, CHKDSK, is run on each partition to verify partition integrity.
- 14. The paging file (or swap file) is set up.
- 15. The required subsystem is started—for example, the Windows subsystem, WIN32, which controls all I/O from the video screen.
- 16. WIN32 starts WINLOGON.EXE, which, in turn, starts the local security administrator, LASS.EXE. At this point, the Logon dialog box appears, inviting you to log on.
- 17. Although you can now log on, the startup process will continue and the necessary system services will be started in the background. Once a user has successfully logged on, the startup is considered good. The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINES\System\LastKnownGood registry subkey is updated to point to the registry key that contains the configuration used to start the operating system successfully.
The RISC startup is more dependent on the processor hardware. Table 3.1 points out which files are used for both x86- and RISC-based architectures, along with their location, attributes, and function.
Table 3.1 The Windows NT startup files.
|
| File
| Location
| Attributes
| Function
|
|
| NTLDR
| Root folder of boot drive
| Hidden, read-only system file
| Windows NT system loader;also allows the loading of other operating systems; x86-based systems only.
|
| BOOT.INI
| Root folder of boot drive
| Read-only system file
| Provides the operating system selection list; x86-based systems only.
|
| BOOTSECT.DOS
| Root folder of boot drive
| Hidden system file
| Used to boot a different operating system from within NTLDR, e.g., MS-DOS.
|
| NTDETECT.COM
| Root folder of boot drive
| Hidden, read-only system file
| Builds installed hardware list and passes back information to NTLDR; x86-based systems only.
|
| OSLOADER.EXE
| \Os\Winnt40
|
| The operating system loader for RISC systems. This provides, along with the RISC hardware, the same functions as NTLDR.
|
| NTOSKRNL.EXE
| %systemroot% \System32
|
| The Windows NT kernel.
|
|
As you will see in Chapter 9, there are various problems that can occur during startup that can be corrected by a competent system administrator. The system startup configuration can be modified by using the System icon contained in the Control Panel. The Startup/Shutdown tab is shown in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1 The Startup/Shutdown management utility.
BOOT.INI
The BOOT.INI file supports the starting of not only Windows NT, but a selection of other operating systems, including non-Microsoft products. Figure 3.2 shows the BOOT.INI file configured for a dual-boot system. The operating systems in this case are Windows NT and MS-DOS.
Figure 3.2 The BOOT.INI file.
There are two lines of code used to start Windows NT. One line is the normal Windows NT startup line. The second is the VGA start line and is used to boot a standard VGA configuration. This uses the /BASEVIDEO switch to overcome display problems caused by selecting the wrong video driver—which may mean that you can’t read the display upon firing up Windows NT (which makes managing a Windows-based system slightly difficult, to say the least).
|
)
)
){kind=link}
){kind=link}