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Chapter 9
Troubleshooting
- • Creating A Boot Floppy
- • Creating A Fault-Tolerant Boot Floppy
- • Recovering From A Failed Primary Mirror Member System Disk
- • Creating An Emergency Repair Disk
- • Restoring The Administrator Password
- • Fixing A Corrupt Operating System
- • Saving The Disk Configuration Information
- • Restoring The Disk Configuration Information
- • Clearing Stuck Print Jobs
- • Diagnosing RAS Connection Problems
- • Diagnosing Problems With PPP Connections
- • Configuring System Recovery
- • Generating A Diagnostic Report
- • Displaying IRQs In Use
- • Resolving Device Detection Problems
- • Running The Hardware Detection Tool
- • Installing A Service Update Pack
- • Checking Disks For Errors
Administrator’s Notes...
Troubleshooting an operating system is one of those tasks you hope to avoid; when you are called upon to perform such tasks, your skills are often rusty. This chapter hopes to point you in the right direction concerning common troubleshooting techniques.
In addition to this chapter, you should refer to Chapter 8, which includes details on using the Event Viewer. This utility can often provide vital clues when you are trying to resolve a problem. Also, Chapter 3 provides details on the system startup process, which may help resolve boot problems.
Windows NT Diagnostics
Windows NT Diagnostics, contained in the Administrative Tools program group, can be used to display the current hardware and software configurations of both local and remote systems. The configuration information displayed by Windows NT Diagnostics is, in most cases, obtained from the Registry, but Diagnostics provides a much more user-friendly way of displaying the configuration data.
The Windows NT Diagnostics sheet has nine information pages available: Version, System, Display, Drives, Memory, Services, Resources, Environment, and Network. The System page is shown in Figure 9.1.
Figure 9.1 The System page in Windows NT Diagnostics.
Windows NT Boot Problems
As far as users are concerned, one of the most visible problems is a completely unavailable system—in other words, the system doesn’t start. If the system in question is a critical server, the pressure to return the server to service quickly mounts. Table 9.1 provides the most common boot problems and the fixes for them.
Table 9.1 Common boot problems.
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| Boot Errors
| Possible Causes and Fixes
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| NTDETECT failed.
| NTDETECT.COM in the root folder of the boot drive is corrupt or missing. Try booting from a boot floppy. If this starts Windows NT successfully, copy NTDETECT from the boot floppy to the Windows NT boot disk root folder. Alternatively, you can boot using the Windows NT setup disk and repair the system using the emergency repair disk.
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| A kernel file is missing from the disk.
| NTLDR in the root folder of the boot drive is missing. This problem can also be fixed by using either the boot floppy or the emergency repair disk to copy NTLDR into the root folder of the boot drive.
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| Windows NT could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware.
| The path and device boot line in BOOT.INI could be incorrect. Refer to Chapter 3 for more on the structure of the boot command line.
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| No error message displayed, but the system starts Windows NT without displaying the operating system selection menu and waiting for the boot time-out period.
| The BOOT.INI file is missing from the root folder of the boot drive. Once the system has started, log on to Windows NT and copy BOOT.INI from the boot floppy to the root folder of the boot disk.
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| Windows NT could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: <WINNT ROO>\SYSTEM32\NTOSKRNL.EXE. Please re-install a copy of the above file.
| The reason and resolution given could be the correct action to take; however, if the BOOT.INI file is pointing toward the wrong partition, this error can occur. Try booting using the boot floppy. If this works, check or replace the BOOT.INI file. If the boot floppy displays the same error message, use the Windows NT setup disk and the emergency repair disk to resolve the problem.
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A boot floppy can be used to correct many boot problems quickly and efficiently. In fact, you can start the system by using the boot floppy, allowing you to resolve the boot problem at a more convenient time. (The Practical Guide in this chapter provides full details on how to create a boot floppy.) The boot information detailed in this chapter applies to Windows NT systems running x86-based computers; RISC systems rely on onboard firmware to configure the initial boot process. Details on the RISC boot process can be obtained from the manufacturer of your RISC system.
Windows NT Boot Floppy
One of the most useful tools that system administrators can create is a Windows NT boot floppy. Although this floppy can’t hold the entire Windows NT operating system, it can contain the key boot files that can be used to diagnose and repair boot problems. The boot floppy is the only way to start a Windows NT system with a failed primary mirror member system disk. (Further details are given in the Practical Guide.)
The Windows NT boot floppy is a generic boot disk. In other words, if the hardware configuration of your Windows NT systems are all the same, with Windows NT located on the same disk partitions, a single boot floppy can be used to support them.
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