Troubleshooting Windows 2000/XP Startup: A+ Guide (Chapter 14) - Prof. Angelo J. Gero, Study notes of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

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A+ Guide to Managing and

Maintaining your PC, 6e

Chapter 14

Troubleshooting Windows 2000/XP

Startup

(v0.95)

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining your PC, 6e

Introduction

-^

Two types of startup problems^ – Windows 2000/XP will not load the Windows desktop– Windows 2000/XP loads the desktop with errors

-^

Topics to cover^ – What happens when Windows 2000/XP starts– Tools and utilities used to solve boot problems– Strategies and approaches for solving boot problems

-^

Meet booting problems with a good plan

What Happens When Windows

2000/XP Starts Up

-^

The procedure applies to an Intel-based PC

-^

Programs involved in the initial steps^ – Startup BIOS (firmware)– MBR program– Boot sector program– Ntldr

Table 14-

Steps in the Windows 2000/XP boot process for

systems with Intel-based processors

Files Needed to Start Windows

2000/XP

-^

See files in Table 14-

-^

Some of the files are core components ofthe OS

Table 14-

Files needed to boot Windows 2000/XP successfully

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining your PC, 6e

Important Folders Used in the Startup

Process

-^

List of key folders used by Windows 2000/XP:^ – C:\Windows

: the Windows XP installation

• C:\Windows\System

: core system files and subfolders

• C:\Windows\System32\config

: registry hives

• C:\Windows\System32\drivers

: device driver files

• C:\Documents and Settings

: user account information

• C:\Program Files

: installed applications

The BOOT.INI File

-^

Hidden text file in root directory of activepartition

-^

Read by Ntldr for two types of information:^ – Available operating systems (in [operating

systems])

• How to set up the boot (in [boot loader])

Figure 14-

A sample Windows XP Boot.ini file

Customizing the Way Windows

2000/XP Starts Up

-^

How to change Windows startup options^ – Right-click My Computer and select

Properties

• After System Properties opens, click

Advanced

• Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings– If necessary, change settings and enter OK

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining your PC, 6e

Troubleshooting Tools to Solve

Startup Problems

-^

Sources of information about troubleshooting tools:^ – Microsoft Knowledge Base at

support.microsoft.com

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional Resource Kit

Documentation (a book)

• Table 14-3 in the text– Help files for a command tool

Figure 14-

The System Information window displays important

information about the system’s hardware, software, and environment

A+ Guide to Managing and Maintaining your PC, 6e

Advanced Options Menu

-^

Used to diagnose and fix boot-related problems

-^

Press F8 key to display Advanced Options menu

-^

A list of the options^ – Safe Mode: boots OS with minimal configuration– Safe Mode with Networking: includes network access– Safe Mode with Command Prompt: text-based only– Enable Boot Logging: records files used during boot– Enable VGA Mode: substitute for regular display– Last Known Good Configuration: stored in the registry