#$%$ computers, help again?

[stdreb27]

So I have this computer that isn't booting. It says system32driverspci.sys file is missing or corrupt.
I run the repair and use the prompt, expand the file, and try and copy it over. And all I get is an error saying the file transfer failed.
So I go to run the dell diagnostics and I get an error saying exception occured in module mpcashe.mdm
In reading about this online, it says, I may just need to reseat the ram and nic cards. But that didn't help. What is the next step when I can't copy the missing file to the right file location, and can't run diagnostic software.
Once again this repair is a 0 cost repair, with valuable data on the hd. It is an oddball sized HD that no one has an enclosure for. So I'm kind of up a creek.

 

[stdreb27]

Method 1: Restore the File by Using the Windows Recovery Console
Use the Windows 2000 Recovery Console to expand Pci.sy_ from the I386 folder on the Windows 2000 CD-ROM to the %SystemRoot%System32Drivers folder on the hard disk. To do this, follow these steps:
Start the computer to the Recovery Console.
Insert the Windows 2000 startup disk into the floppy disk drive, or insert the Windows 2000 CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. Restart the computer.
Click any options that you have to have to start the computer from the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
The "Welcome to Setup" page appears.
Press R to repair a Windows installation.
Press C to start the Recovery Console.
Type the number that corresponds to the Windows 2000 installation that you want, and then press ENTER.
Type the local administrator password, and then press ENTER.
NOTE: In some cases, the Administrator password is set to a blank password. In this case, press ENTER.
At the Recovery Console prompt, type map, and then press ENTER. Note the drive letter that is assigned to the CD-ROM drive.
Type the following at the command prompt, and then press ENTER
expand drive:i386pci.sy_ c:winntsystem32drivers /y
where drive is the drive letter of your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, where c is the drive on which Windows is installed, and where winnt is the folder in which Windows is installed.
then I get this error
unable to create file pci.sys

 

[fenrir]

Do you have a second computer? You may have to move the data off the bad drive onto the good compputer. From there I would just do a complete restore rather than the repair option. There probably is a bad sector on the drive that is preventing a good repair on the drive. I would also recomend mmoving off of Windows 2000 to atleast XP.

 

[bionicarm]

Sounds like it's having a hard time writing to the drive. Is this system drive a RAID 0 mirror? If so, you can swap the drives and see if it comes up. If it's a single drive, do you have another computer you can drop the drive into? Windows 2000 isn't hardware-dependent or tied to any hardware devices it's installed on like Windows XP or Vista. Moving the drive to another system would rule out board failure of the PCI disk controller or NIC card.

 

[stdreb27]

It was stupid, a few minutes after I posted this, I decided you know what lets run check disk in recovery console. After I did that, then copied the file from the disk to the hard drive the computer fired right up.
Seriously, I'd been messing with this computer for at least 4 weeks off and on. And chkdsk worked. I guess there is a first time for everything.

 

[scsinet]

I'd still suggest replacing the hard disk if it's at all possible. Generally when a disk starts taking on errors, it's going to happen again. At least take a good backup while it's all working.
Bionic, just in case you wanted to know, MS doesn't do that hardware dependant BS with Vista and later. You can move hard disks between dissimilar hardware like you could with 2000 and earlier. They fixed this to make it easier for IT departments to do imaging without having to sysprep/generalize their images. And mirrors are RAID1. Striping is RAID0.

 

[bionicarm]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3055112
I'd still suggest replacing the hard disk if it's at all possible. Generally when a disk starts taking on errors, it's going to happen again. At least take a good backup while it's all working.
Bionic, just in case you wanted to know, MS doesn't do that hardware dependant BS with Vista and later. You can move hard disks between dissimilar hardware like you could with 2000 and earlier. They fixed this to make it easier for IT departments to do imaging without having to sysprep/generalize their images. And mirrors are RAID1. Striping is RAID0.

Really? Computers can do that? That's what I get for responding to a thread after 3 shots of tequila and two margaritas. I run Vista on my home PC, but wouldn't want that bloated crap on ANY of my office systems. Never paid attention to the hardware dependency when I installed it at home. Might want to upgrade that Windows 2000. Microsoft is dropping extended support on it next July.
You'd think after working on these useless machines for almost 30 years, I'd get the RAID levels right. Oh well, Guess I'll just have another shot.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3055112
I'd still suggest replacing the hard disk if it's at all possible. Generally when a disk starts taking on errors, it's going to happen again. At least take a good backup while it's all working.
Bionic, just in case you wanted to know, MS doesn't do that hardware dependant BS with Vista and later. You can move hard disks between dissimilar hardware like you could with 2000 and earlier. They fixed this to make it easier for IT departments to do imaging without having to sysprep/generalize their images. And mirrors are RAID1. Striping is RAID0.

lol, it depends how you look at it. With only about 3 vista machines, and 50 XP machines that I tinker with at work. Vista is the odd ball drive I can't read on any other computer...

Winblows 7 is October away.

 

[fenrir]

Originally Posted by bionicarm
http:///forum/post/3055154
Really? Computers can do that? That's what I get for responding to a thread after 3 shots of tequila and two margaritas. I run Vista on my home PC, but wouldn't want that bloated crap on ANY of my office systems. Never paid attention to the hardware dependency when I installed it at home. Might want to upgrade that Windows 2000. Microsoft is dropping extended support on it next July.
You'd think after working on these useless machines for almost 30 years, I'd get the RAID levels right. Oh well, Guess I'll just have another shot.

Come on now I just deployed 50 vista buisness machines in my office and we couldn't be happier with them. Vista has been great for atleast two years now. Unless you of course count Home basic... lets just forget about tha one.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by Fenrir
http:///forum/post/3055535
Come on now I just deployed 50 vista buisness machines in my office and we couldn't be happier with them. Vista has been great for atleast two years now. Unless you of course count Home basic... lets just forget about tha one.

I've had nothing but problems with the vista computers. From having to recover hard drives that somehow got corrupted to bsod's. It was a disaster.

 

[bionicarm]

Originally Posted by Fenrir
http:///forum/post/3055535
Come on now I just deployed 50 vista buisness machines in my office and we couldn't be happier with them. Vista has been great for atleast two years now. Unless you of course count Home basic... lets just forget about tha one.

As long as your business has PC's with the hardware to handle Vista. We refresh systems every three years through leases. None of the systems we have now have the horsepower to run Vista. I haven't tried running it in a Active Directory Domain environment, so I don't know what issues there are with Vista on that front. Unfortunately, getting systems with Windows XP are pretty tough to acquire, unless you want to pay extra for the license. When is Microsoft dropping support on XP? I guess once Windows 7 hits, it'll be 12 to 24 months after that happens.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by bionicarm
http:///forum/post/3055599
As long as your business has PC's with the hardware to handle Vista. We refresh systems every three years through leases. None of the systems we have now have the horsepower to run Vista. I haven't tried running it in a Active Directory Domain environment, so I don't know what issues there are with Vista on that front. Unfortunately, getting systems with Windows XP are pretty tough to acquire, unless you want to pay extra for the license. When is Microsoft dropping support on XP? I guess once Windows 7 hits, it'll be 12 to 24 months after that happens.
These were systems capable of handling vista.

 

[scsinet]

Originally Posted by stdreb27
http:///forum/post/3055739
These were systems capable of handling vista.
I wonder why you've had these issues then. Vista has it's quirks, but I've never seen stability issues with the core OS. I don't think I've ever seen Vista BSOD. Give it enough memory and a decent video card, and it runs like a champ.
We're almost completely converted to Vista at work. I love it because it's got some administrative features that allow a more secure desktop environment without a lot of the restrictions that stop people from being able to do their jobs. Group policy enhancements and the ActiveX Installer Service are huge advantages for us. The big task for us is countering the misconceptions and preconceived notions out there about Vista. People howl and complain so loudly about having to go to it, but once they let go and approach it with an open mind, they quickly realize that it's not as bad as they thought. We're a MS Gold partner, so we get all our licenses for free, which makes upgrading easier when you don't have to worry about the costs (at least not for the software).
7 is supposed to be the holy grail... they are supposedly restoring a lot of the backward compatibility that XP had. I'm trying to be optimistic.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3056291
I wonder why you've had these issues then. Vista has it's quirks, but I've never seen stability issues with the core OS. I don't think I've ever seen Vista BSOD. Give it enough memory and a decent video card, and it runs like a champ.
We're almost completely converted to Vista at work. I love it because it's got some administrative features that allow a more secure desktop environment without a lot of the restrictions that stop people from being able to do their jobs. Group policy enhancements and the ActiveX Installer Service are huge advantages for us. The big task for us is countering the misconceptions and preconceived notions out there about Vista. People howl and complain so loudly about having to go to it, but once they let go and approach it with an open mind, they quickly realize that it's not as bad as they thought. We're a MS Gold partner, so we get all our licenses for free, which makes upgrading easier when you don't have to worry about the costs (at least not for the software).
7 is supposed to be the holy grail... they are supposedly restoring a lot of the backward compatibility that XP had. I'm trying to be optimistic.
If I could figure it out, I'd go apply at Microsoft. All 10 of my computers crashed, it was some vague error pointing towards a memory error. Some were periodic like once a week. But many turned into a multiple daily occurrence. I'm sure I still have the dump files some where if you're curious.
The computers were D830's.
We were running them with 2 gb of ram. A couple (the ones I personally used were running 4 gb of ram.)
Intel core duo T7250 800MHz
Aand a x3100 graphics card.
That should have been enough computer.
Then this other computer would say there is no boot system. Then you'd take out the HD and try to read it on another machine. And it would say the whole drive was corrupted. (I was using a vista computer to try and read it) So I'd format the drive, then reinstall vista. A few weeks later the same thing.
Finally I went back and installed XP. And that computer hasn't crashed since.
Personally before having those problems. I liked Vista, I liked the new interface. It had lots of little improvements. But if I can't figure it out working on it for weeks, I'd hate to see what a normal user would do.

 

[scsinet]

Were you using the same install media on all systems?

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3056570
Were you using the same install media on all systems?
They were purchased in sets of 5 at different times. So I dunno if they were built with the same software. I'd suspect not since not all of the computers required the same updates when we set them up.

 

[scsinet]

The thing I don't understand here is that you are describing what could best be called hardware problems. Disk errors, memory problems... seems hardware related. So why would Vista crap out on you but XP run fine?

So I thought maybe the media could be at fault. It's the only thing I can think of, I'll reiterate that I have never seen a stability problem with Vista's core kernel. I've never seen an install error, disk error (except for the yutz who dropped his laptop), lockup, BSOD, or anything else on the hundreds installations I oversee. Weird to say the least.
One thing... if you haven't installed Vista since SP1 came out, give them another go if you are interested. SP2 is out now, and the OS is basically perfect now. IMO most of the negativity surrounding Vista is what people have heard, not what they've seen.

 

[stdreb27]

Originally Posted by SCSInet
http:///forum/post/3056924
The thing I don't understand here is that you are describing what could best be called hardware problems. Disk errors, memory problems... seems hardware related. So why would Vista crap out on you but XP run fine?

So I thought maybe the media could be at fault. It's the only thing I can think of, I'll reiterate that I have never seen a stability problem with Vista's core kernel. I've never seen an install error, disk error (except for the yutz who dropped his laptop), lockup, BSOD, or anything else on the hundreds installations I oversee. Weird to say the least.
One thing... if you haven't installed Vista since SP1 came out, give them another go if you are interested. SP2 is out now, and the OS is basically perfect now. IMO most of the negativity surrounding Vista is what people have heard, not what they've seen.
They had SP1.
And yes, it did sound like a hardware issue. And I ran about 4 different type of tests and the dell diagnostics for a month on a couple of the computers and they passed every time. Sent one back to dell, they said nothing was wrong hardware wise. They loaded XP back on that one.
A bad build of Vista seems a little unlikely. Especially with the 2 groups purchased 3 months apart. But that is what it seems like.
Who knows?
Fortunately purchasing and IT stuff is now out of my purview at work. So I don't have to mess with it all that much. And the IT department has too much on their plate to even want to mess with upgrading the OS.

 

[bluebro]

I'd actually have to say, windows 7 is the best. It runs really fast. If your having memory problems, or anything then, it's problay cause you were messing with the settings on your computer.

 

[stdreb27]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueBro http:///forum/thread/359232/computers-help-again#post_3336726
I'd actually have to say, windows 7 is the best. It runs really fast. If your having memory problems, or anything then, it's problay cause you were messing with the settings on your computer.
check dates when you're posting...
But yeah, those laptops just wouldn't run vista. Once we took vista off and went back to XP, we haven't had the same issues since. It was some sort of software issue. We played with all sorts of stuff to get it to work. Up to fresh installs of Vista. But no dice. I hear windows 7 is nice. but my conspiracy theory is that Microsoft issued Vista so whatever issues they had with 7 wouldn't seem bad at all...