Cannot login after pagefile error message.

[Mike]

The actual cause was a wrong mounted-devices value
(associated with a "logical" drive) in the registry. I was
able to load a system hive from another instance of
Win2000, correct the hex values, and unload the hive.
Without two instances of Win2000 I would have
been "doomed!"

Yes, I switched and "cloned" hard drives.
Yes, I used Partition Magic 7.
Mystery: I am 99% sure the login worked last time I used
that instance of Win2000.

I wish Microsoft created a "Wizard" for hard-drive
upgrades!

Thanks very much for all who responded.

[Kev]

Yes Mike, I can explain exactly what happened...

You cloned the hard drive/partitions. What this did is duplicate the unique SID(s) which
w2k has assigned to the boot and system partitions (incidentally- usually the same
partition but not always).

When you tried to log in to the affected W2K system, W2K (as you correctly noted) was
using the mounted devices list which it holds in the registry - unfortunately because you
had duplicated the SID (supposed to be unique but now sadly, no longer unique!) W2k found
the SID on the 'other' partition and assigned the drive letter to that partition. This
confused it when it went looking for the pagefile and you got the result you saw.

The way to correct this is either to use a second w2k install on the same machine, (which
is how you did it) or alternatively to connect remotely from another w2k machine - if of
course the machine has a network card in the first place.

um... I know all this because it happened to me. !!! So I went and investigated the
insides of it so I could avoid it in future. One trick is to clear the 'signature' bytes
on the destination disk when you do the clone - in Norton Ghost you can do this with
the -fdsz switch. I don't know if PQmagic 7 can do that. Clearing the signature bytes
means that W2K has to create a new SID for the disk and each of the partitions on it, so
you end up with the SID's being unique and distinct from the source disk - and everything
works hunky-dory!

Kev.

"Mike" <mik...@NShome.com> wrote in message
news:c7bb01c19eab$148d8620$9be62ecf@tkmsftngxa03...

[Razorjack]

no that is not it. sorry kev, nice try thou. what happens is PM7 does not
clone the pagefile to the new drive it creates a dummyfile with pagefile.sys
as the filename on the new drive, and the file table destription saying it
is the same size as the real one on the orignal drive. powerquest has
admitted this happens as it is a feature of their software to speed up the
function. i have cloned my 2000/XP dual boot. the orignal will boot just
fine. the otherone however (even with the original removed) would not, the
pagefile is not what windows expects and cant do a thing about it. a
workaround the mention is setting up a Group policy to clear the pagefile on
shutdown. that way windows doesnt expect anything in there and should be
able to boot. Norton Ghost (corperate) does copy the real pagefile(ghost has
oneupped driveimage in this case) Partition Magic does not. just boot on
the original, goto the new drive. delete the fake pagefile.sys, have windows
create a pagefile of the same size on the new drive (because it now has a
real pagefile.sys) regardless of the fact you told windows on the Orignal
drive to create pagefile on the New Drive, the NewDrive windows will think
that is its pagefile (all security ID info will be the same as its a cloned
OS, there is no location info buried in the pagefiles code). now it can boot
of the new drive. even with the old one slaved. to prove this to myself i
ran sysprep (which prepares a windows 2000 / XP box for a image by wiping
the SID and network configurations, ect.) the problem was the same. sysprep
is avail on your 2000 disk. admin tools. use PM7 regularly. its a effect of
windows leaving data in the pagefile, AND PM not copying it. 2 sided bug. i
imagine haveing it clear the pagefile would alivieate the problem as MS
claims.

http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id445.html

there is Powerquests explanation.
Note: ServerImage is the server OS version of Drive Image.
partition magic suffers this same problem even though they dont mention PM.

RazorJack
"Kev" <itsas...@hideaway.com> wrote in message
news:uDsgAatnBHA.1984@tkmsftngp07...

[Kev]

Ta for the information Razorjack, that'll be very useful to know if I decide to get PM7.

Kev.

"Razorjack" <SPAMnova...@knology.net> wrote in message
news:a26uh8$cndd$1...@news3.infoave.net...

[Razorjack]

man.. sometimes spellchecker works to well ;) lotta errors in there by me.

RJ

"Razorjack" <SPAMnova...@knology.net> wrote in message
news:a26uh8$cndd$1...@news3.infoave.net...

[Razorjack]

quite welcome kev, useful program but it has its odditys.

RJ

"Kev" <itsas...@hideaway.com> wrote in message

news:uJRJOB4nBHA.1264@tkmsftngp02...