Three days of frustration over an "upgrade"

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

I am attempting to recover from the 6A upgrade to Windows
NT 4.0 Workstation which killed my mouse and keyboard. I
have read the knowledge base articles which suggest
changing the names of a couple of files, but I haven't
been able to get to the files so far to change them.

I have attempted to load the repair console from my
Windows 2000 disk and CD, but I'm stopped by the request
for an Admin Password. My roommate can't supply me with
one that works. Is there a workaround for this? Is there
another way to repair the "upgrade."

I began reinstalling NT while ago but was stopped when it
said that my drives were damaged or unformatted. I'd
rather not loose the data on my hard drive over this.

One solution I'm considering is to take the drive out of
another computer I have which is running Windows 2000. I'm
thinking that I could put it in there and boot from it.
Perhaps that would get me into the NT files I need to
change to reclaim my keyboard and mouse.

Any ideas will be appreciated. I'll be waiting with baited
breath.

Frank

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Frank,

Most likely it was the application of the Post Service Pack 6a Security Rollup
(SRP) that actually caused your problem. To repeat my standard answer to this
question:

This question is constantly asked - the frequency of people encountering this
particular problem has skyrocketed in the last year or so because of the all the
Virus/Worm scares and everyone finally deciding to do something about plugging
the multitude of security holes left in Microsoft OSes (NT 4.0 included)

To answer - by any chance did you have a copy of Microsoft Intellimouse prior to
V3.2 installed on the machine ? There is known issue of the 'POST SP6a Security
Rollup (SRP) Q299444' breaking the mouse and keyboard when it is installed under
these conditions.

Have a look at Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 305462 - Mouse and Keyboard Stop
Working After You Install the Windows NT 4.0 Security Rollup Package, I think it
will address your particular situation. They offer several possible fixes for
the problem, depending on what type of file system your boot partition is. (ie:
the one that has the /WINNT folder on it)

I managed to cure my particular problem by remote logging in over our LAN and
manually replacing the effected files - fortunately they weren't in use because
they had failed to start. Once I got a working keyboard and mouse again I
properly removed Intellimouse V2.0 using Add/Remove programmes and replaced it
with a later version (V3.2 or later is ok)

Calvin.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Calvin,

Thanks for the reply. We actually tried to log in over the
LAN earlier today and have not been successful at that
either.

The user name that has been working on that computer isn't
working from the LAN for some reason. I feel like I need
the keymaker from the Matrix 3. With NT built for security
I imagine that there are no workarounds for missing
passwords. Is that true?

I'm thinking that the best solution at this point might be
to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows. I hate
to do that because there are a couple of files on there
that represent about 6 hours of work with hired folks.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again,

Frank

>-----Original Message-----
>Hi Frank,
>
>Most likely it was the application of the Post Service
Pack 6a Security Rollup
>(SRP) that actually caused your problem. To repeat my
standard answer to this
>question:
>
>This question is constantly asked - the frequency of
people encountering this
>particular problem has skyrocketed in the last year or so
because of the all the
>Virus/Worm scares and everyone finally deciding to do
something about plugging
>the multitude of security holes left in Microsoft OSes
(NT 4.0 included)
>
>To answer - by any chance did you have a copy of
Microsoft Intellimouse prior to
>V3.2 installed on the machine ? There is known issue of
the 'POST SP6a Security
>Rollup (SRP) Q299444' breaking the mouse and keyboard
when it is installed under
>these conditions.
>
>Have a look at Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 305462 -
Mouse and Keyboard Stop
>Working After You Install the Windows NT 4.0 Security
Rollup Package, I think it
>will address your particular situation. They offer
several possible fixes for
>the problem, depending on what type of file system your
boot partition is. (ie:
>the one that has the /WINNT folder on it)
>
>I managed to cure my particular problem by remote logging
in over our LAN and
>manually replacing the effected files - fortunately they
weren't in use because
>they had failed to start. Once I got a working keyboard
and mouse again I
>properly removed Intellimouse V2.0 using Add/Remove
programmes and replaced it
>with a later version (V3.2 or later is ok)
>
>Calvin.
>
>.
>

 

[Calvin]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsnt.misc (More info?)

Hi Frank,

You are correct, NT security could be difficult to beat - but there are still
plenty of avenues left open before you declare the data on the machine, or the
current NT4 installation as lost.

Have a look at:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

His offline password editor should enable you to boot your faulty system, and
reset the password to a known state.

This won't fix your keyboard/mouse problem under NT4 - the offline editor boots
from a floppy and actually runs a cutdown linux kernel - but it is enough to let
you get into the NT4 box and reset the passwords.

After the reset, have another go at a remote LAN login - it might then work

If this doesn't work - have a look at doing a 'parallel install' (ie: put a
fresh copy of NT4 on another partition on the system - you may then be able to
manually patch the faulty files in your broken installation - or at least
retreive valuable data before a reload.

Microsoft Knowledgebase articles:

259003 - How and Why to Perform a Parallel Installation of Windows NT 4.0
344378 - System Cleanup After a Parallel Installation of Windows NT 4.0

should help you with this.

If still no luck - and all else fails and you do need to trash the install and
start again - have a look at:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfsdos.shtml

first - you can boot into DOS and recover files that are valuable from your NT4
NTFS partitions first.

Bottom line - even if the NT4 install is toast, you should still be able to
rescue any valuable data before a reload.

The only time I have seen data be totally lost in an NTFS based file system is
when the HDD had a physical fault that prevented it's operation.

Calvin.