Cannot read partition / Can't login Windows 2000

kelraie · 24th January 2004

Hello
I have a Compaq 2720 Presario laptop. It came with XP but I removed that and installed Win2K pro on it.
- To my memory I installed SP2
-I broke the 20 G harddisk into 2 partitions: C for programs and E for user data.
- Both are FAT32.
- I only had one Win2k username with admin privileges that I used all the time. I didn't enter a password. So Win2K would just go through the login screen without stopping to wait for my password.
- I installed Roxio GoBack. Never had to use it for reverting.
- I recently installed a wireless cable internet access point. I plugged my other computer (desktop PC with W98 SE) with a cable into the access point, and used a wireless unit with USB interface with the laptop.

Everything was working fine till I tried to figure out why the 2 computers weren't able to see each other on the network.
- In the beginning the desktop can see the name of the laptop, but every time I click on it, it asks me for a username and password. I didn't have any.
- As a test, I changed the computer name of the laptop (to see if it would be accessed better by the desktop). I did that through "My Computer- Properties" to my memory.
- A screen came up after changing the computer name asking me if the network has a domain name or not. I selected "No".
- To my memory, the next screen showed the network to be a WorkGroup.
- I rebooted the laptop. Windows 2000 would now get stuck at a user login screen and would take anything. (Remember I didn't have any password associated with the username I used).
- I tried "admin" and "administrator" with no passwords, or with all the passwords I might have used in the past- to no avail.
- I tried "Last Known Windows Profile" from Win2K startup options. Didn't work.
- I tried all other "safe mode" and "safe mode with command prompt" from Win2K startup options. No luck.
- I tried to use GoBack to revert to the 2 prior time points it had saved. None of them changed anything.
- I tried re-installing Win2K. The "repari existing installation" option could not detect an exisiting installation. The "make new installation" option fails without giving a reason, and it suggests I make a new partition to install windows.
- I gave the laptop to computer repair tech. He said he took out the hard drive, hooked it to an XP Pro machine, but could not see it all. He thought it was because the hard drive came from a Compaq machine and it had some proprietary configuration info on it that could only be seen on a Compaq machine. I took the laptop back and gave him his $30 "diagnostic fees".
- I tried to boot the computer with a DOS floppy or a bootable Win98 master CD. I could not read the hard drive at all.
- I tried ghosting the hard disk. (Ghost 2001). It could only see the harddrive as one partition (the programs installation partition) using all of the 20 GB hard disk space, with the data using up all of the 20 GB.
- I went ahead and made the ghost image. I read it in Ghost explorer on the desktop. I could see everything on the C: partition of the laptop. Nothing from the D: partition.
- I tried booting the laptop with the DOS version of Partition Magic. Again, it could only see the harddrive as the C: partition only, with the data using up all diskspace. No room to try to create another bootable partition.
- I tried booting the laptop with Ghost 2003 to see if it would recognize the d: data partition. No change. But it now gives me a message saying that I am "trying to read a GoBack partition without loading GoBack drivers".

So now I am unable to log into windows. And I am unable to read my data partition.
Any help?
Thanks
Kevin

Newt · 25th January 2004

Can you get into the recovery console?

Newt · 31st January 2004

Are you alive?