Opinion on Safety of W2K Repair

This is an urgent question for anyone with experience conducting a manual or automatic repair of a Windows 2000 server installation.

I suspect that one or more of my Windows components became corrupted. It may have happened during a Windows update process that was interrupted.

My server is running W2K with SP4 and the roll-up. It is running an ASP.net app and a SQL Server 2000 database.

Since the aborted Windows update on Monday, I have the following problems:

1) I can no longer open my I.E. browser. I can open a firefox browser and do have the ability to ping the internet.

2) I can no longer use the control panel to add or remove programs.

3) When I boot the server, I get the following two relevant error messages:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: W3SVC
Event Category: None
Event ID: 115
Date: 8/17/2005
Time: 10:31:56 AM
User: N/A
Computer: Server_01
Description:
The service could not bind instance 4. The data is the error code.
For additional information specific to this message please visit the Microsoft Online Support site located at: http://www.microsoft.com/contentredirect.asp.
Data:
0000: 34 00 00 00 4...


Event Type: Error
Event Source: W3SVC
Event Category: None
Event ID: 115
Date: 8/17/2005
Time: 10:31:56 AM
User: N/A
Computer: Server_01
Description:
The service could not bind instance 3. The data is the error code.
For additional information specific to this message please visit the Microsoft Online Support site located at: http://www.microsoft.com/contentredirect.asp.
Data:
0000: 34 00 00 00 4...

4) I also run into problems installing tools to help me diagnose the situation.

I am thinking of attempting to repair my Windows installation. Here are my questions:

1) If I repair my Windows installation, will it have any affect on my other applications or server settings? I am concerned that I will somehow corrupt or lose my SQL database, .net app, or firewall settings.

2) Does anyone have any experience doing this? What is your opinion on manual vs. auto repair? Any suggestions?

3) Is there anything else I should try first?

Thank you all for you help!
Chip

 

I don't think the W3SVC 115 errors are reporting the problem accurately. Take a look at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;190008 and the explanation toward the bottom for that particular bind failure.

I think the first 'fix' I tried would be to open a start->run line and try

Code:

sfc /scannow

which is either effective or harmless.

 

Newt,

Thank you for the suggestion and I apologize it took so long to respond. I was pulled off on another project at work and needed to put this task on hold for a day.

I plan to try your suggestion. Before doing so, I want to make a second set of backup tapes on the server and verify the backup. Even though I have a backup set prior to the problem starting, I want to be extra careful and have a second set before I try to implement any fixes. I will let you know what happens.

Chip