Preparing for and Dealing With Windows NT Start-up Problems

Preparing for and Dealing With Windows NT Start-up Problems Agilent ChemStation Products "Success depends on preparation." Read this document now; schedule regular backups and perform disk maintenance regularly. Create and maintain a current ERD (see below). The following procedure assumes you have some knowledge of Windows, and you have determined that you need to repair or restore a Windows NT system. You should always maintain a current backup of all critical data from the hard disk you wish to save, before using this procedure. It is the ChemStation User's responsibility to ensure that all critical computer files are backed up on a routine basis, as determined by your business environment. Working with the Microsoft Windows NT Blue Screen halt. The text mode STOP messages or Blue Screens are used to identify and debug hardware and software problems that occur while loading or running Windows NT. When a mission critical operating system fails, NT will generate the Blue Screen consisting of a STOP message, the text translation, the address of the violating call, and the drivers loaded at the time of the STOP screen. Each time Windows NT boots up and a user successfully logs on, the registries are backed up into a compressed file. If any drivers or programs are changed that cause the system to halt with the dreaded Blue Screen, try rebooting. During the boot process, Windows NT gives you the opportunity to Hit the Spacebar for the Last Known Good Configuration. Hitting the spacebar will find the compressed backup of the registries from the last successful logon, and copy these files back to the registries. This will fix many problems caused by configuration changes or incompatible drivers. If the Windows NT boot files have become corrupted, or deleted, the Blue Screen will appear without giving an opportunity to hit the spacebar. In this case, the boot files must be restored. This can be done using the Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). This document is believed to be accurate and up-to-date. However, Agilent Technologies, Inc. cannot assume responsibility for the use of this material. The information contained herein is intended for use by informed individuals who can and must determine its fitness for their purpose. Page 1 of 8

*NOTE* All bundled systems purchased from Agilent, where the Instrument and ChemStation are purchased together are shipped with an Emergency Recovery Kit (see Appendix A). This kit consists of: 1 (one) CD labeled Emergency Recovery CD - This CD contains an image of the NT operating system, along with a folder called i386, which contains the standard Microsoft NT install files. 2 (two) floppy Disks - 1 disk labeled Emergency Boot Floppy and a second floppy disk labeled Emergency Repair Disk (ERD). This ERD is not the current ERD, which you must create and update regularly. This kit can be used if the operating system cannot be recovered as previously noted. NOTE: If you do not have these disks, you will need to find and/or purchase replacements before you will be able to restore your system. AFTER THE SYSTEM IS INSTALLED, AND WHENEVER THE SYSTEM IS UPGRADED, UPDATED, OR SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED, DO THE FOLLOWING: Creating and using the Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) The ERD is used to take a snapshot of your system s configuration. The ERD is not bootable, and is used in conjunction with the NT Startup Disks. The ERD mentioned above that ships with the standard Agilent bundles, needs to be updated once you have the entire system installed and updated, or any time after you install new programs or modify system settings.!!!it IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KEEP THE ERD DISK CURRENT!!! If you are not sure if your ERD is current, create or update it before installing any software or hardware updates. You can use the emergency repair disk to: Inspect the Registry files Inspect the Startup environment Verify the NT system files Inspect the boot sector If any of your boot files are missing or corrupt, you can repair the failure through the emergency repair disk, or by using a NT Boot Disk (See below). To repair boot files, you need the three NT setup disks and the ERD. To create/update your NT Emergency Repair Disk (ERD) ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 2 of 8

This option can only be performed when your system is working properly. If you do not complete this step before a failure, then you have a poor chance of successfully repairing your NT system after a failure. Click on Start-Programs-Command Prompt - the Windows NT Command Prompt should appear. At the C:\> prompt type: RDISK /s (then press <Enter> key.) The Saving Configuration window appears. This stores the information to the hard drive. When prompted, select 'Yes' to also save the information to a floppy. You will need to insert a new floppy at this point. The program will format the disk and store the ERD to it. Label the disk and store it in a secure area. You should avoid using an ERD from another computer if you plan on repairing the registry. Nor should you use this one on another computer!! *Note* The /s switch used with the RDISK command, forces RDISK to backup the SAM and SECURITY hives to the hard drive \winnt\repair folder, along with the rest of the registry. Without the /s, these hives aren't backed up by RDISK Preparing a NT bootable floppy disk It is essential that you prepare an NT boot disk, this is a 3 1/2" floppy formatted under NT. You can boot from this disk later if any of your NT startup files become corrupt or missing. Prepare this disk as listed below. If you suspect one or more of the startup files is bad, insert this floppy into your floppy disk drive with the computer shut down. Turn on the computer and allow the normal startup process to proceed. If successful, your computer will read from the floppy and then continue booting the NT system from the hard drive. You should be able to logon as usual. You can now restore the individual NT boot files from this floppy to your hard drive. Use the NT Explorer to restore these files. This step may save you from having to run through the NT SETUP/ERD process. Create an NT bootable floppy disk: 1. Format floppy in NT Explorer (A disk formatted on DOS or Win9x will not work!!) On a working NT machine, format a floppy diskette (You MUST format the disk on NT; even if you're using a pre-formatted diskette, format it again on NT.) Before formatting the disk, ensure that the Quick Format option is not selected, or there will be no NT boot sector written to the formatted floppy. Or from the Command Prompt in NT type: format a: 2. You need to copy some files to this diskette from the root directory of the boot partition for NT on the system for which you are creating these disks. Make sure hidden & system files are displayed in the NT Explorer. To do this, open NT Explorer, click View...Options and click the radio button to "Show All Files", and unselect Hide file extensions for known file types. Select OK to close the window. You should see the following files: NTLDR - Loads NT operating system for Intel based computers BOOT.INI - Builds the boot loader operating system menu NTDETECT.COM - Only used on Intel machines, Detects HW, passes to ntldr. BOOTSECT.DOS - Run for all non-nt Op Systems, used to boot MS-DOS. NTBOOTDD.SYS - SCSI hard drives on Intel machines with BIOS disabled adapter. *Note if you don't find the file, your machine probably does not use it. The first 4 files are most important! Copy all of these files to your newly formatted floppy disk. YOU NOW HAVE AN NT BOOT FLOPPY!! ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 3 of 8

Creating the 3 (three) NT setup floppy disks If you purchased an Agilent ChemStation bundle, you will have to create the 3 NT install setup disks. You can use either the First or the Second choices below. First choice: On a running ChemStation Bundle system, select Start, Run, and enter: \i386\winnt32.exe /ox Second choice: 1. With the system shut down, insert the Emergency Boot Floppy and Emergency Recovery CD. Then turn on your computer. The system should boot from the floppy and stop at the a:\> prompt. 2 Type at the prompt: a:\> d: (then press <Enter> key) Only type (d:). This assumes that d: is the drive letter assigned to the CD-ROM drive. Substitute the correct letter for your system. 3. Now your prompt should be: D:\>. Type the following: cd i386 Press <Enter> key. 4. At the d:\i386> prompt, type: winnt /ox *Note* This will start the NT installation program. The /ox option forces winnt to only create the 3 installation floppies. Follow the prompts and label the floppies accordingly. Saving Data needed to restore ChemStation(GC, LC, A/D, UV & LC/MSD only) 1. With ChemStation sessions closed, select one of the following based on your revision: Before A.08.0x: START-PROGRAMS-HP CHEMSTATIONS-HP CONFIGURATION EDITOR A.08.0x: START-PROGRAMS-CHEMSTATIONS-CONFIGURATION EDITOR UV-VIS: START-PROGRAMS-UV-VISIBLE CHEMSTATIONS 2. Select File, Print and choose All Instruments. Print and save the configuration in a safe place. 3. Make sure you have all Software License Numbers. If you can t find the Software Certificate and Registration Packet, select Add License icon (located per step 1 Above!!) 4. Write down all Installed License Numbers and store in a safe place. WHEN YOU HAVE A FAILURE WITH YOUR SYSTEM Attempting to repair a Windows NT installation There are many reasons why a NT computer will not boot properly. Most of them have to do with software corruption, but occasionally it may be due to a hardware failure, or other. Steps to follow if NT will not boot: 1. Did you add a new hardware device, or install a new/updated driver? a. If yes, During the boot process, Windows NT gives you the opportunity to Hit the Spacebar for the Last Known Good Configuration. Hitting the spacebar will find the compressed backup of the registries from the last successful logon, and copy these files back to the registries. This will fix many problems caused by configuration changes or incompatible drivers. 2. While running, the system just froze, so it had to be turned off then back on again. a. While restarting, all that is displayed is a flashing cursor in the upper right hand corner on a black screen background. This can be caused when the NT startup files become fragmented. There is a HotFix available that may fix this. Please call Agilent. Purchasing ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 4 of 8

a commercially available defragmentation program for NT workstation version 4.0, and running a boot time defragmentation is essential. b. While restarting, all that is displayed is a Black screen, the computer is starting but it appears that the video is gone! This could be a video card failure, or a known Video BIOS problem on certain Hewlett-Packard Kayak computers. Call Agilent to see if your computer is one of the affected models, and visit www.hp.com often to keep your computer Bios and drivers updated. c. While restarting, the message, "NTLDR is missing" is displayed. Leaving a floppy disk in the drive usually causes this, so check this first! Remove any floppy disks from the floppy drive and restart the computer to recover. d. While booting, a message indicates that any of the following files are missing: NTLDR, BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM or NTOSKRNL.EXE. Insert your NT boot disk created above and see if NT will start up! e. As a last resort you can run the Emergency Repair Process. This will repair many NT operating system files, and is the only way to repair a corrupt system. If the Emergency Repair is not successful, then you will be forced to reinstall NT, or restore the NT image if you bought an Agilent bundle. 3. While the computer is booting up, try selecting Windows NT Workstation Version 4.0 (VGA Mode), this option will load a standard video driver compatible with most video cards. If this works then you have a corrupt or incompatible video card driver loading, try reinstalling a known good driver for your video card. The steps to perform an Emergency Repair of NT 1. You will need the 3 NT setup floppies (Creating the 3 (three) NT setup floppy disks), and the Emergency Repair Disk (To create/update your NT Emergency Repair Disk (ERD)) created above, along with your Microsoft NT workstation or Emergency Recovery CD. 2. Insert the disk labeled 'Setup Disk 1' into the floppy disk drive then insert your CD-ROM (From step 1 above). 3. Turn on the computer. You will see the NT setup program running. 4. When prompted, insert disk 2. 5. When you are asked to Install NT, or Repair existing installation, select R, for Repair. 6. Insert Setup disk 3 when prompted. 7. Insert the Emergency Repair floppy when prompted. a. If you still don t have an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), select the e key when prompted for the ERD, and NT will attempt to repair the NT Startup files. 8. NT will identify your hard disk controller and disk drive(s), so follow these prompts. 9. Select the Verify Windows NT system file option and Select the components you wish to restore. If you are not sure, then accept the one(s) that are selected. If you don t select the option to repair the registry, it is usually safe to use an ERD made on a different computer or an ERD that has not been updated in a long time. This will repair the boot sector, startup files and Windows NT system files. The only potential problem with this is if the BOOT.INI or BOOTSECT.DOS is damaged and incorrect on the ERD. It is always safe to use an old ERD or one made on a different computer if you also deselect repairing startup files. This will just repair the boot sector and Windows NT system files. You can always restart this process and select them all if a partial repair does not fix your problem (i.e. NT will not boot up and allow you to logon after the repair). 10. At this point, NT will restore files from the ERD and CD. When prompted, you may remove the floppy and CD and restart the computer, and with any luck NT will boot! ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 5 of 8

11. Lastly, it is always recommended that the appropriate Windows NT Service Pack be re-installed after a successful repair of NT. This is also required anytime a new software program or hardware driver is installed on Windows NT. Your ChemStation product is supported and tested with a particular Windows NT Service Pack, please refer your ChemStation support documentation to determine which NT Service Pack to install. Visit Microsoft's website at http://www.microsoft.com to obtain Windows NT service packs. ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 6 of 8

Restoring Windows NT to an HP Kayak or similar computer. The steps to restore an image are as follows: NOTE: This procedure erases all data on hard drive Turn on the computer with the Emergency boot floppy and Emergency Recovery CD in the computer. Your computer should boot to the A:\> prompt with critical information displayed. Be sure you confirm that your PC model number found on your computer matches a model listed on this screen. The recovery kit mentioned above is specific to your particular model of HP Vectra or Kayak computer. Many customers have more than one type of these computer bundles in the laboratory. Ensure you perform the restore with the exact kit that was shipped with your computer by comparing the model list in the readme.txt file with your PC model number. Continue to the next step if your kit matches. At the A:\ prompt type: hpboot d: This will perform a sector by sector copy of the original NT installation containing all the drivers specific to your computer hardware. Your Microsoft NT system should be properly restored, allowing you to logon Re-installation of the HP IO Libraries or Agilent IO Libraries is required for HPIB controlled instrumentation. This is detailed in your ChemStation Install manual. Proper configuration of Networking, and TCP/IP Properties is required for all LAN controlled instrumentation. This is detailed in your ChemStation Install manual. Re-installation of your Agilent ChemStation software is required also! This is detailed in your ChemStation Install manual. Restore all data files, methods etc., from your most recent backup. Some Agilent systems require Re-installation of the NT service pack that is appropriate for your system and ChemStation software, however some of the recovery CD's will restore NT with the appropriate service pack already installed. Click Start-Settings-Control Panel, then click on the help menu, then click about. This is one way to easily determine which NT service pack is installed. If all the above fails, Agilent can provide other detailed phone troubleshooting by one of our Engineers, however a charge may be applicable. In some cases, a new disk drive can be installed and the old drive can be set as a slave or auxiliary disk, allowing recovery of data from the old drive. In these cases, unless the new drive is identical in size and layout, the Emergency recovery image restoration may fail. However, Windows NT can be installed from the i386 directory on the Emergency Recovery CD. After the appropriate drivers, etc. are installed, one can attempt to recover data from the slave drive. This is obviously an advanced activity, and one that is best attempted by your NT support personnel. Finally, if the data is crucial, and cannot be recovered with the help of your IT department, contact a Data Recovery organization, who will, for a fee, make more advanced attempts to recover the data from the failed hard drive. ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 7 of 8

Appendix A Emergency Repair Kits CPU Model SP Special Comment WinNT Win95 WFW 3.11 P2074T 6a VL800 P4 1.5 GHz 20 GB G1030-60527 None None P3327T 6a VL400 PIII 933 MHz 15 GB G1030-60531 None None D9538T 6a LC-MSD-Trap G1030-60223 None None D9544T 6a LC-MSD-Trap G1030-60223 None None P1645T 6a LC-MSD-Trap XM600 PIII 800 MHz 15 GB G1030-60223 None None D1645 6a XM600 PIII 800 MHz 15 GB G1030-60136 None None D9829A 6a VL400 PIII 800 MHz 8.4GB G1030-60140 None None D7877 6a Vli8 PIII 550 MHz 8.4GB G1030-60117 None None D9538 6a XM600 PIII 600 MHz 15 GB G1030-60114 None None D6720 4 XA 7/450 6GB G1030-60105 None None D7847 4 Vli8 400 MHz 8.4 GB G1030-60109 None None D6721N/T 4 XA 6/350 G1030-60102 None None D6721N/T 3 XA 6/350 G1030-60095 None None D6723N/T 4 XA 6/400 4.3 GB G1030-60103 None None D6723N/T 3 XA 6/400 4.3 GB G1030-60096 None None D6492N/T XA 6/333 6.3 GB G1030-60089 None None D4796N/T XA 6/266 4.3 GB G1030-60079 G1030-60084 None D4807N/T XA 6/233 4.3 GB G1030-60082 G1030-60084 None D5373N XA 5/233 2.5 GB G1030-60074 G1030-60053 None D3991N (big C) XA 5/166 2.5GB G1030-60074 None None D3991N (big D) XA 5/166 2.5GB G1030-60057 G1030-60053 G1030-60025 D3990A XA 5/166 2.5GB (see D3991N) G1030-60053 G1030-60025 D3989A XA 5/166 1.6GB G1030-60065 G1030-60063 G1030-60068 D3986A XA 5/133 1.6GB G1030-60065 G1030-60053 G1030-60025 D3986A XA 5/133 1.7GB G1030-60059 G1030-60053 G1030-60025 D4221A XM4 5/166 None G1030-60051 G1030-60023 D3978A XM4 5/150 None G1030-60051 G1030-60023 D3977A XM4 5/133 1.28GB None G1030-60051 G1030-60023 D3968A XM4 5/120 None Yes G1030-60023 D3948A XM3 5/120 None None G1030-60013 D3946A XM3 5/90 None G1030-60050 G1030-60013 D3945A XM3 5/75 None None G1030-60013 D3485A XM3 5/90 None None G1030-60012 D3481A XM3 5/75 None None G1030-60012 D3398A VL3 5/90 None None G1030-60012 D3394A VL3 5/75 None None G1030-60012 D3233A XM2 None None G1030-60010 D3043A VL2 None None G1030-60010 ttp:// www.chem.agilent.com Page 8 of 8