explorer.exe error on startup

[zbnet]

I've got a problem with a desktop, running Win2000 pro. It has a mirror pair of disks that run from the onboard Promise MBFastTrak133 RAID controller. All the previous problems I've had with this machine have been hard disk failures, or problems with the controller not recognising a disk.

But today it suddenly locked up whilst being used, so eventually a reset was issued. Now, it boots to windows desktop, but as the icons appear it says an error has ocurred in explorer.exe, removes the task bar, and tries to restart the desktop - whereapon explorer.exe fails again - and so on, in a sickly death loop.

I tried booting from the CD (intending to go into Recovery Console), but it hangs after its finished loading all the files from CD when trying to start windows. I did it from boot floppies with the same result. A Technet article I found suggested that a problem with the drivers for a RAID device might cause this, so I rebooted from the CD, F6ed it, put the floppy for the Promise RAID drivers in, and then continued, but it still hung.

Now I'm stuck - any pointers, please?

 

[jrbarnett]

Can you get into safe mode?

John

 

[zbnet]

No, same thing - continually reboots.

 

[htmlman]

Try removing hardware cards not needed and try booting from the CD.

 

[zbnet]

Thanks for the suggestions to date.

Update: just to let you know that I've managed to run a Repair on the disk - apparently, if you leave the "Setup is starting Windows 2000" on screen for 10+ minutes, eventually it manages to offer the Install/Repair options.

I've Repaired the disk (yes, I did have an ERD!), and it at least boots now, although there are a few funnies with some of the installed applications, probably because I did a Fast repair and I suspect some of the registry has been rolled back.

I haven't decided yet whether I trust it enough, or whether I should do a repair reinstall.

 

[htmlman]

If you are unsure about the OS load I would do a backup of the things needed and using tools from the hardware manufacturer to make sure the drive is still in working shape. If it is us software, usually comes with hardware manufacturer test tools, write zeros to the drive, partition, format and load a clean OS.
Always put the security patches, anti virus, fire wall protections in place before you reconnect to the network. That way if there is a problem lurking on the network, your protection will be in place before it can access your computer.