Win2k Pro installation problem!

[Eksistenz]

HELP!!

I'm upgrading a system from Win98SE to Win2k Pro. When 2k gets past its last reboot, it reports the following:

Setup was unable to retrieve the Product Idnetification of the system you are installing. The Windows 2000 media may be damaged.

Clicking OK displays a log files, which contains the following:

RegOpenKeyEx(System\Setup\Pid) returned error 2(2)

Clicking OK causes the system to reboot. After restarting, Windows attempts to continue setup from where it failed last time, and eventually reports the same error.

There is nothing wrong with the Windows 200 media - I have used it to upgrade other systems without fault. I have tried other copies of the Windows 200 upgrade disk, with the same results.

Looking around the Net I have found other people replorting the same error, but no possible solutions have been posted.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[pbxman]

Im not familiar with this error in experience, but i'll post what i think might be happening:

I don't think security is set correctly in the registry. The system account and/or administrator should have full access to the registry, but it doesn't sound like it does. Either that, or 98 was removed first, then "upgraded". Not even sure thats possible, but it's looking for 98's Key, not 2000's im thinking.
Lastly, was 98SE cloned? The cloning software may have dropped your PID and Windows 2000 wont continue without it. If you can manually access 98's registry (in safe mode maybe?) go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/ProductID and enter a valid Product Key, and try again.

If it were me, i'd just backup what I could and start from scratch with windows 2000. It's batter that way anyway

I may be 100% wrong here, but thats where i'd start. You could also try booting to the CD, and recovery console and run a repair on the registry as well? I wouldn't mess around too long with it before starting from scratch.

Hope something's of use at least. Have fun and post back with whatever results you may get.


pbxman
Systems Administrator

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[Eksistenz]

I tried booting into safe mode, but Win2k just carried on with the installation. I've also tried booting the PC from CD, but it just ignored the CD and again carried on with the installation.

I've already backed up the relevant data off the PC (did that before starting the upgrade), and I agree with you - if I can't get it to work soon, I'm just going to blank it and start from scratch.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[pbxman]

If it didn't boot from the CD, you need to set the BIOS to boot to CD first. Then when you startup it may ask you to press a key to boot from CDROM. If you can't get it to boot from CD - the drive might be flaky or disk may be scratched or something preventing the drive from reading the disk in certain spots, etc. pbxman
Systems Administrator

Please let Tek-Tips members know their posts were helpful.