Hi,
Please help me...

Out of curiosity I swapped the naming of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices in the registry. After that the drive letters changed (as viewed from ‘My Computer’) but during login in the system via telnet the prompt was showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. Seeing this I reverted back the naming of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices. but after that during login in the system via telnet the prompt was showing G:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator and at ‘My Computer’ G: was showing to have the disk of C: (disk label and size of C). Then I renamed \DosDevices\G with \DosDevices\C. After that the login problem arose. As soon as I login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your settings and logs off automatically without logging in. I can't even login in safe mood.

Please help me

From your remote computer can you access the administrative shares on
the bungled machine? \\ComputerName\c$ or \\ComputerName\d$ , etc?

If yes you can use Regedit to load the remote system hive of the bungled
machine. If you cannot remotely connect to the registry you will have
to mount the disk in another machine or use a PE disk with a registry
editor plug-in to try to fix this.

John

undisclosed wrote:
> Hi,
> Please help me...
>
> Out of curiosity I swapped the naming of \DosDevices\C: and
> \DosDevices\D: at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices in the
> registry. After that the drive letters changed (as viewed from ‘My
> Computer’) but during login in the system via telnet the prompt was
> showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of
> C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. Seeing this I reverted back the naming
> of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: at
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices. but after that during login
> in the system via telnet the prompt was showing
> G:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator and at ‘My Computer’ G: was showing to
> have the disk of C: (disk label and size of C). Then I renamed
> \DosDevices\G with \DosDevices\C. After that the login problem arose. As
> soon as I login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your
> settings and logs off automatically without logging in. I can't even
> login in safe mood.
>
> Please help me
>
>

or you can do it the long tortuous way:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from
starting

John

John John - MVP wrote:
> From your remote computer can you access the administrative shares on
> the bungled machine? \\ComputerName\c$ or \\ComputerName\d$ , etc?
>
> If yes you can use Regedit to load the remote system hive of the bungled
> machine. If you cannot remotely connect to the registry you will have
> to mount the disk in another machine or use a PE disk with a registry
> editor plug-in to try to fix this.
>
> John
>
> undisclosed wrote:
>> Hi, Please help me...
>>
>> Out of curiosity I swapped the naming of \DosDevices\C: and
>> \DosDevices\D: at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices in the
>> registry. After that the drive letters changed (as viewed from ‘My
>> Computer’) but during login in the system via telnet the prompt was
>> showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of
>> C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. Seeing this I reverted back the naming
>> of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: at
>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices. but after that during login
>> in the system via telnet the prompt was showing
>> G:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator and at ‘My Computer’ G: was showing to
>> have the disk of C: (disk label and size of C). Then I renamed
>> \DosDevices\G with \DosDevices\C. After that the login problem arose. As
>> soon as I login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your
>> settings and logs off automatically without logging in. I can't even
>> login in safe mood.
>> Please help me
>>
>>

Boot from a windows 98 disk and do 'fdisk /mbr'

"undisclosed" wrote:

>
> Hi,
> Please help me...
>
> Out of curiosity I swapped the naming of \DosDevices\C: and
> \DosDevices\D: at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices in the
> registry. After that the drive letters changed (as viewed from ‘My
> Computer’) but during login in the system via telnet the prompt was
> showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of
> C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. Seeing this I reverted back the naming
> of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: at
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices. but after that during login
> in the system via telnet the prompt was showing
> G:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator and at ‘My Computer’ G: was showing to
> have the disk of C: (disk label and size of C). Then I renamed
> \DosDevices\G with \DosDevices\C. After that the login problem arose. As
> soon as I login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your
> settings and logs off automatically without logging in. I can't even
> login in safe mood.
>
> Please help me
>
>
> --
> squirrel
> .
>

A very good idea, that would be one of the easiest way around the problem!

John

Anteaus wrote:
> Boot from a windows 98 disk and do 'fdisk /mbr'
>
> "undisclosed" wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> Please help me...
>>
>> Out of curiosity I swapped the naming of \DosDevices\C: and
>> \DosDevices\D: at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices in the
>> registry. After that the drive letters changed (as viewed from ‘My
>> Computer’) but during login in the system via telnet the prompt was
>> showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of
>> C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. Seeing this I reverted back the naming
>> of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: at
>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\MountedDevices. but after that during login
>> in the system via telnet the prompt was showing
>> G:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator and at ‘My Computer’ G: was showing to
>> have the disk of C: (disk label and size of C). Then I renamed
>> \DosDevices\G with \DosDevices\C. After that the login problem arose. As
>> soon as I login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your
>> settings and logs off automatically without logging in. I can't even
>> login in safe mood.
>>
>> Please help me
>>
>>
>> --
>> squirrel
>> .
>>

Hi,
Thanks for the reply...
@John: Yes I can access \\ComputerName\d$ but I cannot access \\ComputerName\c$. Also I can load the registry via "connect network registry". What I see after loading the registry is, in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon userinit is having address c:\winnt\system32\userinit.exe but in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices there is no \DosDevices\C: . In my machine C: and D: generally have almost same data with some exceptions.


Please see the snapshots. Please help...

@Anteaus: I don't have any privilege to reinstall or doing any recovery with installation disk. So, it will be a problem. But I have the administrator access.
Please help..

Also to be specific its a windows server 2003 machine.

Please see the attachments for the snapshots.

Attached Images

	userinit.JPG (63.9 KB, 0 views)
	mounted_devices.JPG (84.0 KB, 0 views)

We can't see these images without creating an account and logging on to
the site, something that many of us here will not be inclined to do.

John

undisclosed wrote:
> Please see the attachments for the snapshots.
>
>
> +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
> |Filename: mounted_devices.JPG |
> |Download: http://www.technologyquestions.com/t...achmentid=142|
> +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
>

Save the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices to an
accessible location, just in case that you might want to restore it and
try different things if this suggested fix doesn't work.

Delete *all* the contents of the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key, do not delete the key
itself. *DO* NOT* change the userinit value at the Winlogon key!

Deleting all the entries at the MountedDevices key will force the Mount
Manager to reenumerate all the devices, the first active partition on
the disc will or should be assigned drive letter C: and the system
should boot normally. You will then have to redo your other drive
letters and reassign them to your liking.

John

PS. I don't know what this "PreventCyclicReb..." key is for, might be
perfectly legit but I haven't seen this type of value in the
MountedDevices key before. for my own curiosity what is the full name
of the value?



undisclosed wrote:
> Hi,
> Thanks for the reply...
> @John: Yes I can access \\ComputerName\d$ but I cannot access
> \\ComputerName\c$. Also I can load the registry via "connect network
> registry". What I see after loading the registry is, in
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
> userinit is having address c:\winnt\system32\userinit.exe but in
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices there is no \DosDevices\C: . In
> my machine C: and D: generally have almost same data with some
> exceptions.
> [image:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/meowcat0...7635681147874]
> [image:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/meowcat0...7636237192498]
> Please see the snapshots. Please help...
>
> @Anteaus: I don't have any privilege to reinstall or doing any recovery
> with installation disk. So, it will be a problem. But I have the
> administrator access.
> Please help..
>
>

Hi,
Thanks a lot for the answers and \\ComputerName\d$ concept. I was able to find a backup of the registry mounted devices in \\ComputerName\d$ (although i saved it previously in c:) and tried to restore with it's information. As \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\G: were missing, I just created these two keys with values taking from the backup. The backup was taken after some changes were made in the registry so it was not the backup of the original registry. After that, The system is letting me to login. But the problem that still exists now is that, default prompt in command prompt (or when i'm logging via telnet) is showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. So, I think still I might need to swap the values of C: and D: from mounted devies. But, I was suspicious and thought I would take your suggestions about this.
And, John, I was in a hurry and I got your reply after I have done the changes. I think, I should also try your showed steps of deleting all the contents of the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key. Please suggest me what should I do in such current situation.

And, as you requested, I got this in the registry. Sorry, I don't know what is this for.
Value 30
Name: PreventCyclicReboot
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0

Personally I would have deleted all the entries in the MountedDevices
key, this should have done the trick.

*BUT* .... being that this is a server and being that I have no
knowledge of your hard disks and their configurations, and being that I
don't know what the PreventCyclicReboot is for, perhaps we should take a
more cautious approach.

Swap the letters at the \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: values. To
release the drive letter C assign the \DosDevices\C: another unused
letter, like Z, the letter C will be released and you will then be able
to assign it to the incorrect \DosDevices\D:, after you do this the D
letter will be released and you will then be able to swap it with the Z
letter that you assigned earlier. To save the changes don't forget to
unload the hive after you're done!

John

undisclosed wrote:
> Hi,
> Thanks a lot for the answers and \\ComputerName\d$ concept. I was able
> to find a backup of the registry mounted devices in \\ComputerName\d$
> (although i saved it previously in c:) and tried to restore with it's
> information. As \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\G: were missing, I just
> created these two keys with values taking from the backup. The backup
> was taken after some changes were made in the registry so it was not the
> backup of the original registry. After that, The system is letting me to
> login. But the problem that still exists now is that, default prompt in
> command prompt (or when i'm logging via telnet) is showing
> D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of
> C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>. So, I think still I might need to swap
> the values of C: and D: from mounted devies. But, I was suspicious and
> thought I would take your suggestions about this.
> And, John, I was in a hurry and I got your reply after I have done the
> changes. I think, I should also try your showed steps of deleting all
> the contents of the
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key. Please suggest me what
> should I do in such current situation.
>
> And, as you requested, I got this in the registry. Sorry, I don't know
> what is this for.
> Value 30
> Name: PreventCyclicReboot
> Type: REG_DWORD
> Data: 0
>
>

Hi,
Thanks for the help and patience.
Yes, I have swapped the letters at the \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: and it worked...
Surely I would try the other process (deleting all entries in mountdevices) in my personal computer ... thanks it is a good learning.

And, would you please tell me why at the very first time when I swapped the naming of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: the prompt was showing D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>?... Do I need to change any other parameters in any places or is it normal to show the inverted prompt.
Thanks.

You're welcome, thanks for the follow up. I'm not sure why switching
the letters around the first time didn't work. You said that at that
point the system was unexpectedly assigned drive letter G:, I can only
surmise that you probably changed the drive letter on the wrong partition.

If the SET USERPROFILE and SET SYSTEM commands return the expected
information on the C:\ drive you need not change anything else as far as
the operating system and user profiles are concerned. Of course you
will have to see if your other partitions kept their original drive
letters. If the letters of your other partitions are not consistent
with their previous assignment you may have problems with some of your
scripts and drive mappings.

John


undisclosed wrote:
> Hi,
> Thanks for the help and patience.
> Yes, I have swapped the letters at the \DosDevices\C: and
> \DosDevices\D: and it worked...
> Surely I would try the other process (deleting all entries in
> mountdevices) in my personal computer ... thanks it is a good learning.
>
> And, would you please tell me why at the very first time when I swapped
> the naming of \DosDevices\C: and \DosDevices\D: the prompt was showing
> D:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator> instead of
> C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator>?... Do I need to change any other
> parameters in any places or is it normal to show the inverted prompt.
> Thanks.
>
>

Hi John,
Sorry, I'm so late to post this reply. I think I have changed the drive letters correctly. Anyway, if the system does not change the default prompt should I change the prompt by these SET USERPROFILE and SET SYSTEM commands or should I go back to original configuration and again take another attempt to change the drive letters?
Thanks a lot.