Re: Server bootup problems

From: Leonard Severt [MSFT] (leons_at_online.microsoft.com)
Date: 01/11/05 

Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 04:08:53 GMT

"=?Utf-8?B?Ry4gRC4gS2xlaW4=?=" <G. D. Klein@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote in news:91A7E63C-827D-4D35-A9AF-032C8DB15685@microsoft.com:

> I am facing the same problem as Mujahid Iqbal. This has become a
> recurrent nightmare for me. I have yet to satisfactorily recover from
> this problem and I am looking for the cause of the
> C:\winnt\system32\config\system file growing to an abnormally large
> size. I suspect that the source of the problem is related to one of
> three hardware components: the motherboard, the processor or the video
> card and/or the software and drivers associated with those components.
>
>
> I recently rebuilt my system and replaced all three components and
> then did a clean install starting with a repartitioned and formatted
> hard drive with all data files stored on a second hard drive. Before
> installing any applications software, I downloaded and installed all
> windows 2k and IE 6 updates and patches along with updating all the
> drivers for all hardware componenets and peripherals.
>
> When I finished installing my applications software library, I checked
> the problem "system" file and it was about 4 MB in size. From that
> point, the size of the system file steadily grows and within two to
> three weeks on average, it reaches sufficient size to overload the 16
> MB memory limit in the text phase of the boot.
>
> This process has repeated four times and the current size of the
> "system" file is 17.9 MB. I am going to try to follow the
> instructions in the knowlege base to reduce the size of the system
> hive before I have to resart but I consider that to only be a make do
> solution because it does not address the cause of the obese system
> file.
>
> My hardware configuration includes a Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro 2
> motherboard with an AMD Athalon XP 2600+ processor and a Raedon 9200
> SE Graphics Card plus two 512 MB sticks of Geil DDR PC-3200 memory.
> Other hardare and entire software suite are same as before computer
> upgrade.
>
> Win 2K had run almost flawlessly for 3 years on the old computer
> before hardware upgrade. I even had MS Visual Studio.net installed
> before upgrade and that is a massive software package when you add the
> MSDN library and still no problems. Since the upgrade, the longest
> period without a boot failure has been three weeks. Each time before,
> I have ended up having to do a clean install rather than a reinstall
> because each time I did a reinstall, I had frequent freeze-up problems
> requiring a hard shutdown and powerup.
>
> I have even tried a different hard drive as my boot drive in a futile
> quest for a solution to the problem.
>
> If anyone has an idea what is causing the system file to balloon in
> size or if anyone is having similar problems that they can associate
> with one of the hardware components I listed, please respond on this
> board or via email to my hotmail.com account user id gdonklein.
>
> Thanks,
> Gary

Gary,

I doubt it is related directly to the new hardware. There are only a few
areas of the system hive that usually grow. It could be that something
on the system is causing "white space" and causing the large size of the
hive. As you have found out the system will not boot is the system hive
is larger than ~10.3 meg. If you want you can compress and email me your
system hive and I should be able to determine what part of it is growing
and maybe even why. The easiest way to get it is to use NTBackup to
either create an ERD or system state backup. Either one will save a copy
of the registry files to windows\repair\regback. Go ahead and zip it and
send it to me.

LeonardSevert@hotmail.com

Leonard Severt

Microsoft Enterprise Support 

-- 
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no 
rights.

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