How to Enable Debug Logging of Windows 2000 Upgrade (234034)

SUMMARY

When you upgrade your Microsoft Windows 98-based or Microsoft Windows 95-based computer to Windows 2000 Professional, the migration process consists of two phases, a Windows 98/95 phase and a Windows 2000 phase. During the Windows 98/95 phase, information is gathered from the registry, analyzed, migration .dll files are processed, and a report is generated. During the Windows 2000 phase, user settings, profiles, and programs that require processing from migration .dll files are migrated back into the Windows 2000 registry. You can think of this process as follows:

User, program, and system settings are migrated from Windows 98/95.
A new installation of Windows 2000 is placed in the existing Windows folder, typically named Windows, and located in the root folder of drive C.
User, program, and system settings are then migrated back in to your computer towards the end of graphical user interface (GUI) mode Setup.

During these different phases it may be useful to gather some debug information to help troubleshoot issues or problems encountered during migration.

NOTE: This information is most useful when many computers will be migrated to Windows 2000 and a standard desktop is in place. This way, the installer could re-image the computer to re-test after changes have been made. In the case of stand alone users upgrading, this procedure may not be as useful.

MORE INFORMATION

To enable debug information during each of the phases, the following four files are required:

Debug.inf (contents shown below).
A checked version of the Migisol.exe file.
A checked version of the W95upg.dll file.
A checked version of the W95upgnt.dll file.

NOTE: The checked version of these components can be found in the Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN) kit.

The Debug.inf file must contain the following information and must be stored in the root folder of drive C on the Windows 98/95 computer being upgraded:

[debug]
Debug=0
KeepTempFiles=1
GuiModePause=0
Default Override=POPUP

[MigDb]

[FileScan]

[FileOps]

The other three files should be stored in the following locations:

Migisol.exe: \i386 folder of the distribution share.
W95upg.dll: \i386\win95upg folder of the distribution share.
W95upgnt.dll: \i386 folder of the distribution share.

When you start the Windows 2000 upgrade, you must use the following command, although you can add other optional parameters such as /unattend, and so on if you want.

Winnt32.exe /#u:dolog

This creates two log files that are located in the root folder of the system drive.

The Debug9x.log file is created during the Windows 98/95 phase.
The Debugnt.log file is created towards the end of GUI mode setup.

These two files will contain very detailed debug information related to hardware plug and play enumeration and compatibility, migration .dll file results, and a host of other information related to the upgrade/migration process. Should an upgrade hang or not finish, you may be able to determine the underlying cause by parsing these log files.