SafeMode Switch for Windows 2000 Setup When Upgrading from Windows 95/98 (241816)

SUMMARY

When you are upgrading from Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98 to Windows 2000, the first phase of Setup may stop responding (hang) while Setup is examining the system. This occurs when Setup is extracting user, program, and system settings.

You can restart Windows 2000 Setup (Winnt32.exe) using the SafeMode switch to help isolate the issue and bypass the problem, allowing Setup to continue.

MORE INFORMATION

With this switch enabled, Setup can log the problem. If you then start Setup again with the SafeMode switch, the process that caused the problem is skipped.

NOTE: This method may require that you run Setup three times to bypass the problem. For example, you run Setup the first time and the problem occurs, you run Setup the second time with the SafeMode switch to log the problem in the Setupact.log file in the %SystemRoot% folder, and you then run Setup the third time with the SafeMode switch so that Setup examines the log files and skips the process that caused the problem.

The Setupact.log file notes Setup was started with the SafeMode switch and logs the number of times it has run in this mode.

To upgrade a computer running Windows 95/98 with the SafeMode switch, add the following switch to the winnt32.exe command:

/#u:SafeMode

Note that this switch applies only to the Winnt32 phase (known as the Windows 95/98 phase) of the upgrade.

For additional information how to gather additional debug information, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

234034 How to Enable Debug Logging of Windows 2000 Upgrade