General Troubleshooting for Readiness Analyzer Under Windows 95 or Windows 98 (257239)

SUMMARY

This article describes general troubleshooting procedures that you can use if you experience problems running the Readiness Analyzer tool, the Winnt32.exe portion of Setup, or the winnt32 /checkupgradeonly command in Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98.

For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

250878 Readiness Analyzer Quits Before Finishing

252725 Upgrading to Windows 2000 Causes Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32

MORE INFORMATION

Try the following items to attempt to allow the upgrade or Readiness Analyzer to finish successfully:

In Windows 98, click Start, click Run, type msconfig, and then click OK. Click Selective Startup, and then click to clear all check boxes. Click OK, reboot the computer, and then try to run Setup or Readiness Analyzer again. Reboot and Retry. For additional information, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
243039 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 95
192926 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98
Note that Msconfig is not included with any version of Windows 95.
Remove temporary files, including temporary Internet files, and empty the Recycle Bin. In Windows 98, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and the click Disk Cleanup. Click to select the Temporary Internet Files, Recycle Bin, and Temporary Files check boxes. These files are all scanned during the Readiness Analyzer process. Removing them lessens the number of files that need to be scanned and helps simplify and shorten the process.
Boot into Safe mode and then run Readiness Analyzer, Winnt32.exe, or the winnt32.exe /checkupgradeonly command. Booting into Safe mode allows only a minimal set of drivers, services, and programs to be loaded. This helps simplify the installation and removes items that may interfere with the upgrade process. This does not affect the upgrade process. Items not loaded are still examined and reported upon.

NOTE: Your CD-ROM drive will not be accessible natively from Safe mode. You need to follow the procedure in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to be able to access the drive:
194846 How to Make Your CD-ROM Drive Accessible in Safe Mode
Run Scandisk to check the drives. Include a surface scan to make sure that there is not a bad sector that prevents a portion of the drive from being properly read. Because a large number of files are being read from the disk, problems with file or folder corruption or bad spots on the drive can cause issues while the upgrade or Readiness Analyzer is running.
Run Scanreg in Windows 98 to examine the registry for errors. Although this happens automatically at every boot in Windows 98, running this may help clean up some registry corruption that may have taken place. The upgrade process examines the registry, so corrupted entries can cause problems.
Make sure that power management is disabled in Windows 95 or Windows 98 and in the computer's BIOS. Consult your PC manufacturer for details about modifying the BIOS settings. Disabling power management can help if the system powers off or powers down while the upgrade is taking place. Waking the computer back up may cause unintended results in Readiness Analyzer or in Winnt32.exe.