Hi,
In the process of trying to clean up my hard drive I believe that I have removed this file 'display_driver.dll, as this is what windows tells me when I try to start it. I suspect that I removed this file using AnalogX's dll cleaner, so it's probably archived in it's directory. In any event the system won't boot. I have no experience with winnt, no boot disk, no installation disks, nothing. Can anyone suggest what I can do to get this thing runnning again?
Thanks,
John

www.cedargallery.nl

Does the system at least boot up to a boot-menu display?

Hi trvir,
Yes it does. I tried the VGA option, but that didn't do any good. I also tried the last good start up (that's not the right term) but that didn't do anything either.
...... john
P.S. I there any such thing as a startup disk that I can download?

www.cedargallery.nl

Presumably you mean "lst known good config" - didn't work either...

Possibly a repair installationwould resolve it all; but one may need an NT 4 CD to do it...

This link discusses the repair routine(s); and initially you may not need the CD... But if you do need it... then you need it...

http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Con...

You will need the 3 NT setup floppies; and they can be downloaded at places various.

bootdisk.com has them via:

http://support.mpccorp.com/download...

Download the images; expand (I think) to a floppy for each and use those floppies. It may not be necessary to expand them - as they may be already expanded etc. - and just need to be copied to a floppy - one for each image; which then use.

Hi trvir,
Thanks for your suggestions. What I ended up doing was installing the Nt hard drive in my windows 2000 machine, then moving the files, removed by Analog X's dll cleanup utility, back to their respective directories. That solved the problem.
Thanks again for you help.
... john

www.cedargallery.nl

Good for you; that was one of the options I was considering for a subsequent reply.

Might also be useful/wise to make a current ERD for this NT installation - and keep it up to date... Might come in handy one day?

Incidentally if you get yourself a Knoppix CD (a Linux variant on a CD) you you may find it very useful at times like these... You boot up with it and then the entire "host" system is available as a resource; can be accessed fully from the OS on the CD - which runs in RAM... That way you can also recover (from the recycle-bin) inadvertently dumped files... Also allows one to get data off in event of true OS crash...

Thanks for the feedback; so seldom happens, and is appreciated by all here.

Hi trvlr,
You say "make a current ERD for this NT installation..." Is that 'emergency recovery disk'? How do I do that?
...john

www.cedargallery.nl

Yes: ERD = Emergency Repair Disk.

NT can be repaired without it... but in an ideal (well thought out scenario) it is the preferred approach;. and again (in a well thought out scenario) there is one for each NT installation. You cannot use the ERD from one PC on another; which isn't say it probably hasn't been done... (but not by me and I strongly suspect that the two PC's involved would have to be "exact" duplicates...).

These two references detail the how etc...

http://www.techadvice.com/nt40/R/Rd...

http://www.synapseadaptive.com/dolp...