Troubleshooting Startup and Shutdown

Troubleshooting startup and shutdown are also part of system recovery. When problems occur, you need to be able to resolve them, and the key techniques are discussed in this part of the chapter. Don't forget about boot disks, ASR, and the Recovery Console—all of which were discussed in the section entitled "Predisaster Preparation Procedures".

Resolving Startup Issues

When you have problems starting a system, think about what has changed recently. If you and other administrators keep a change log, access the log to see what has changed on the system recently. A new device driver might have been installed or an application might have been installed that incorrectly modified the system configuration.

Often you can resolve startup issues using Safe Mode to recover or troubleshoot system problems. In Safe Mode, Windows Server 2003 loads only basic files, services, and drivers. Because Safe Mode loads a limited set of configuration information, it can help you troubleshoot problems. You start a system in Safe Mode by completing the following steps:

  1. If the system is currently running and you want to troubleshoot startup, shut down the server, and then start it again. If the system is already powered down or has previously failed to start, start the server again.

  2. Press F8 during startup to access the Windows Advanced Options menu. You must press F8 before the Windows splash screen appears.

  3. In the Windows Advanced Options menu, select a startup mode. The key options are as follows:

    • Safe Mode—Starts the computer and loads only basic files, services, and drivers during the initialization sequence. The drivers loaded include the mouse, monitor, keyboard, mass storage, and base video. No networking services or drivers are started.

    • Safe Mode With Command Prompt—Starts the computer and loads only basic files, services, and drivers, and then starts a command prompt instead of the Windows Server 2003 graphical interface. No networking services or drivers are started.

    • Safe Mode With Networking—Starts the computer and loads only basic files, services, and drivers, and the services and drivers needed to start networking.

    • Enable Boot Logging—Starts the computer with boot logging enabled, which allows you to create a record of all startup events in a boot log.

    • Enable VGA Mode—Starts the computer in Video Graphics Adapter (VGA) mode, which is useful if the system display is set to a mode that can't be used with the current monitor.

    • Last Known Good Configuration—Starts the computer in Safe Mode using Registry information that Windows Server 2003 saved at the last shutdown.

  4. If a problem doesn't reappear when you start in Safe Mode, you can eliminate the default settings and basic device drivers as possible causes. If a newly added device or updated driver is causing problems, you can use Safe Mode to remove the device or roll back the update.

  5. Make other changes as necessary to resolve startup problems. If you are still having a problem starting the system, you may need to uninstall recently installed applications or devices to try to correct the problem.

Repairing Missing or Corrupted System Files

Automated System Recovery data can often help you recover a system that won't boot. If you can't start or recover a system in Safe Mode, from the Recovery Console, or with a boot disk, the next step is to try to recover the system using the last Automated System Recovery (ASR) backup. You can repair a system using the recovery data by completing the following steps:

  1. Insert the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM into the appropriate drive, and then restart the computer. Make sure that you boot from the CD-ROM, so when prompted to press a key to boot from the CD, do so.

  2. As soon as the text-mode Setup begins to run, press F2 to start the Automated System Recovery (ASR) process.

  3. Insert the ASR disk when prompted and press any key. Files will then be copied from the disk to the computer and the system configuration will be initialized.

  4. The computer will then reboot. When the system restarts, it will reboot and start Windows Server 2003. The graphical Setup will begin, and then the ASR Wizard will start.

  5. The ASR Wizard allows you to specify the location of the full system backup to be restored.

  6. The computer will reboot again. When it restarts, it should start normally. At this point, the recovery of the system is complete. The system is restored with the configuration and settings it had when the ASR backup was made. Remember that, for a domain controller, ASR performs a nonauthoritative restore of both Active Directory and the Sysvol.

Resolving Restart or Shutdown Issues

Normally, you can shut down or restart Windows Server 2003 by clicking Start, selecting Shutdown, selecting Restart or Shutdown in the Shutdown Windows dialog box, and finally clicking OK. Sometimes, however, Windows Server 2003 won't shut down or restart normally and you are forced to take additional actions. In those cases, follow these steps:

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The Windows Security dialog box should appear. If the Windows Security dialog box doesn't appear, skip to step 4.

  2. Click Task Manager, and then look for an application that is not responding. If all programs appear to be running normally, skip to step 4.

  3. Select the application that is not responding, and then click End Task. If the application fails to respond to the request, you'll see a prompt that allows you to end the application immediately or cancel the end task request. Click End Now.

  4. Try shutting down or restarting the computer. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and then click Shutdown. As a last resort, you might be forced to perform a hard shutdown by powering down or unplugging the computer. If you do this, run Check Disk the next time you start the computer to check for errors and problems that may have been caused by the hard shutdown.

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