Weird Windows 2000 Server problem

[Roymus]

We're a small company running Windows 2000 Small Business Server (SBS) and MS Exchange on a Compaq 350 server with two 72GB drives (one is a mirror, no RAID). We've had a recurring problem with the server hanging on startup. What it will do is display the Windows 2000 startup screen. The progress bar will get exactly 3/4 of the way through (what I call the "line of death"), and will stop. It looks like it's still loading as the "progress shading" at the very bottom is still changing, but nothing is happening. Repeated reboots after about 10 minutes don't help. The only fix is to shut down and pop the mirror drive out of the bay, then restart...the server will then start. This has happened several times already. We replaced the mirror drive after the first time, and everything seemed ok for awhile, but then it happened again. Popping out the mirror drive once again fixed the problem. The mirror drive is 100% healthy according the the disk management screen. Has anybody ever heard of anything like this? Is my server just a POS? Any ideas at all would be appreciated...thanks!

 

[Roymus]

Let me add an additional question: Is there any way, using a diagnostic utility or software tool, to see what's happening to the server during the bootup process? For example, on a Windows 9x workstation you can simply press ESC to dismiss the Windows logo screen and see what's going on "behind the scenes". I'm looking for something similar for Windows Server. I've tried replacing drives, etc., and this problem keeps occurring, at the EXACT SAME POINT in the bootup process. I feel certain that if I could just identify what point that is...whether it's a bad driver or service or whatever...I could identifiy the problem's root cause and then get the appropriate help from Compaq to solve. I would rather do this than start replacing individual components, as this may never reveal what the problem was in the first place. There must be some way to see what's going on behind the curtain...thanks!

Roy

 

[Rockn]

Please don't cross post. I think you have a couple of replies in the other thread you started.