Assessing Boot Process Failures

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When you know that your workstation’s hardware is correctly functioning, the failure of Windows NT Workstation to start up properly and load the Windows NT shell may be a boot process problem. The key to solving problems of this type is to understand the logical sequence that your workstation uses when starting up. Windows NT shows you various boot sequence errors, the meaning of which should help you determine the problem with your system. You can also diagnose the boot.ini file to determine the nature of any potential problems, and you can apply your emergency repair disks to boot your system and repair common boot process failure problems.




This is likely to be on the exam because a boot failure often requires the direct intervention of support personnel to alleviate the problem as a priority.

A boot failure is a very obvious error, and one of the most common problems that you will encounter. When you or your client can’t start your computer up, you know you have a problem. It’s also the kind of problem that forces you to stop what you are doing and fix it before you can go on to further work.

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Further Information

• The Boot Sequence
• The NT Loader
• The Load Process
• Last Known Good Recovery
• Boot Sequence Errors
• Boot Disk Recovery
• The Emergency Repair Disk (ERD)
• Restoring Your System Using the ERD