Issues Specifying Installation Folder when Installing Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 - Computers - Data Recovery

%SystemRoot% is a system-wide environment variable used in Windows NT family of operating systems with value as the location of the system folder plus drive and its path. Typically, in Windows XP and later versions, it is WINDOWS and Windows 2000 uses WINNT. The further reading discusses about issues installing Windows 2000 or Server 2003 with non-default %SystemRoot% folder. While Setup, you might fail to specify the installation folder because of system/boot drive failure, however, there can be other reasons as well. As a result, you may need to reformat the original boot partition and restore from backup. For any reason if backup proves incompetent to restore, you are suggested to use a comprehensive data recovery product to locate and recover data.

To illustrate, consider you try to install Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 by booting from installation media. You observe that while the Setup is running, you cannot specify or edit the installation folder name.

Cause

General causes for such behavior to occur are:

You have specified 'TargetPath=' parameter in answer file while an unattended installationYou are trying to install when WINNT or WINDOWS folder already existsYou are using Winnt32.exe tool from already working Windows copy and change the locationSystem/boot drive is failed

Solution

To aid installing Windows 2000 or Server 2003, use any of the below described methods:

You can try performing unattended Windows installation by defining installation folder as 'TargetPath=WINDIR' in an answer file. Use Windows installation media to start Recovery Console and create a new system/boot partition with a WINNT or WINDOWS folder. Alternatively, you can choose to use an earlier version Windows disk or move the drive to another Windows running computer to create the new system/boot drive. Install Windows 2000 or Server 2003 and restore data from last backup after this is done.

At times, you cannot restore from backup as it is invalid or not updated. In such cases, use an effective data recovery software to scan and recover lost data. These are fully-competent partition recovery applications with graphically-rich user interface and safe data recovery scanning algorithms.

Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery Services are powerful utility to provide systematic recovery of lost and missing data. It is compatible with Windows 7 RC1, Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000 based systems. Providing advanced features, self-descriptive interface and comprehensive results, this data recovery software serves as complete solution while all logical data loss instances.

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