Hello all -

 

This is my first time posting a thread here, and in fact I like to get some feedback or opinions on an issue that is touchy, but advisable for my client. I am not as familiar with SBS 2000 as I am with SBS 2003.

 

Here's a long story... being short. A year ago(July 2007) my client (Doctor) upgraded his hardware to XEON processors to suit his practice which he already owns SBS 2000. Built the PC, installed/deployed SBS 2000 and now it's (March 2008) and the server suddenly crashed. (See the details below). He had a Linksys wire/router attached along with a DSL Speedstream modem 5100 series attached to the LinkSys and was able to access the internet, but kept crashing constantly. During the past year he had to reboot the server and reset his Linksys and SpeedStream to regain internet and network control. Then it crashed as I said... and I am seriously concerned about SBS 2000 crashing on him again in the coming future if I install the application/OS back unto his server.

 

CRASH INCIDENT:

Two network cards with ISA 2000 running. IP configuration on external NIC were pointed to internal network card's IP for DNS queries, keeping network card for blank ip add for Default gateway.

 

External (set by router's internal settings)

IP: 192.168.10.100

subnet 255.255.255.0

default gateway 192.168.10.1

DNS 192.168.16.15

 

Internal

IP: 192.168.16.15

subnet 255.255.255.0

dafault gateway blank

dns 192.168.16.15

 

-Ran Ipconfig /flushdns and Ipconfig /registerdns.

-Restarted ISA control service but no go

-We mutually decided to uninstall ISA as it wasn’t configured for any use.

-We decided to run uninstall utility and browsed disc 2 for RMISA.

-We attempted to run the file but it said it can't connect to AD.

-We rebooted the box  and got with below mentioned error at the time of boot up. Winnt\system32\config\systemced is corrupt.

-We swapped the System and the software hives.

-Renamed the present system to system.old and software to software.old but it didn’t help

-Repaired the system hive using CHKREG.

-We sent the file back. Now, We were able to boot the server fine. However, Unable to open Active Directory. "Action is only valid for products already installed"

-We were unable to open DSA.MSC .

-MSI Installer service was not starting.

-We plugged the HDD into XP box in order to swap registries.

Softwrae.old = 19.8 MB

Software = 7.01 B

-We renamed 7MB software hive to software.old1

-We renamed software. old to Software = 19.8 MB

-We rebooted but got a blue screen.

-We reverted the changes back to what it was.

-We rebooted in normal mode.

-We recommended to take the back of the data that we require and then rebuild the box.

 

I hope by the consideration of what happened above, that if a fresh installation of SBS2000 is advisable taking in the facts that the issue above has happened?! Also, perhaps the files were corrupt from misuse by the (Doctor) or something strange happened unexpectedly? I am open to listen to any suggestions or advise?!

 

Thank you! 

Hi Mick -

 

Actually I had some help with Microsoft at that point when the system did crash, I know very little about SBS 2000, and I agree about your theory when things crash they just crash.

 

Actually, yes his internet was working... it was through the same switch as the network.... even though it worked, he had to reboot everything from time to time.

 

The funny odd thing of this case is, before I worked on it there were issues with the OS before. So, I just questioning the issue up front as if I did this again, would there be a strong possibility that it would crash again?! He's been in distress for a while, and now he can not access the internet to do his billing he is seriously concerned as to why it did what it did... as am I.

 

Thanks for your feedback!