I'm going to assume that Windows is installed on drive C: so
Code:
c:
cd \
dir /a *.log | sort
the hard drive will make awful crunching noises and output something like
Code:
04/15/2009 07:19 PM 1,310,720 edb.log
04/15/2009 07:21 PM 47,698 aswAr.log
04/15/2009 09:45 AM 12,770 ReportingEvents.log
04/15/2009 09:46 AM 433 Notice.log
04/15/2009 09:46 AM 152,515 setup.log
04/15/2009 09:46 AM 199,726 Setup.log
04/15/2009 12:37 PM 109,179 setupapi.app.log
04/15/2009 12:38 PM 4,385,305 setupapi.dev.log
04/15/2009 12:53 PM 172,124 CBS.log
04/16/2009 12:00 AM 23,706 setupact.log
now make note of the file last listed and find out where it is
Code:
dir /s setupact.log
which returns something like
Code:
Volume in drive C is 7
Volume Serial Number is B4C7-2504
Directory of C:\Windows
04/15/2009 07:13 PM 26,791 setupact.log
1 File(s) 26,791 bytes
Directory of C:\Windows\Panther
04/12/2009 06:26 PM 585,759 setupact.log
1 File(s) 585,759 bytes
Directory of C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC
04/16/2009 12:00 AM 23,706 setupact.log
1 File(s) 23,706 bytes
Directory of C:\Windows\System32\sysprep\Panther\IE
04/12/2009 08:26 PM 580 setupact.log
1 File(s) 580 bytes
Total Files Listed:
4 File(s) 636,836 bytes
0 Dir(s) 11,359,551,488 bytes free
make note of the directory and open the file with notepad thusly
Code:
notepad C:\Windows\Panther\UnattendGC\setupact.log
now put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and look for clues as to why startup, didn't. Read the file from end to beginning as the failure is likely logged at the end of file.
You see what we're doing -- the thing that caused startup to fail is likely the last thing logged. By searching for log files and displaying them in chronological order we can examine each file from latest to earliest looking for the root cause of your problem. Make sense?