Does it bluescreen before rebooting? If so, try this in safe mode.
Change the value data in the AutoReboot value to 0 (zero), instead of 1, in the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\CrashControl
Another thing you can try is deleting the paging file in safe mode, then making sure it's set to have Windows manage the file instead of setting a fixed size/location. That forces Windows to re-create the paging file.
Alternatively you can set the paging file size and location directly:
Change the data value of the PagingFiles value to allow a minimum value of the amount of physical memory plus 1 MB, but not greater than the amount of free space on the hard disk. The key name is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
For example: "drive:\pagefile.sys nnnnnn" where drive is the letter of the system hard disk and nnn is a number for the minimum and maximum size of the paging file.
Have you tried using the logged startup option after pressing F8? I've had a few weird cases with 2000 where it'd start fine when using the logged option- but then no log was saved. Starting normally would just stop, with nothing in any logs that anybody I consulted could figure out was causing the problem. Don't recall any fixes, been a while since I used 2000.
One thing you MUST do with 2000 is to run the Backup program and have it backup the Registry and make an Emergency Recovery Disk. If something really bad blows up with 2000 and you *haven't* done this, you're next stop is "Nuke and Pave" with a fresh install. Repair install is impossible without at least a Registry backup* made with Backup. You *can* reinstall 2000 over itself, but it will create copies of all the user folders (including Administrator) under Documents and Settings with an extention of the computer name appended in all caps. 2000 will function like this, but you have all those original folders and files taking up space, and some applications do not like those folder name extentions. I tried at least a dozen different things but couldn't force 2000 to abandon the new folders and go back to the originals.
One of the worst things is when you've done a fresh install of 2000, got all the drivers and updates etc installed, rebooted the thing three times to ensure it's working fine... then it commits digital seppuku upon first boot in front of the client by blowing up the User hive... and you've not run Backup to backup the Registry and make an ERD.
*XP automatically makes several Registry backups, which makes it possible to recover (or boot with last known good settings) IF you don't reboot 5 or 6 times, which will copy any Registry problems to all the backups.
