Man - what else will go wrong. I defraged my hard drive and when I rebooted Windows 2000 I got the blue screen with a stop error...inaccessible boot device. I assume this is the hard drive? Also, the hard drive can't be read by another computer (I tried it as a slave). Is there a way to fix this? I tried reinstalling/repairing Win 2000 which it ran through and said it was reinstalled OK, but I get the same error when starting. ou: - Bill
If the drive is undetectable in more than one computer, your answer is easy. You need a new hard drive. Curious though, have you been in to your bios lately and changed your boot devices or sequences? I'm surprised you got through the whole win2000 install ok and then it crapped out again. Somewhere along the line it had to have detected your hard drive successfully to install, but for some reason it doesn't boot when done, which is why I'm pointing to you bios to check. Anyone else? I know there are way more geeky guys out there than me! :Smarty: :laugh:
Sounds like the defrag program messed around with the boot sector, which it probably shouldn't have had. The boot sector is like the very first section read by the bios that tells it where the os starts (I think). You more than likely need to reformat the drive w/reformating software that will rewrite the boot sector.
You didn't change the boot drives around in the bios did you? Sure you don't have a dead floppy in the a: when booting up? No cd's in the drive? Jumpers correctly set?
I had a similer problem with Win XP. Heres a link for a fix from MS for Windows 2000. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=122926 BTW I ended up having to boot from the CD and do a repair.
if none of those work and it still claims not to want to boot.. or that it has no hard drive found.. toss it in a plastic bag like ziplock.. toss it then in the freezer for about 5 minutes.. take it out of the bag, put it back in the computer and fire it up... this will usually fix the problem so you can at least back up whats on it.. another thing, gently drop it from a 3-4 inch height onto your floor or something.. 3 or 4 INCHES only.. give it a little drop and this also tends to help those dead drives.. besides, what good is it gonna do ya if this doesn't work? drive is dead anyway HONEST both of those work.. i've used them both myself on friends machines and they both work perfectly fine now..
im going with the boot sector is hosed... if your win 2000 install is an NTFS partition, other computer operating systems will not recognize it. The bios should pick up the HD no matter what, as long as the jumpers are right and if you have a cable select ide cable that the drive is on the right plug. A defrag will not ruin the hard drive, it may ruin the data like the the boot sector. Just reinstall the OS but dont format. There maybe other ways to fix the boot sector, its been over a year since my tech days. Most of that stuff I have forgot.
I think there is a command you can use to wipe out the master boot record before re-installing windows. You need to FDISK the drive first before you format it though. From the command line, with a DOS 6.0 boot disk (which contains the FDISK utility), type: fdisk /mbr There's a space between the "fdisk" and the "/" This will actually not "erase" anything on the mbr, but instead will over write that section with all 1's and 0's which will enable it to be re-written during you install of windows. It always worked for me when booting was flaky, as long as everything else was working ok. Maybe a long shot, but it's come in handy ofr me on more than one occasion, and it's simple, it requires no effort. Then set up your partitions as desired. After that with the same DOS 6.0 or 6.22 utility floppy inserted, format the drive by typing: format c: After it's done, go ahead and do a "new install" of Windows, not a "re-install", which it probably wouldn't do anyway because you formatted your disk and wiped everything out. Good luck. This computer stuff can rattle your brain, even if you know what you're doing.
win 2000 Ken - Sounds like a good plan - where can I get a DOS 6.0 boot disk? - Bill Got it - bootdisk.com! :TU:
You don't need a DOS 6.0 boot disk. Any Windows 95, 98 boot disk will have fdisk included in it. Did you try booting from the Windows CD and doing a full repair? Todd
disk When I try to boot from the CD (Change CMOS setting), it won't... I have NT installed and run the disk from it. Now I have a "Kmode exception not handled" - looks like a registry problem!:af: :af: :af: - Bill :ball:
