Dave, thank you for your reply. I wish I was more adept at all of this, but I find that I must ask more questions
Your message indicates that I might need to *F6* early in the process of using the four boot disks. I tried that, but I can't find anything that came with the computer that works when I am prompted to insert the disk with the driver
The hard drive is a WD400EB -- one of Western Digital's entry level models. The motherboard is from some outfit called DFI and the model is AK75-EC. I've looked all over the websites for those two companies and I can't find the "txtsetup.oem" file that the setup disks call for after I'm prompted to insert the disk with the driver that I *F6*d for. [If that makes sense.
The Mobo specs say in the IDE section: "Dual PIO mode 3/4 EIDE channels up to 4 IDE devices. UltraDMA/100 transfer rate up to 100MB/sec." I guess that answers the question you had about the drive controller in your reply
What I can't figure out is why the computer accepts all four boot disks, shows that "setup is loading files" all the way along, even shows "Starting Windows 2000" and then gives me the "Inaccessible Boot Device" stop message. Do I have a hardware problem, rather than a corrupted SYSTEM hive? Could I have both? Would a combination of hardware and software problems explain why the machine won't boot on its own, and also won't boot with the four disks
I'm at a standstill. I usually enjoy the challenge of working out these problems -- even though I am a rookie at most of this-- but between the SYSTEM hive problem and the stop message, I'm stumped on how to proceed
Thanks, in advance, for your reply
ro
----- Dave Patrick wrote: ----
If the system hive is corrupt, and assuming you already tried LKG, It may be
possible to rename the system hive found i
%windir%\system32\config\syste
to system.ol
then renam
%windir%\system32\config\system.al
t
%windir%\system32\config\syste
You can also try using the most recent backup found i
%windir%\repair\regbac
If that fails you haven't much choice but to copy/ use the
original-as-installed system hive fro
%windir%\repair\syste
t
%windir%\system32\config\syste
You'll need to reinstall the device drivers for any hardware added since the
original OS install
To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks.
Press ENTER at the "Setup Notification" screen. Press R to repair a Windows
2000 installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The
Recovery Console then prompts you for the administrator password. If you do
not have the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery
Console quits and restarts the computer. Once the password has been
validated, you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access
to the hard disk. You can only access the following folders on your
computer: %systemroot% and %windir
You didn't mention the drive controller (possibly SCSI, or ultra DMA, or
ATA100, or raid, or serial ATA), but you may need to boot the Windows 2000
setup disks or CD-Rom and *F6* very early and very important (at setup is
inspecting your system) in the setup to prevent drive controller detection,
and select S to specify additional drivers. Then later you'll be prompted to
insert the manufacturer supplied Windows 2000 driver for your drive's
controller in drive "A" Then proceed to the recovery console as above
--
Regards
Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup
Microsoft Certified Professiona
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
:
| I've got a W2K Pro machine that has been running well for
| a couple of years. Today I started getting the SYSTEMced
| message during bootup. I've looked all over the net and I
| think I understand what to do if that was the problem. The
| REAL problem is that I cannot boot at all. I've made the
| boot disks [two sets, no luck] and I've tried booting from
| the original W2K installation CD. The machine just ignores
| the CD all together, and if I use the four disks, at the
| end of the boot process I get a STOP 0x0000007B
| INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE message.
|
| If I can't even get to the repair options in W2K, I don't
| know what to do.
|
| Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.