Things are not looking good. I no longer seem to have a cpu. Maybe it
got
overheated, so I'll try later. However, I can't even get to a BIOS
screen of
any sort. Of course my monitor could have died, but it's unlikely. There
just too many anomalies now. I can't power off with the switch in the front,
and have to pull the plug instead. Once I plug it in and push the start
button, it's trying to do something but nothing appears on the monitor.
I've tried booting from the floppy and a CD (upgrade CD for w2k), and am
getting nowhere. I'll look at the power switches on the front and see if
they have been damaged, but it seems unlikely they have anything to do with
the disappearance of BIOS. Interestingly, the upgrade CD makes an odd noise
when I put it in the CD player, but an NT 4 CD does not. This is getting weird.
Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
You make the hidden file c:\boot.ini the same as a:\boot.ini
but you omit the irrelevant lines (most of those I labelled
"1 Microsoft" etc).
You may still face a problem when booting from the hard disk.
If you do then you must boot the machine into the Recovery
Console, using your Win2000 CD, and run these commands:
fixmbr
fixboot
Good. That worked fine. The first entry got me into W2K. What file do I
modify with the boot.ini file entries that I produced per our
exchange? I
would guess it only requires the replacement of the first multi()
entry
from
the boot.ini file I created.
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
I really do not need or use Linux. I would think there is some Linux entry
similar to the multi() entries that I could just remove.
Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
I wrote
===============
Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your Win2000 CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
===============
This means: go to the i386 folder on the CD, then take the two
files and copy them to the root of A:.
The words in boot.ini between double quotes are comments.
You can put "Cat and dog" in there - it would not matter.
You must, of course, instruct your BIOS to boot from the
floppy disk.
I tried this but it stalled right after verifying the DMI pool
successfully.
It may be that I took ntldr to be part of the folder name, as in
a:\ntldr. What is the structure on A:
ntldr (a file??)
ntdetect.com
boot.ini
or
ntldr (a folder)
nttdetect.com
boot.ini
BTW, I'm on w2k pro. Here's my ini file: (and I think I see a mistake.
see
below)
[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="1 Microsoft Windows "
/fastdetect
/NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="2 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="4 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="5 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINNT="6 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
The WINNT line does not have 2000 Professional.
I'll be back later after I make the change.
Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
No, Repair is not your best option at this stage. Here is what
you should do:
- Format a floppy disk on some other Win2000/XP PC.
Don't do it on a Win9x PC - it won't work.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of your Win2000 CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Create a file a:\boot.ini with these lines
[Boot Loader]
Timeout=3
Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[Operating Systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="1 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="2 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINNT="3 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="4 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(2)\WINNT="5 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(3)\WINNT="6 Microsoft Windows 2000
Professional" /fastdetect
- Boot the machine with this floppy
Try each of the boot options to see if one of them works.
It booted up in an old copy of DR DOS, but couldn't see the C-drive.
I
then
"booted" up the a 4 disk (floppy) from 7/2005 of W2K. I'm now sitting
at a
window that gives me three choices. Install, Repair or Quit. I guess
I
have
no choice but to repair, but is that wise?
W. Watson wrote:
Good idea. Thanks.
Pegasus (MVP) wrote:
Well, things are not going according to Hoyle. I found the
defective
HD
was
a 300G WDL that I purchased not too many months ago, and was using
it
as a
slave. I took it out, and tried firing up the system with the
master,
80G
WDL WD800BB-75CAA0. I installed it at the end of the cable as a
single
master, and removed the jumpers. My sys has an Athlon XP 2200+
CPU.
When I
boot up I get:
Primary IDE no 80-pin cable installed.
CPU is unworkable or has changed.
CMOS checksum error--defaults loaded.
If I continue, I get a screen full of data about devices (DMI
pool),
and
then an L.
I changed out the cable to an 80-pin cable, blue, grey, and black.
Got the
same results without the checksum error. It appears the L is from
Linux.
Originally, my machine only had w2k and Linux as a dual boot. I
added
the
300G drive much later. I doubt that Linux ever used it. So why
won't
this
boot up and give me the standard DOS Linux choices? I believe
Linux
is
using
the LILO loader.
--
Wayne Watson (Nevada City, CA)
Web Page: <speckledwithStars.net>
Your first task is to find out if you have a CPU/Motherboard
problem or a disk/disk controller problem. Booting the machine
with a boot CD or a boot floppy (
www.bootdisk.com) will tell
you straight away.
--
Wayne Watson (Nevada City, CA)
Web Page: <speckledwithStars.net>
An old trick I had completely forgotten about.