Bootup Disaster - Desperate!

[AJK]

Just before leaving for a brief vacation, I had difficulty
turning off the computer, a Latitude 840 with Windows
2000. I recently added an external DVD writer, which may
or may not have something to do with that. When I tried
to start the computer the next day, after seeing the
Windows 2000 Professional screen, I received an ominous
message saying ' Inaccessible Boot Device.' No matter
what I tried (Safe Mode, Boot with most recent good
configuration, etc.), I end up with the same message.
When I tried to reinstall Windows 2000 it indicated that
the drive was recognized but was either full or damaged
and that I would have to reformat. The 'inaccessible'
message indicates to check for viruses, remove any newly
installed hard drives, check to make sure the HD is
properly configured, and run CHKDSK/F-- all of which
require that I get past the error message, which I can't.
So I'm desperate because, despite having saved a lot, I
will be losing tons of important files if I have to
reformat. I've also tried the recovery console approach
but get nowhere, and I'm no computer expert. My question:
Is there anything I can do to overcome this problem short
of reformatting? If not, please advise on the
reformatting procedure. Should I just follow the steps
indicated on the 2K installation CD? Thanks for help and
advice.

 

[Pegasus]

Please do not multi-boot - it wastes everybody's time.
Check for replies in your other newsgroup, and see
here: http://www.aspfaq.com/5003

 

[GVTS]

Try booting into the Recovery Console (requires the win2k cd) and run
chkdsk from there. If chkdsk /F doesn't work, try chkdsk /R. This has
worked for me before, but as always be aware that you may lose data. If
you have another machine you could get an adapter for your notebook hard
drive and plug it into the other machine to try to rescue your data.

Good Luck

AnsonG

 

[Lars]

How does one guy's multibooting waste everybody's time?

I multiboot on several machines, Dos, W98, W2k and XP,
sometimes even Linux. It does waste some of my time setting
this up, and occasionally having to straighten things out.
But everybody?

"Do me a personal favor, stop eating fish!"

Please do not multi-boot - it wastes everybody's time.
Check for replies in your other newsgroup, and see
here: http://www.aspfaq.com/5003

Lars
Stockholm

 

[Rick]

Yeah, I was trying to figure out Pegasus' response too. Bizarre.

Rick

 

[Pegasus]

Wrong word - I meant "multi-post", not multiboot. Must have
been not quite sober . . .